Well, as I sit at my desk on Tuesday morning, listening to Shostakovich, I 'm experiencing a plethora of emotions. Relief that the project has finished after 172 days, absolute joy that all three chicks fledged for the first time ever this year, a strange emptiness that is that vacuum in all of our lives once again that the ospreys have all gone and intense optimism. Optimism and hope that all five birds get to Africa unhindered, winter well, and that we'll see both parents back next year and hopefully the fledglings in years to come.I'm pretty sure that our final osprey left the Glaslyn Friday night/Saturday morning. I saw the male parent at around 3pm on Friday on a favourite tree near Moel Ddu - I've not seen an osprey since. The wind finally turned northerly on Friday night after seemingly weeks of cold Atlantic westerly and southerly winds; this is often the queue that ospreys take as that final decider that it is time to go.After all the tribulations and stories that have been told from this osprey nest over the last few months it is always a strange feeling to be peering into an empty nest once again.
At the fifth year of breeding at the Glaslyn, the ospreys finally hit gold. Three eggs, three chicks and three fledglings heading for Africa for the first time. We started with two ospreys, finished with five and by the time we closed yesterday had greeted 30,000 visitors to the project and welcomed 460 new members to the RSPB.Finally a thank you. All of you that helped in so many ways throughout the year whether staff or volunteers, residential or local. Over 100 volunteers and helpers contributed 5,000 hours to the project this year. It is a clear fact that the Glaslyn Osprey Project could simply not operate as it does without this involvement. No names mentioned here, there are simply too many of you, but you know who you are - thank you, diolch.This will be the last blog entry for the Glaslyn Osprey Project this year. With sadness we closed the project yesterday, with pride we look back over the last six months and with excitement we look forward to next March. I wonder what Dimitri would have thought of all this!See you next spring. Hwyl fawr.
We have been privileged to be involved in this project since it began in 2004, and have been regular volunteers since 2005. We have come to know our birds extremely well over the past five seasons and last Wednesday we observed the male and female sitting face to face next to one another in a dead tree close to their nest. Although it is wrong to anthropomorphize birds, it made for quite a romantic scene, as it was almost as if they were saying goodbye to one another and we both knew that this would probably be the last time we saw them together this year.
Incidentally, having checked our records from previous years, we have recorded sightings of our female during the last two days of August or the first few days of September in every year except for 2007, when our last recorded sighting of her was on 18th August. So maybe she was not so late this year after all.
Farewell ospreys, stay safe.
thanks Emyr and staff for all your hard work and dedication throughout the 2008 season. It has been facinating to learn so much about the Osprey. It has also made me mad keen to visit Wales again and see the Osprey for real. I shall be on tender hooks till next March/April, regards Jackie