Like you, we too are now getting to grips with the re-vamped new lay-out and system involved in this super-duper new RSPB Community web page. This is the first opportunity to place a blog for a few days, so please bear with us until we each get to grips with it.
Firstly, sorry we've not been in touch/writing blogs/answering questions/publishing comments, but these scheduled changes to the web page came on the back of the technical difficulties that we were having. Anyway, hopefully all is resolved now.
The birds are fine. All three of the osprey sisters have now fledged, as you know. Really disappointed for you, that you missed some of it due to those problems, but the good news is that they are all doing very well so far. They are not venturing far at this stage, just to the dead tree adjacent to the nest, though some early tracking data shows that Rothes is getting curious and heading out just that little bit further, but no where major as yet.
We have had 7 fish brought in today by both EJ and Odin, with EJ bringing in the bigger fish, some real whoppers, as explained in a previous blog post. All chicks are showing signs of independence, squabbling for fish when it arrives, grabbing it and eating it themselves. EJ was on the receiving end of some teenage tantrum behaviour this afternoon, when Garten had a pop at her mum, grabbing her head in frustration.
Alas the weather hasn't improved significantly, rain rain and more rain, but we have been busy with visitors - as we are an indoor thing to do on such days. July is a very busy month for us and the team have been at full-stretch meeting and greeting our visitors, telling the osprey story answering questions and recruiting new RSPB members. This afternoon the team made their 400th new member of the season, which is a magnificent achievement and a well-deserved milestone for all their hard work. They'll probably celebrate by having some cake! Talking of which, can I ask (on behalf of the team) that you ease up, for a while at least, on your very kind donations of cake and chocolate. Such has been your generosity that we can hardly keep on top of it all, even when we divvy-up amongst our trusty volunteers too. Your kindness towards us has been overwhelming, thank you, but for now we could do with a breather from cake. Our thanks to all of you who have come to see us, especially those bearing gifts of all sorts, not just cakes. You'll know who you are. Much appreciated.
Oh la-de-dah! Very swish looking new website/blog - also the new forums idea is brilliant - much needed and looking forward to seeing how it all progresses. Good to know that all birds are safe and well - wha happened to the sun, Richard?! Only two weeks ago we were all sweltering in the heat, and now it almost feels like September!
Richard thank you for the update, the new page looks fabulous. Can I just ask, do we use the same link on Google Earth as we used for Nethy & Deshar to follow our new brood?
Wow... very impressed with the new webpages/blog! Glad all is well at Loch Garten and I love the new camera angle and zoom ... have been glued to the screen all day as so much has been happening .. including the monster fish delivery :))
Oh, now I know I'm home! How lovely, not just the new blog, but an update. Thank you Richard, I appreciate it so much. It's good to know what's been going on today. I used to work on here, and listen out for the chicks to let me know when anything happened, but without the microphone, I can't do that any more. It's great to have the close ups though, and we can't have it all. Shame about that! :-)))
Great to be 'connected' again. Hello everyone!! Chicks all looking fabby! Marvellous how well they've done giving the 'fishing line incident' . Weightwatchers subscriptions for you all rather than cake then?? :-))))
Glad you're back, and we can have the official version of what's been happening. Sounds like you are as full of cake as Mallachie is of fish. Great that they are all doing so well. Will probably get lost among all the groups, forums ..... Off to explore them.
Hi there. Andy from the web team at HQ here. Sorry for the disruption all week. I appreciate that it's probably been a frustrating time for you all. We've still got a few gremlins in the system behind the scenes here which means that some blog comments may take a while to appear. Hope it doesn't cause any problems - we're still working really hard to get it fixed. Thanks for bearing with us.
Thanks for the update Richard. Very impressed with the new community especially the forums. Only problem is response times seem a bit slow. Great viewing on the nest today with all 3 girls and EJ present for most of the afternoon. All is going really well.
Hi everybody, thanks team for bringing us up to date. It has certainly been a learning curve trying to get onto the new site but success!!! The girls certainly look windswept and a bit bedraggled at the moment due to weather up there. At least when we get the distance shots you can see just how the nest lies and how the girls are quite camauflaged (not sure of spelling) in the nest.
Just found you (well, not just, as have spent 15 mins trying to remember my old password etc,but never mind, I'm here now!). What a posh new blog/site this is, hope to get used to it soon. Glad to hear that the staff and the birds are all suitably stuffed full of fish/cake or should that be cake/fish? We were sorryto miss the fledging, as I missed it last year as well, but it's wonderful that the Girls are all OK and now practising their skills in the air.Hoping it will stop raining for you soon.....
Richard, thanks for update. The girls are looking just great. They really are enjoying their new found freedom. I'm off now explore this new website!!!
Great to have the blog again. Thanks for everyone's hard work. The girls seem to be thriving desite the rain. Thank goodness I can cancel my plans to try to bake a cake for when I visit next weekend - you'll be better off not having to sample my baking. I'll try to bring some sunshine instead - though don't know where I'm going to get it from.
Richard thanks for the update aren't the girls looking great will miss these lovely ospreys when they go
Welcome back! Just as I need cheering up cos not too well today. At least the girls are not too fat to fly! Looking forward to reading all the familiar "faces" comments again.
Thanks for the update Richard. Love the new site even though it was a bit difficult to get to grips with initially. Thanks to everyone at HQ for all their hard work setting it up. What an afternoon. Lovely to see all the family on the nest at one point this afternoon - something we won't be seeing so much of shortly (boo hoo). Anyway, it's just great to see the chicks looking fine and obviously so well fed. I think that monster fish EJ brought in this afternoon must have beaten even her record for size! Pru