Osprey

The osprey diary 2007

Ospreywatch
Friday 31st August 2007 Oh dear. The last day of summer and our last day too. However, the birds are still on the Lake learning to fly and fish and will probably be about until mid- September. You are very welcome to visit Dodd wood Viewpoint for yourself to spot them and highlights of the season will play at Whinlatter Visitor Centre. No-ring will feel the urge to fly South first and will leave the chicks whether or not they are fully competent fishers and flyers. The chicks will then individually set off for their own long journey. It is a hazardous task but we hope they will all do as well as our 2004 bird in making the 6000 mile round trip. Fly safely, follow the sun with the wind under your wings and may all your fish be fat ones! Until next year then...

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Thursday 30th August 2007 Nearly the end of the season. It has certainly been a bit heart in mouth some of the time but always varied and always fascinating. So many people have been to visit the Project and it has been a pleasure for both staff and volunteers to share the lives of our beautiful birds with so many interested and interesting visitors. Here is what one enthusiastic visitor wrote about her day – August 7th.‘The third osprey chick was still sticking doggedly to the nest. Everyone was willing it to take off. I couldn’t bear to leave so went to the café and had some lunch urging the staff to keep it till I returned! Soon after 1.00 was back in my seat. The young osprey was flapping more vigorously and after a visiting sibling took off it looked really serious about flying. Cries of excitement came from the crowd as it lifted its feet momentarily off the nest. Then suddenly to a burst of applause, clapping and loud calls it was off, flying towards the lake and out of the frame. It had been an exhilarating wait and the end of a really successful year at the visitor centre. Thank you all the wardens for your work.’Yes, that’s what nature watching is all about.

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Wednesday 29th August 2007On the lake all is going swimmingly as the chicks smash dive time after time into the lagoons and perch on Adam’s post for a rest. No-one has seen an actual catch yet but by the law of averages this must be occuring. A rather sad note for our small birds as a virulent parasite attacks finches countrywide. This is not bird flu but a very specific disease effecting greenfinches and chaffinches particularly. We have been distressed to see some of the victims at our Dodd feeders. As advised by RSPB we have stopped feeding bird seed which is the finches preferred food. Further information and recording sheets are available on the RSPB Home website.

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Tuesday 28th August 2007A review of Ms No-ring. This beautiful young bird was a surprise arrival, taking over from our old female XS (who must have met with disaster on migration). On arrival she was inclined to sit on the camera in glamorous poses gazing into space or at her toenails. She obviously possessed abundant sex appeal, but was completely lacking in housewifely traits. The way to her heart was definitely through her stomach. Gift-wrapped fish was a very acceptable gift but bouquets of sticks were regularly rejected. Her unconfident immaturity was evident at every stage of chick rearing and she relied on her experienced partner No-ring to help her through the learning curve. However, as a partnership they were very successful and she soon learnt to prioritise – essential in view of the terrible weather she had to contend with throughout the whole breeding season. Concentrating on keeping her offspring warm and fed she reared three chicks – although cleanliness left a lot to be desired. Fledging of the chicks caused her some confusion as her role changed and she struggled with redundancy but the urge to migrate became paramount and she was last seen on August 22nd. It has been fascinating watching her develop the skills she needed for success and the part No-ring played in this. We hope she has a fair weather migration and we wait for her return with avid interest. Well done Ms No-ring.

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Monday 27th August 2007 It seems pretty definite now that our adult female, Ms No-ring, has departed for warmer climes. She was last seen last Wednesday. Dad and the chicks meanwhile are continuing to climb the steep learning curve of fishing and flying on the way to independence.

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Sunday 26th August 2007 One for sorrow, two for joy. Three for a girl, four for a boy. Five for silver, six for gold and seven for a secret that’s never been told. So, if magpie counting is correct the chick sitting on the dead tree in the river today must have been one of our males, because perching in the branches under it were 4 magpies. Very unusually they all seemed pretty amicable together–perhaps this was because there were no fish in the equation, or perhaps they are still all young and unbiased towards other species. Or maybe it’s just one of those unfathomable secrets of nature that will never be told.

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Saturday 25th August 2007 A wheeze in the woods, raucous as a smoker’s cough denotes that the family of jays are still puffing about below the canopy under the nest site. Although one of the crow family these are most colourful birds with their soft tobacco-pink plumage contrasting with black and white wings and the deep cyanosed blue of their wing edges. One brave jay that was up to snuff came hopping onto the nest this afternoon. Like its sombre crow cousin it was looking for dog-ends of fish and spent some time successfully scavenging for dropped scales.

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Friday August 24th 2007 No signs of Ms XS today. Has the sun on her back reminded her of Africa and the long trip back to her perch amongst the coconuts? Or perhaps she’s just moved a bit further down the Lake……?

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Thursday August 23rd 2007 Warmth = Water slides and plunge dips. Ms No-ring has been seen bathing with vim and vigour, dropping from a height and swooshing through the water. As predicted, the two largest chicks YT and YV haven’t been able to resist starting to hover and dip dive today. Viewed from Dodd, Bassenthwaite is turning into a Wet and Wild Water-park for the rest of the summer. Kersplosh!

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Wednesday 22nd August 2007 A glorious day – brilliant sunshine, a stiff breeze and the lake as blue and sparkly as the best of the Baltic. Any osprey should love plunging into the warm water but so far none of the chicks have been seen touching the water.

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Tuesday 21st August 2007 No-ring has consistently been bringing in the most enormous fish – some looking to be around the 2lb mark, which is close on his body weight. This is a good ploy to keep his voracious offspring quiet for a while.

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Monday 20th August 2007Great Spotted Woodpeckers in their neat black and white military dress uniforms are some of the showiest birds of the woods. All through the summer there are regular sightings of them at Dodd on the peanut feeders, although at Whinlatter they are shyer and only alight after closing time. They are easy to identify, often by first hearing their wood-pecking drum-roll or a sharp ‘kick kick’ call as they fly away flashing their white shoulder epaulettes. They are also easy to tell one from another on the feeders as red patches on their heads flag up age and gender. Adult females’ heads are just black and white whilst adult males have a crimson patch on the back of their heads and juveniles have the colour on the front of their crowns. All of them have red feathers under their tails. Hanging on the feeder mesh some of their special adaptations as wood pecking birds can readily be seen; tails are very stiff and serve as a brace to hold themselves at the correct angle to the trunk; to cling firmly to the bark two of their toes point forward and two back. Not so easy to spot are their very long tongues, developed to probe into the holes they make into dead wood, after insect larvae. Unfortunately, woodpeckers will sometimes bore a hole into a nest box and eat the young chicks inside. Hardly the behaviour you might expect from a bird with the plumage of an Officer and a Gentleman.

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Sunday 19th August 2007 A slightly closer picture this afternoon enabled us to see the chicks’ ring numbers. This coincided with some very interesting behaviour – again showing that Ms No-ring hasn’t really got a clue as to what she is supposed to be doing at the moment! YU received a large pike from Dad at 12.30. He spent some time getting into this tough-as-leather dinner, which incited his sibling YV to come down and shriek at him hungrily for over an hour but YU wasn’t sharing. Then out of the blue at 15.45 Ms No-ring appeared, also interested in the pike and showing no maternal instinct, started to beg for food, bending down in the typical submissive posture she used towards No-ring. YU didn’t think much of this and pecked her away. A flurry of wings and in swooped No-ring, a large trout in his claws. Before you could say knife Ms No-ring had grabbed it, cutting hungry YV out altogether. After a minute’s stunned silence YV lunged forward and catching the fish with beak and claw forked it out of Mum’s grip and mantled it fiercely. Chicks 2, Mum 0. So, Mum tried her luck again with YU and eventually got him to hand over the fish tail. Female ospreys are supposed to want to leave family life behind at this stage catching fish, getting fit and flying free, ready for their winter singles’ holiday in Africa. They are certainly not supposed to snatch fish from their partner or beg for food from offspring. But then, there have been many times this year when Ms No-ring hasn’t followed the book!

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Saturday 18th August 2007 We knew that Ms No-ring must have been catching fish for herself, but nobody had seen her do it. This afternoon she was seen eating an enormous fish in a tree – obviously her own. She has also been bathing more regularly and for longer periods so slowly she is divorcing herself from the family. Our old female XS always left between 17th and 23rd August but we don’t know if Ms No-ring will follow the same pattern. Certainly the chicks don’t need her any more.

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Friday August 17th 2007 With 3 aspiring martial artists in the family No-ring showed he also has a hidden dragon lurking inside him and can give quite a punishing Karate kick on occasion. Met by three screaming offspring when bringing in a fish today he was ready for anything. As the middle chick in the line up snatched the fish No-ring rose in the air and in a Jackie Chan move buffeted the back of its head with his feet and tipped it tail over beak over the edge of the nest. A few seconds later frantic scrabbling was heard and there were a couple of sightings of its head as it tried vainly to cling on to the sub structure of the nest. Then it disappeared in a flurry of waving wings ploughing away through the whippy chop-sticks of the canopy. It seems doubtful that this member of the Triad it could have kept a hold on its meal after all that.

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Thursday 16th August 2007 Tit for tat - you invade my territory and I’ll invade yours! A juvenile buzzard chick swaggered briefly onto the nest at 17.30.

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Wednesday 15th August 2007 8.00 Wednesday morning and 23 hardy people were all set to go on the Osprey walk to discover more about Dodd Wood and of course hope to see good views of the birds. After a ramble up the hill between the towering Douglas firs the visibility was seen to be very good indeed. Telescopes were set up and osprey fronts were spotted - white dots in the green canopy. Then one took it into his head to try out its skills, take a thermal and reach for the sky. Back and forth he soared higher and higher up Barf, further and further from the nest and unbeknownst to him, into the Buzzard Badlands. As he cut the skyline the buzzards also cut in swooping and bombing him as he ineptly tried to avoid them. For 10 minutes it was heart in mouths until our chick dropped away down the gully and out of danger. With good views of red squirrels on the feeder it was a morning to remember.

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Tuesday 14th August 2007A first today as one of our chicks made its maiden voyage (it probably was our possible female YV) out over the lake, with the suspicion of a dip towards the water. The other two chicks were flying strongly about the forest. All of them seem far more assertive regarding fish than any of their predecessors and have one or two tussles between them already. Poor No-ring bore the brunt of this when he brought in a large live fish and one of his waiting offspring grabbed hold of both it and his claw before he had time to let go. Like a judo black belt the chick then flipped Dad around the nest, twice onto his back before he managed to extricate himself. With the fish wriggling and flapping as well it looked like complete mayhem on the nest.

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Monday 13th August 2007 Unbelievable though it may seem the flora of the Lakes is sensing the end of summer already. The hawthorn berries are reddening, despite the general lack of sun and the rowans are just turning dull orange prior to their vivid ripened hue. Today the dark heather patches on the mountain sides seemed touched with purple. Grass stalks are bleaching on the verge sides and the big plastic covered bales stand in many of the fields. The next 3 weeks will see our chicks fishing. Time flies and so will they.

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Sunday 12th August 2007 Just before the weekend there was one glorious day of cloudless sun and a night sky that was absolutely clear. There was no moon so at mid-night there was an array of stars here of a brightness seldom seen in Great Britain. The Milky Way unfurled in a luminous pathway across the zenith and the Great Bear tipped sideways on the horizon over the Lake. Every constellation pulsated with light against the inky black of space. And against this backdrop fell meteorites, intense silent streaks of blue and gold and red, running as fast as Mercury and ephemeral as chalk dust down an infinite blackboard. It was a sight of such wonder and rarity that it needed no wishes to achieve perfection.

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Saturday August 11th 2007 What a carry on.A Carrion Crow sat on a pineEyeballing an osprey.“I wonder, could his fish be mine?I’ll try and make it my prey!”The Carrion Crow slid on the nest,Dreaming of fresh fish tails.But YU bounced and trounced the pest,Which straightway tipped the scales!

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Friday 10th August 2007Surprise Surprise. A bird flew onto the nest today with a fish clasped in its claws. We assumed it was No-ring but then realised it was a chick. This shows another small developmental jump as obviously this chick can now balance on one leg on a branch (to receive the fish from Dad). However, tearing out the fish from between its toes without falling off backwards must be beyond its capabilities so far as it came back to the nest to subdue its dinner and eat it. All the chicks are finding that unwrapping a fish is not as easy as it looks and are taking from 1 to 1 ½ hours to finish a meal - which is no doubt beneficial for their digestive systems.

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Thursday 9th August 2007 One of the most beautiful insects in the forest is causing minor hysterics at the Centre. Yellow black and enormous, the occasional Wood Wasp has been seen humming like a helicopter around the heads of diners at the café. Of course it is not interested in sharing the plate or drowning itself in the drinks cans, as do common wasps, but rather in finding a nice piece of soggy rotten wood in which to lay its eggs. The huge 3cm ovipositor at the end of its tail is not used to sting people or prey but is for depositing eggs deep into the centre of tree trunks. Their grubs can then develop beyond the depth of the Woodpeckers’ knock. The adults are only seen around this time of year so if you are lucky enough to spot one, photograph but don’t swat!

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Wednesday August 9th 2007 Just to keep everyone up to speed, here are the Lake District Osprey dates for 2007. No-ring (male) arrived 17.04.07 Ms No-ring (female) arrived 18.04.07, 1st egg laid 30.04.07, 2nd egg laid 03.05.07, 3rd egg laid, 06 05 07. 1st and 2nd chick hatched 09.06.07 3rd chick hatched 12.06.07. Chicks Ringed on 16.07.07 White YV 1360g M/FWhite YT 1360g MWhite YU 840g MChicks FledgedYV – 31.07.07YT – 02.08.07YU – 07.08.07 No-ring is our original male bird Ms No-ring is our new female bird Our original female XS has not returned. The three young ospreys and the adult male are expected to stay in the Bassenthwaite area until at least the end of the month. The adult female always leaves first to start the long journey to West Africa and is expected to depart within the next couple of weeks.A public viewpoint is open until 31st August at the Forestry Commission’s Dodd Wood near Keswick, where osprey project staff set up telescopes between 10am and 5pm daily for visitors to watch the action as part of the RSPB’s Aren’t Birds Brilliant! initiative. Everyone is welcome at the viewpoint.At the FC’s Whinlatter Visitor Centre, near Braithwaite, pictures beamed from the nest are shown on a giant videowall. Once the ospreys stop coming back to the nest, highlights of the season will be screened. Both the Big Screen Whinlatter Visitor Centre and the telescopes at Dodd Wood are open until August 31st. See you there!

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Tuesday August 7th 2007 We ran to the Big Screen this morning to see if little YU was still sitting there unfledged, and yes he was. In with us strode a stalwart band of visitors, many from the day before who were determined NOT TO LEAVE until the bird had done so! With flasks and sandwiches to hand hawk eyes watched every jump and hop of YU as he teetered nearer and nearer to the edge of the nest and peered down to the drop below. As the morning wore on he started to flex his knees and swing back his wings in the characteristic bobbing motion that compares with the human action before making a jump from standing position. In rapt concentration his watchers couldn’t help but gasp flex and jump with him at each start. So near yet so far! No-one wanted to leave for an instant for tea or comfort stops in case that was the moment! Then at 1.35 he faced the camera and in a sequence worthy of Peter Pan’s best bobbed, pirouetted on the spot, spread his wings and lifted straight up and out of our vision. The cheer followed him must have been heard on the other side of the lake and indeed it was heartily echoed at Dodd as at long last there were five ospreys in the air. Things only got better then as over the afternoon he flew right up the fell side and then started to make his way back again. With his siblings he is well set on the way to independent life.And at the screen we are not bereft as the chicks keep coming back and squawking at Dad for yet more fish.

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Monday 6th August 2007 It looked good for our last chick to fly today, but no. By 5 o’clock he had done a lot of kick starts but the engine had not revved sufficiently to get airborne. However, flying ants have been providing alternative aerial entertainment over the last few days at Dodd. Migrating from their birthplace young queens and males fly up until they meet and mate. After this they fall back to the earth, the ephemeral wings are discarded and the males all die (only some of them happy). The queens meanwhile find a suitable site to lay eggs and rear their first brood of worker ants for the new colony.

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Sunday 5th August 2007 Some magnificent aerial display work from one of the fledged chicks today. Little YU has still not flown but is watching the fly-pasts with great interest and is practising building up those muscles in between times. Ms No-ring has been sitting in the ‘two o’clock’ tree close to the nest and has flown on a couple of times in hopes of fish – but her hungry offspring have pipped her to the post. It will be interesting to see when she decides to start fishing for herself.

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Saturday 4th August 2007 Usually the project welcomes extra visitors – the more the merrier. But today we welcomed more we than expected for an ominous reason.The local Cockermouth Show, along with many others across the country, was cancelled due to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth in the South of England. As the Lakeland ospreys’ first year of breeding in 2001 co-insided with the devastation caused by the disease then, we listened with especial concern for those effected. We hope the prompt action taken and lessons learnt from the North’s grim experience will quickly limit any spread.

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Friday 3rd August 2007Poor Ms No-ring, not un-naturally after all her first season’s work focussed on housebound child-rearing, came to the erroneous conclusion that chicks trying to return to the nest after leaving it had obviously put themselves into the category of ‘intruder’. However, her efforts yesterday to repel her erstwhile child meant that YV was becoming more and more desperate to reach the nest and food. Two days of starvation may be good for lift but you need fuel for flap. At last survival instinct overcame defences and following No-ring (plus fish) in, YV thumped down on the nest, screamed at her shocked mother and after a short sharp round of fisticuffs, snatched the fish from her and mantled it aggressively. It worked. Mum retreated to the far side of the nest in pained silence. It’s the same the world over– You do your best for your kids and then they turn around and tell you you’ve done it all wrong! Interestingly, we had always supposed that it was the adult female who took the entire initiative in distancing herself from the nest as the chicks fledged but this behaviour seems to indicate that the chicks, if necessary, can play an active part in the process. Also on Thursday Chick number 2 (possibly our second heaviest, YT) fledged, probably sometime in the early hours of the morning. Although it was not seen yesterday, we hoped it was perched just out of sight ready to fly back to the nest, once the way had been paved by its older sibling. Everything now seems to be on an even keel – all chicks accounted for.

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Thursday August 2nd 2007 A First for the ProjectOver the years, in September, we have seen off chick after chick into the wide blue yonder. And then they seem to have dropped off the edge of the world and there has been neither hide or hair or feather of them heard of again. We know of course that out of our 10 fledged chicks only 5 will be mature enough to fly back from the Gambia by now. We know that 70% of all chicks perish on their first round trip. We know that although we have ringed all but one of our birds it takes exceptional circumstances for the ring to be read and recognised and reported. So we have remained hopeful but not sanguine about prospects of finding out if any reach adulthood. Then, Eureka! A few days ago a completely unexpected report came through from Norway! Our 2004 chick Green 5S had been spotted by Bjorn Einrem fishing near his home at Okstra in the western Rogaland region. He not only spotted our bird but took some wonderful photographs that not only show the ring but also what a magnificent creature 5S has developed into. After some detective work on his part he discovered his find had started life in the Lake District. As a chick she was a precocious single child and wound both her mum and dad around her little claw, she even bit the hand that ringed her! So we did think even at 5 weeks old she was a natural survivor. We are over the moon to be proved right.What a story 5S must have to tell of the long migration down to Gambia, the 3 balmy years of carefree adolescence and the marathon journey back to an entirely unknown destination. It does not seem that she has found a partner or built a nest yet but we hope she may find a nice Viking fisherman next year. Tak Tak from all Volunteers and Staff and followers of the 'Fiskeornprosjektet' for the wonderful news Bjorn.

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Wednesday 1st August 2007 Scopes were out first thing to see if YV had survived the night – and YES there she was sitting in a tree much nearer the nest than yesterday. Her flying skills are not bad but her landing technique seems to be of the ‘shut your eyes and hope for the best’ variety. However, by 5pm she had not made it back to the nest and thus had not been fed. This was not entirely her fault; Ms No-ring, again showing her lack of experience as a first time mother, appeared to be at a loss to know how to deal with two chicks in the nest and one that had flown the cosy family circle. At times she seemed to change from swooping over YV to encourage her to fly, to actively bombing her as she would an intruder. Meanwhile YT and YU were getting regular home meals and showed no signs of joining their sister in digs out in the cold (and later rainy) wide world.

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Tuesday 30th 2007 A sunny day with a fresh breeze and ideal for a first flight. YV, our heaviest and possibly female chick, obviously thought so and just before mid-day, with a flap a skip and a jump flew right out of the frame and into a nearby tree. The first step is always an unexpectedly big one, and like most chicks she seemed to need time to get her bearings. Meanwhile her siblings stamped around the nest but decided to stay put for the moment. Trying out her wings she flew further up Barf towards a party of human bird watchers, much to Ms. No-ring’s consternation, but sensibly they backed away from the skyline to let the difficult process continue. Mid-afternoon saw a first potential set back of a probably painful sort when she managed to wobble her way into a gorse bush! This fell-side perch could spell trouble because if she does not move by nightfall she may fall prey to a fox. No-ring and Ms are keeping an eye on her however and have not fed her, preferring to take fish to the nest and thus encourage her through hunger, to fly back to safety.

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The perception of what is a threat and what can be ignored is obviously set deep into the ospreys’ genes. Hercules aeroplanes grinding overhead and shaking the hillsides are virtually ignored by them - whilst we humans feel more inclined to throw ourselves on the ground with our arms wrapped around our ears. However, helicopters, such as the Chinooks that blew over a few days ago, caused panic and alarm, with Ms. No-ring rising into the air with multiple alarm calls and the chicks cowering in the nest. Perhaps the movement of their whirling blades rather than spread of wing is the recognition trigger for threat behaviour to kick in. Needless to say flying into either machine would have equally disastrous consequences.

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Sunday July 29th. Sleeping and occasional preening were the order of the day today. Only a perch at 10.15 which was devoured with gusto, and in turn led to a frenzied preening session which entertained the masses this morning. Much of the rest of the day was an agglomeration of snoozing and sunbathing, much what we would expect us all to be doing in late July ! Not until 16.21 did YV make an assured leaping flap across the nest to herald the arrival of a fish from the adults. The cameras and the VC closed with three chicks eating heartily on the nest.

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Saturday July 28thThe screens at Whinlatter were turned on this morning to wonderful pictures of three young healthy Osprey juveniles on the nest. To call them chicks now would be to under rate their progress, they are now getting to the size of their parents. Today has been a quiet day of resting, preening and flapping. All things that are important to good flying. The flapping is now getting serious with small hops across the nest. When will they turn the short flaps into short flights, this week, next week ? Watch this space or better come and have a look yourself at Whinlatter Forest Park or Dodd Wood.

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Friday 27th July. Flapping and exercising the wing muscles is now becoming a preoccupation, as opposed to a pas-time. Also, with the chicks the size they are the nest itself is almost flat, a natural helipad, ready for the chicks take offs and (hopefully) successful landings!Just one fish was brought into the nest today during the opening hours, and lots of calling was heard from the chicks. Is this the beginning of the adults plan to starve the chicks into flying....we will have to wait and see.

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Thursday July 26th. At the osprey project we are all wondering when the chicks will leave the nest, it surely cannot be long now. There is little sign of pinning in the wing feathers and tail, and all of the chicks are busy preening their downy feathers out. This is strangely giving a pale appearance to the nest, could it be a sign to ensure good landings !.

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Wednesday 25th July. Today saw another development when a commotion was heard, and the unmistakable cry of a corvid was picked up on the nest microphone, and then a flsah of black was seen a couple of times on the nest. The crow was perhaps looking to take some of the fish ends on the nest, or perhaps saw something else tasty, but instaed of flopping down into submissive positions, the chicks began aggressive mantling, and guarding their food..

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Tuesday July 24th. Weaning is an ongoing process and is central to the development of the chicks. Today saw an aggressive tug of war between the female and a chick after the male broughtin aa sizable pike. The femaale wanted to feed itself, but the chick wanted to feed itself! The poor pike was quickly torn in two, and the chick devoured his half, as the femeale fed the others. As the chicks become more independent this behaviuor should become more apperent.....oh to be aa mother!

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Monday July 23rd 2007 Conservation project, source of education and information, grass roots economy drive, green hope for the future – the Lake District Osprey Project is built on catching a vision and passing it on to others. Volunteers and staff work throughout the season to protect some of the most magnificent birds of prey in the world and most importantly, make them accessible to everyone who cares to look and listen. For it is you people, the Visitors, the Readers of the website, that make the difference. Together, making a stand to value the diversity of the world we share with so many other amazing creatures. So, we have been overjoyed today to celebrate a historic landmark when Debbie Thorpe arrived with her husband Peter and two dogs to become our official half millionth visitor, representing all those individuals that have supported the Project since its inception. Having been pounced upon by osprey volunteers whilst watching the Big Screen they were escorted by Eric Robson ( of Gardener’s Question Time and Chairman of Cumbria Tourism) into the café for bubbly, scones, strawberry jam and cream. This is what Debbie said, “This was an unexpected honour and made our visit to the Lakes one that we will remember for a long time to come. We enjoyed finding out more about the ospreys and watching the young ones on the nest. The project team do an excellent job telling visitors about these special birds.” We say, Thank you all our past (and future) Visitors for your support over the last 7 years and for passing on the message in your turn. Long live our ospreys!

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Sunday July 22nd 2007 Bottomless pits and hollow legs – the chicks can eat anything No-ring has to bring them. So this afternoon, undeterred and taking full advantage of Bassenthwaite’s natural produce he caught 3 fish in the space of half an hour. What a splashing spectacle for those watching through the telescopes at Dodd!

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Saturday 21st July 2007 Buddlea, the butterfly bush is coming out, attracting Peacock, Red Admiral and Painted Lady butterflies into the garden. In contrast to its purple blooms the yellow flowered Ragwort of the wayside is also in evidence, but not so readily welcomed, as it is very poisonous to most grazing animals. However, it is also necessary to insect life and hosts the stripy orange and black caterpillar of the Cinnabar Moth. After pupating this beautiful creature is as bright as any butterfly, with gorgeous red underwings flashing out from under duller forewings. Despite noxious associations the hot yellow, orange and red colours of this complex food web bring a spotlight of sporadic sunshine flashing into the grey days we have been having.

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Friday July 20th 2007 The only trouble with this close up camera is that it can only show two thirds of the nest, so the birds can walk out of the picture. This is very upsetting when a fish has been brought in and the only view is of the tail feathers of one chick!

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Thursday July 19th 2007 YU's big adventure."Whilst cruising around the nest I came across a piece of fish that mum had not eaten or fed to the others. It was very colourful with a bright red tail fin – either a perch or a pike. It looked as if it might fill the small empty space inside me so I thought I would have a go at eating it myself. I flexed my toes and reached out to grab it – Oops! Dropped it - still rather slippery. The next 10 minutes was rather frustrating as I didn’t seem to be able to get a grip on the situation. If I pulled at it with my beak it slid out of my claws, if I held it under my feet I couldn’t reach it. It seemed a bit of a tough job and I was only managing to pull off the tiniest portions – nothing like quick enough for a growing lad. Then the solution hit me, I could swallow it whole. It was just a question of positioning it so aagh aaaaagh ugh I didn’t choke. Easier said than done, especially as my brother was now standing beside me and watching my every move with his beady eyes. Gently does it. Stretch that gape a bit more. Get the old throat muscles working. The fleshy bit’s half way down, so there’s time for a breather with only the bony tail fanning out of my mouth. Now the last push. Swallow, swallow, swallow, gulp. GONE. Victory. But I think I’ll have to have a little rest to get over it."

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Wednesday 18th July 2007 Where does our mystery 3rd bird hang out when it is not upsetting our resident pair on the nest was a question that had us searching the hillsides. All that the watchers could see from Dodd was that No-ring had ushered it away over towards Grisedale Pike a few times. It was some wide awake visitors who spotted it today, and what is more photographed it. Easily mistaken for a pale buzzard it was calmly sitting in the top of a tree overlooking the blue route at Whinlatter, surveying the people going past. So, keep your eyes open when going for a stroll- you never know who might be watching you!

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Tuesday 17th 2007 Take a look at our webcam – what amazing pictures. They are coming from the little ‘spy camera’ on the nest edge. Our two tree climbers undertook the messy task of cleaning the sticky guano from it whilst waiting for the chicks return yesterday at Ringing. ‘Plastered’ was their comment, but the images are well worth their efforts. Thank you both very much. However, we will have to make the most of these close-ups. It is inevitably only a matter of time and natural action before we have to go back to a more long distance view.

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Monday 16th JulyAt last, after weeks of waiting, the project staff and some volunteers finally met the chicks, in an early morning rendezvous. Previous years had seen this momentus event take place in bright and warm sunshine, but not this year. The morning was struggling to get light, and clouds appeared to be gathering, but as it was dry when we set off we decided today was the day.There is in fact a very small window of opportunity to ring the chicks, and we were worried that if we left it any longer the staggering growth rate of the chicks may have meant we were unable to get another chance.As the licensed climbers ascended the tree, the heavens opened and rain began to fall. This meant we would have to be even quicker in giving the chicks their health checks, and the process was carried out with speed and skill to allow the birds the least possible time away from the nest.For the record the leg rings for this year were White with Black lettering, and the codes were YV, YT and YU. As with all English ospreys, the identification rings are fitted on the right leg, unlike Scottish ospreys which are fitted on the left.Measurements revealed that it is likely that the sex of the chicks is two males and a female, although there is a degree of overlap in the weights of the birds at this age. The only sure way of determining the sex of the birds is when they return to breed themselves!Thankfully, the female was back on the nest less than half an hour after we returned the chicks to the nest, and they were seen to tuck into at least three fish before 5pm.

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Sunday 15th July 2007 Although still being fed by the female, the chicks are now so big that they are able to eat nearly any part of the fish. Adult Ospreys eat flesh, fins scales guts and bones but unlike other birds of prey, rarely produce pellets. Pellets are made up of the indigestible parts of the prey, and with an owl for example they would contain fur and bones which the bird coughs up in a neat package after feeding. For Ospreys all parts of the fish are consumed, churned around in the stomach, passed through the gut and end up as ‘whitewash.’ Now there’s a digestive system with juices as powerfully potent as the contents of any alchemist’s cauldron!

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Saturday 14th July 2007 A dry quiet morning, but drama in the afternoon. It started with No-ring bringing in an extremely big stick, very twiggy with two large prongs and dumping it down on top of the dozing chicks. After extricating themselves they set about trying to move it, their puny muscles straining, tripping over their own feet and all pulling on different parts. No good – they collapsed in a panting heap. Ms No-ring tried ignoring the situation for a considerable time but eventually she had to take the bit between her teeth (beak) and staggered round and round the nest holding onto one prong and being buffeted from behind with the other as her offspring cowered under the random blows. The end result was better but not ideal. Then, a little later into recovery time Ms suddenly started to mantle, holding her wings out aggressively and looking up into the sky. Over the next few minutes she became more and more agitated until with furious screams she threw herself into the air. Another osprey was circling overhead – and where was No-ring when she needed him? Off fishing, of course.Torn between fending off the intruder and staying close to the chicks she kept landing and leaping off the nest. At last No-ring arrived on the scene and for a few minutes there were three ospreys circling over the site until the stranger was trounced and flew out of range.

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Friday 13th July 2007Unluckily for all, another very rainy day!

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Thursday 12th July‘Ice-cream castles in the air’ sound pleasant if slightly offbeat. Living inside a cloud is another matter, like being enclosed in a chilly, grey wet hand. This afternoon the cloud base fingered down to the Lake edge and visibility narrowed to a few yards. No-ring was unable knuckle down to business and nailed only two fish from 10am till 5pm. Thumbs up for day-dream castles in the air featuring clear weather and Gambian palm trees.

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Wednesday 11th July 2007 Standing upright for the chicks has been a wobbly business up till now but one of the three seems to have mastered the technique and is now striding around the nest regularly. It gives the impression it is a bit bigger than the others and so could be a female. We will know more certainly when/if we get up to ring them in the next week.

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Tuesday 10th July 2007 Compared with catching fish those birds that eat seeds and fruit seem to have it pretty easy – at least their ‘prey’ is static. But things are never so easy as they seem. The wild cherries are just starting to ripen, their shiny pairs of fruits glowing tantalising yellow and red under the leaves. Woodpigeons love them and for one particular bird in Wythop wood they have become a daily obsession. The problem is though that pigeons are no lightweights and cherries are only found under the thinner branches. Watching this bird as it attempts to sidle down a branch and snatch a cherry before sliding off in disarray into the foliage has been as good as a slapstick clown’s performance - with repeat shows every morning this week.

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Monday 9th July 2007 A wonderful warm day with sunshine and Ms No-ring has continued to show off her maternal skills, turning herself from an umbrella into a parasol. In such an exposed site heat is just as much a killer as cold for young chicks, both from dehydration – their only source of moisture is the fish, and from sunburn/heatstroke. So, for much of the day Mum has been sitting on the sunny side of the nest holding out one wing over their heads or drooping her tail over their hot little bodies. Her instinctive thermostat is cutting in again to ensure their survival.

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Friday 6th July 2007 More and more young birds are taking their place in the wide world. 26 chaffinches were counted at one time on the feeders at Dodd plus lots of the usual blue, coal and great tits.

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Thursday 5th July 2007 The Squirrels at Dodd seem set to have more kittens. They are using the big pine tree by the View Point as a maypole to chase each other round and round flicking their tails at each other before partaking of a love-feast of protein rich peanuts.

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Wednesday 4th July 2007Toddling around the nest the chicks seem determined to get closer to the edge. With Ms No-ring’s lack of nest building skills the rim appears to be much less well built up than in other years. No-ring is bringing in more sticks and she is belatedly attempting to arrange them, but it certainly doesn’t have the neat playpen look of our old XS’s efforts.

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Tueday 3rd July 2007 Lapwings nesting on edge of marsh are dive bombing No-ring if he gets too close. He is now favouring a branch further over in the marsh rather than Adam’s post to kill and eat his fish. Today we have seen no less than seven fish brought into the nest between 10am and 5pm !

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Monday 2nd July 2007 Knees bend. Arms stretch. Hurrah! Some fine weather today has encouraged the chicks to try out their paces, stretching wings over their heads like miniature unfurling hang-gliders and rising up on their flat feet for seconds at a time. Chicks one and two have sprouted feathers over night, their quills bursting open to show the characteristic cream and brown edgings of the juvenile plumage along their backs and flanks. Interestingly chick 3, just two days younger, shows no sign of any soft feathering. Changes happen at phenomenal speed, literally overnight. Growth spurt - its more like growth jet!

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Sunday 1st July 2007Puddles drips and wet socks notwithstanding the rainfall is what makes the Lake District’s astounding beauty; dramatic landscape, verdant vegetation, and the variation of light and shade from the clouds passing over. Even more dramatic, the sunset on Friday set the whole Western sky on red fire glowing under cobalt and burnt umber clouds. But ‘Red at night shepherd’s delight,’ didn’t stop the rain today.With rain comes rainbows and this was one of the strangest, seen on Sale Fell, further towards the North end of the Lake. In fact, it was not a bow at all but rather a random light effect on the fellside. It looked as if a wide band of coloured light was flowing up out of a fold between the hills, more like coloured steams from a hidden geysir or a fleeting rainbow volcano erupting from an unseen crater. Amazing!

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Saturday 30th June 2007.Three under one won’t go! Our chicks are now so chunky that it is impossible for them all to fit under Mum. In spite of all her contortions to spread her wings over two and straddle the third their tails are sticking out into the rain at all angles. And hasn’t it rained again today! No-ring has continued to bring in large fish regularly and this afternoon saw two juicy tail ends lying on the nest. For a few blissful minutes the chicks were being fed by both parents but Mum wasn’t happy with this arrangement and soon nudged No-ring off.

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Friday 29th June 2007 Nasty neighbours are not confined to human settlement - mutual dislike exists in the bird world also. Overflying a nest by any large raptor is a definite No-No for the occupants! So Buzzard Bunkhouse on the fellside, chock full of tear-away fledglings, is regarded with loathing by the Osprey Entourage. The Buzzards, it is fair to say, have equally strong feelings whenever No-ring wheels over their territory. Sky-skids and stand-offs have been the order of the day.

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Thursday 28th June 2007‘Like Mother, like child,’ doesn’t always hold true. With Ms No-ring concentrating on chick-rearing rather than ‘housework’ the nest itself looks a bit of a tip; sticks random and no signs of any fresh moss. But a diminutive home-help was at hand as one of the older chicks purposefully started moving twigs out of the nest cup today. This is instinct kicking in of course, rather than child exploitation.

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Wednesday 27th June 2007The chicks’ wings are growing every day, unfolding like ever extending concertinas. In conjunction with constantly expanding feet inadvertant ‘wing walking’ in the nest has all the pain and none of the grace of the aerial sport.

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Tuesday 26th June 2007A nice interlude today had Mum sitting on the edge of the nest preening and 3 little beaks below her all busy smoothing out their own miniscule quills. Much like a baby’s first tooth the new feathers need regular gnawing to help them grow comfortably..

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Monday 25th June 2007With the continuing adverse weather Monday has made it a deuce of a difficult time for high fliers both tennis players and ospreys trying to keep their balls or fish in the air. At 14.30 the strong N wind was seen to blow No-ring backwards as he attempted to land his catch on the nest –not his fault poor love.

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Sunday 24th June 2007 At 3 weeks old the chicks have reached their toddler stage and are using both legs and wings to paddle themselves about the nest, dragging themselves out of the tiny nest cup and getting under both parents’ feet. Just as well Dad’s DIY has made such a good job of the nest perimeter or they’d be off over the edge.

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Saturday 23rd June 2007A nest of six baby robins discovered just outside one of the busiest doors of the Visitor Centre. 1000’s of people must have passed by without noticing over the past few weeks!

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Friday 22nd June 2007 Thunder rumbling and thin wraiths of cloud wrapping mysteriously around the peaks. The woods are full of slightly scared and soaking school parties and the roads with wringing wet cyclists. All arrive at the Visitor Centre to steam off with a hot drink. At two weeks old the older chicks are also looking pretty browned off – not due to the weather but because their brand new teddy bear brown down is growing through their first white coats. It distinguishes them from the little one who is still bobbing up and down like a bunny tail.

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Thursday 21st JuneWhydoospreysreturn?Todayisananswer

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Tuesday 19th June 2007 It is good to remember that there are lots chicks, other than ospreys, all hatching out in the woods. So it was not surprising that staff and volunteers on their way to do their duty at Dodd wood were delayed the other day by unforeseen circumstances. Just as they were about to leave the Sawmill Tea-rooms car-park they noticed an adult Blue Tit getting rather excited on a nearby bird box. Taking a second look the watchers saw the adult bird move away from the entrance as a small face appeared from the inside! The face pushed itself forward until it was almost through the hole, then reversed almost out of sight, then came forward again. A moment of uncertainty followed, and then a quick thrust, a whirl of wings and the tiny body propelled itself to a nearby branch. One tiny Blue Tit fledged. It was not alone. Five more siblings followed, some being encouraged by Mum and a juicy morsel. Show over, staff and volunteers started back to work. Or nearly. Just as the engine revved up on the trusty Ospreymobile another miniature face appeared at the nest box entrance and, even more unsure of itself than the previous occupants, proceeded to launch itself into the big world outside. Did it make it to the nearest branch? Of course it did – just. Bill and Kate eat your heart out!

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Monday 18th June 2007 There are many groups and individuals who use Bassenthwaite, all of whom appreciate the amazing natural diversity of this beautiful and special place. Managed primarily for wildlife by the Lake District National Park Authority at the South end, sailing and fishing are enjoyed as low impact sports at the North end. Our osprey No-ring knows no such bounds on his fishing trips and it is a credit to all those regularly using the Lake that he is able to go about his business safely. In particular this is due to the high standards of responsibility shown by our fishermen in their disposal of old fishing tackle and hooks. Becoming entangled in nylon line spells almost certain death or injury, as those who have been reading about the terrible time the Loch Garten ospreys have had will readily understand. We are just glad to hear ‘Henry’ osprey has managed to survive and that there is another Scottish chick to replace the one killed.

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Sunday 17th June 2007 Chicks one and two are a week old and must have doubled in size. Today saw a first major squabble between them. Mum didn’t serve up elevenses quickly enough (the food was still flapping) and little tummies just couldn’t wait! In desperation they pecked for phantom fish from each at the other’s beaks ending up in a half-nelson beak lock and falling over backwards. Sensibly, our little fly-weight chick kept well out of the way of the fighting feather-weights at the bottom of the nest, only reaching up when Mum with the corporeal thing appeared.

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Saturday 16th June 2007 Dull overcast and midge-ridden – but at least not so wet. Do midges bite through feathers or is it just bare skinned humans that suffer the indignity of fighting a losing battle with so small but so irritating an enemy?

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Friday 15th June 2007 The terrible weather continues with scarcely a let up in the rain today. Ms No-ring has been doing a sterling job faced with tough decisions concerning the chicks’ survival. Should her priority be to keep them warm and dry by constantly covering them and thus neglect feeding them – or feed them and risk letting them get wet? Either scenario could spell disaster. As it is she has sat firmly on them, dripping with water herself, and has been using every window of opportunity to jump up and feed them a few mouthfuls whenever the rain has eased off. She has taken to slipping bits of uneaten fish down into the nest cup so that there is always a supply (if slightly broiled) to use. As a result the chicks are still looking A1.

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Thursday 14th June 2007 Still very vulnerable, the nest has suffered terrible weather overnight - wind, thunder and rain. But fears that the chicks would not survive were unfounded as they all popped up from underneath Mum as cute as three cotton buds, begging for breakfast. Little one is definitely holding its own against its growing siblings and got a good eight mouthfuls.

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Tuesday 12th June 2007A third chick hatching – well, not very likely we thought when we turned on the screens at 10.00 this morning. Although the weather has been warm Ms No-ring had stopped incubating - the 2 chicks taking all her concentration. In comes a beautiful fish at 10.50. two little heads stretch eagerly to the sky. (Manna comes from heaven.) At least 50 Visitors are avidly watching the screen, and they are the ones to get the first view. Muffled gasps –Is that an extra wing? Opinions fluctuate back and forth. Yes, No, Maybe. No. It’s definitely a third tiny white head swinging like an erratic pendulum in the effort to raise itself up for the first time. Hooray!!! Later it can be seen more clearly, a string of neck uneasily attached to a scrap of body, and Ms No-ring pulls out the speckled round of eggshell that until so recently was its entire world. The full clutch is hatched and there is the start of a brand new family.

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Monday 11th June 2007 After the last exciting few days we have had time to turn round and look at some of the DVD recordings taken of the first few hours of our 2 chicks’ lives. (09.06.07) They are amazing. Again, the differences in behaviour between our old female XS and our new Ms No-ring have opened up whole new insights into how ospreys live and learn. All through this season No-ring has had to nurture his new and inexperienced bride, taking on all the stick collection and much of the nest building as well as providing all the fish. She responded by laying three eggs and taking on incubation duties. But how would she manage her newly hatched family? Would instinct take her the whole way or would learning play a part? The moment arrived for the first feed – and it was obvious she was completely baffled. Her first problem was how to reach down into the nest without tipping into it. It took her a few tries before she got the correct ‘knees bend,' technique. Then, what was it the chicks wanted? To our initial horror she appeared to start ‘mouthing’ them, running her open beak over their wobbly little heads. At this point No-ring, who was eating some of the fish he had brought up noticed she was struggling. After watching for some minutes he dragged the fish closer to her and very gently started pulling off chick sized pieces. He fed a few mouthfuls to the chicks to attract her attention and then proceeded to pass little bits to her, gently encouraging her to feed the chicks with them. It was a quite heart-stopping performance of intelligence and patience - and it worked! She has not looked back since and has been feeding both bouncing babies with the utmost success.

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Sunday 10th June 2007 Mother Father and babes doing well but no sign of a third egg hatching yet.

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Saturday 9th June 2007. There are now two chicks in the osprey nest at Bassenthwaite Lake. They hatched out overnight - the first was spotted by the watchers at 3.40 this morning. The second a few hours later. It's unusual for them both to have hatched so close together - there's usually a gap of at least a day. There's still another egg in the nest. Thursday 7th June 2007 Pre-hatching nerves seem to have led to a bit of role reversal. No-ring has sat warming his toes on the eggs for much of the day, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge Ms No-ring’s raucous cries for food. At last, fed up (or rather NOT fed up) she took to the skies and went and caught her own fish, which she ate sitting on a post in the marsh. With the remaining fish tail in claw she then proceeded to display above the nest in much the same way as a male bird would, swooping and diving and showing off her prey. Was this a very broad hint or a tit for tat demonstration? – Certainly she had no intention of sharing her meal

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Wednesday 6th June 2007Waiting and pacing! No chicks yet.

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Tuesday 5th June 2007 Ms No-ring is becoming more and more confident in her adopted neighbourhood. This morning, after eating a large piece of perch she spent a long time flying majestically over the Lake, perching on one of the posts and bathing on the marsh edge. Meanwhile No-ring seemed quite content to sit on the eggs. They are so close to hatching that surely the parents can hear them cheeping inside….

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Monday 4th June 2007Volunteers, staff and visitors are all looking forward to hatching with eager anticipation. Being optimists we are all counting out ospreys before they are hatched.

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Sunday 3rd June 2007 Clumps of Bistort, recommended as an ancient culinary vegetable, are shooting up spikes of exotic looking baby pink flowers from between luxuriant foliage, especially in damper areas of the hedgerows. The taste of the large leaves is bland but the texture, reminiscent of bald sandpaper, leaves a lot to be desired.

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Saturday 2nd June 2007‘Why did the hedgehog cross the road?’ The unfortunate answer is, ‘To see his flat-mate.' The past few weeks have seen a sharp rise in hedgehog casualties as they trundle across the roads and alongside verges in search of juicy invertebrates. As they come out at dusk and are so well camouflaged they are often difficult to see in the half-light. Drive carefully!

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Friday June 1st 2007. Listen! Blackcaps, Redstarts, Garden Warblers, Whitethroats, Wood Warblers, Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, Wheatears, Swallows, Martins, Swifts, Willow Warblers - all the migrants and all the resident birds, chirping and whistling and singing fit to bust!

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Thursday 31st May 2007 Pike have been on the menu today -both brought up to the nest headless.Bassenthwaite Lake of course grows some very large specimens of ‘freshwater shark’ but No-ring’s normal prey is the young jack pike. These toothy hunters wait to ambush smaller fish from the shelter of the water-weed, whilst these in their turn suck up mini-beasts born from the mud - who eat each other and nibble at the plant life. So the food chains stretch above and below the sunlit waters and bind the life of the Lake into a hungry whole.

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Wednesday 30th May 2007 The nest, already as large as a double bed, is steadily growing in depth with No-ring’s efforts. From a random selection of twigs and branches manipulated by a beak - how does it all hold together? Re-making the mock-up nest at Whinlatter Visitor Centre has proved to be a salutary lesson to us humans. Even with nails, wire, fishing twine and opposable thumbs it is with the greatest of difficulty we have managed to entwine sticks to form a nest only a third of the size in the approximate shape and prevent it from falling apart! (Gold star for D of E Jonathan!)

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Tuesday 29th May 2007 Nearly June and only about a week before hatching. Huge swathes of the fellsides are changing colour and texture. Bracken, tenacious on the steepest slopes is sending up its succulent green fronds uncurling through last year’s flattened brown stalks. Seen as a virulent weed by upland cultivators it is very poisonous to grazing animals and spreads via an underground rhizome system as well as spores. But walking past the delicate leaves unfurling in the sunshine and the rich smell of new growth is one of the joys of early summer.

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Monday 28th May 2007Last night was the coldest night in May for many years with temperatures at the nest at 6C and freezing on the tops. Ms No-ring’s fluffy white feather pantaletts and petticoats came into their own, helping provide that 4 season tog rating around the eggs.

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Sunday 27th May 2007 As we have seen No-ring is very much a ‘New Man’ taking on tasks at the nest as well as bringing home the fish. This is not unusual amongst ospreys. As the incubation process has progressed it has been a joy to watch both No-ring and Ms. tend the precious eggs with such care. Regular turning with beak and feet ensure that the developing embryos do not adhere to the inside of the eggshell or become malformed. Constant warmth fuels the growth process. Both parents have a brood patch; an area of bare skin under their breast feathers. Males have a small ‘hot-spot’ that works like a thermos when he is incubating (about 25% of the time, during daylight hours). However, female ospreys have a large area with many vessels that can be suffused with blood whenever the egg temperature falls. She will nearly always incubate throughout the hours of darkness. Her special motherhood adaptation is to be able to instinctively sense temperature change and to control it within the nest through her own body mechanisms. Amazing. A completely green central heating system!

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Saturday 26th May 2007 A day bathed in sunshine again but with a chilly wind for those sitting up in the fells. Inside the nest cup though it appears that a warm micro-climate is being created, due to No-ring’s hard work at placing his sticks around the edge of the nest. As a wind-break it is certainly quite effective for what with his own feathers and the extra insulating moss he brought in today he was definitely panting slightly throughout the afternoon.

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Friday 25th May 2007 DIY on the nest is going great guns today. No-ring has brought in sticks of varying length (his biggest the other day was 1.5m). And surprise - Ms No-ring has brought in 2 bunches of moss. She has been finding out that ‘Make your bed and lie in it’ takes on a literal meaning when there is not enough padding underneath.

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Thursday 24th May 2007 Many people enquire as to when the best time of day is to see No-ring catch a fish. Here are the statistics, data collected and collated by our fully awake and alive 24 hour Nest Protection Team. Of the 148 fish he has killed so far 34% have been caught between 04.00 and 12md and 64% between 12md and 22.00. Thus, in theory it is possible for anyone to see a catch at any time of day. And many do. Following Murphy’s Law however, this often translates into it happening in the 5 mins just before you struggle over the brow of the hill to the Viewpoint - or worse, 2 minutes after you have left, following a 3 hour vigil. (In the latter case you can also be sure you will collared later in the cafe by the couple who saw it all and can’t wait to tell you in detail how wonderful it was and how sorry they are you missed it! Grrr.)

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Wednesday 23rd May 2007(Overheard and paraphrased only lightly...) Back when I were a lad in 2001 on 24 hour Nest Protection we just crouched down hidden in the wet grass, come rain, come gale. Gaw, we thought us lucky when we were given an umbrella. That was proper Protecting right enough – just us and the birds. Soaked through to the skin, shaking wi’ cold and moiled up wi’ cramp. But we were Happy! Not like t’ chaps today. They got a hut, a stove, a chair each, and a Portaloo - no stamina for the shifts like what we had. And to cap all, this year there’s bin Glass put in the windows. I ask you, when did a minus 6 whistling draught ever hurt anyone? Talk about soft! The lads and lasses of today don’t know they’re living.

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Tuesday 22nd May 2007 What a magnificent effort. Today, from daybreak until nightfall No-ring and Ms. No-ring have only left the eggs uncovered for a total of 4 minutes. Any business would be proud to have whittled time and motion down to this efficiency!

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Monday 21st May 2007 Bathing in the Lake has held few charms for Ms No-ring since she arrived from the warm waters of Tropical Gambia. As all Cumbrian lasses know, you have to be hardy to be a successful British beach babe. However, encouraged by these two beautiful days of sunshine she took the plunge this morning and immersed herself, splashing out with gay abandon in the chilly waters off the marsh.

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Sunday 20th May 2007 What a relief – sunshine! Both ospreys have had a relaxed day sitting on the nest and preening out their crumpled feathers. At Dodd Viewpoint the morning was further enlivened with the sight of the resident buzzard and a raven from higher up the hill going at each other hammer and tongs above visitors’ heads. Despite the buzzard’s fierce looking claws and beak the raven is often the more determined bird, especially if there is a juicy carrion meal at stake. Also, as ravens usually breed early from mid February onwards they will already have well grown hungry young. Buzzards breed later in April or May so their chicks will still be vulnerable in the nest….. Not a combination that makes for good neighbours.

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Saturday May 19th 2007 After the rain, gales. Very choppy indeed on Bassenthwaite with small craft scurrying for shelter during the heavier squalls. No-ring managed to feed Ms No-ring with a catch at 08.55 this morning but gave up on this Lake in the afternoon. After being told off severely by his hungry female he was seen flying away over Whinlatter Pass at about 14.20, probably hoping Loweswater Buttermere or Crummock had a more sheltered fishing spot. However, he had not returned by 17.00.

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Friday 17th May 2007 Another morning of torrential rain. Ms No-ring is sitting low down in the nest cup with her back and wings curved over the eggs like an umbrella. Her head is pressed flat to the surface so that the rain trickles down under her neck feathers and drips off her beak into the soaking moss. Anyone with a hoodless cagoule will sympathise.

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Wednesday 16th May 2007Rain and more rain, in every conceivable strength from bucketfuls rebounding off the ground in a thick roaring haze to delicate fine droplets deceptively clinging to hair and feathers and soaking through to the skin in 5 minutes. Every new leaf is folded in on itself funneling drips and every branch droops, quietly weeping with the weight of water. Living in an aquarium no doubt has its joys so it would come as no surprise to see all the fish in Bassenthwaite rising up from the lake and swimming around the fell sides in the saturated air.

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Tuesday 15th May 2007 As many visitors have said, watching the No-rings incubating is a pastime similar to watching paint dry - if with an eggshell finish.But as with all great paintings the obvious image points to deeper and more significant levels. Within those egg shells cataclysmic events are happening. Powered by warmth and the yellow yolk cells are dividing, tissues changing function, nerves differentiating from backbones, an eye develops in its cartilaginous socket, a heart beats. Energy movement growth, change, life; the miracle of creation is happening at this moment right in front of us.

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Sunday 13th May 2007 Taking Sunday as a day of rest No-ring only brought in 2 fish today. This has not affected his excellent average catch of 4. Ms No-ring brought in a stick –building her personal grand total up to 2 sticks and 1 piece of moss!

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Saturday 12th May 2007 Every week many of our Osprey Volunteers do other work for nature conservation in the area, including a weekly bird count on the Solway Estuary. Here is a tale from earlier on in the month whilst walking the shoreline near Bowness-on-Solway; illustrating the diversity of wildlife and very different habitats just next door to the Lakes. The morning’s highlight was the sight of three Pomeranian skuas overflying mixed flocks of Knot, Grey-plover and Godwit feeding quietly on the silver flats. But in the mid-afternoon suddenly the whole lot rose in a whirling mix of flashing wings set against the magnificent backdrop. A lone osprey soared overhead causing the tumultuous panic. Simultaneously, 6 shelduck took off and like a formation WW2 fighter squadron defending civilian light aircraft, homed in on the raptor silhouette. With a shift of its pinions it effortlessly flicked itself out of range and continued its way North - a late migrant running the coastal gauntlet.

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Friday 11th May 2007 Red squirrels everywhere – including some tiny ones – possibly weighing only as much as a few boiled sweets.

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Monday 14th May 2007A dry sunny day with the May and Rowan in full blossom, filling the air with their musky scents in the valley and up onto the fells. Both ospreys are sitting well enjoying the view over the flower surrounded Lake from their desirable residence.

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Friday May 11th 2007 No-ring seems to have branched out into ‘stick mode’ and has treated his partner to three pretty large bits of bough today. To coincide with this Ms No-ring is twigging onto the fact that she should arrange them after delivery to form a lattice-work around the edge of the nest. They should act as a windbreak and keep any potential predators at bay. (Incidentally, our nest camera 3 has, as last year, succumbed to natural wastage and now its lens peers again through a fishy mist.)

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Thursday May 10th 2007 Now incubation is well under way here is a review of the main events for the period leading up to laying. Figures bear out our suspicions that Ms No-ring has abundant sex appeal with 150 matings, a third higher than the average for XS over the same period. This would indicate that all 3 eggs have a very good chance of being fertile. However, on the housework front she is either very immature or very clever. No-ring has brought in 30 sticks and 21 pieces of moss. Ms No-ring has only tangled her toes around one wisp of greenery. No-ring has caught ‘pounds of fun’ with101 fish !! All is going swimmingly.

Ospreywatch
Wednesday 9th May 2007 May, a month mixing mid-summer warmth and winter sleet so here is an adaptation of ‘Tripe a la Lyonnaise,’ a wild French taste for the chilly English nights. Along the roadside banks the plant ‘Jack-by-the-Hedge’ is standing tall, its stem of serrated spade shaped leaves topped by a round of small white flowers. Raw, it smells of garlic but its flavour is much more subtle when cooked and can make cordon bleu out of a traditional poor man’s dish. Cut and fry a large onion. Dice up a skirt of prepared tripe enough for two and toss it in the onions with 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Lastly, finely chop two heaped tablespoons of leaves and flowers of ‘Jack-by- the-Hedge' and mix this in. Heat until the flavours mingle. Eat accompanied by a glass of country French wine - to toast success to the pioneer French Osprey colonies in Orleans and Chambord.

Ospreywatch
Tuesday 8th May 2007 The Lake District Osprey Project team has confirmed that the new female osprey has now laid three eggs at the nest near Bassenthwaite Lake.The female bird was seen laying the third egg at about 9.30 on Sunday morning, six days after the first egg was spotted in the nest. The female osprey does about 70% of the incubation with the male giving her rests so that she can leave the nest to exercise and clean herself. Incubation takes between 34 and 40 days, so the first chick can be expected to hatch in early June. Last year all three eggs laid by the original female osprey successfully hatched.

Ospreywatch
Monday 7th May 2007 After his prolonged burst of energy, mating, fishing and single handedly nest building prior to the laying, No-ring obviously felt he needed a day of rest. Since dawn he had only given two tiny tail ends of fish to Ms, much to her disgust, and had eaten the rest himself. A thick piece of stick in lieu of lunch was not appreciated. In the afternoon he couldn’t wait to get his toes down under the moss and snuggle up on those eggs, taking over incubation. Ms, standing on the nest edge became more and more vocal culminating at about 16.30 in their first serious lovers’ tiff. He just would NOT get out of the nest bowl, despite the frenzied cries of his now ravenous bride. At last in desperation she caught hold of the offending stick in her beak, swung it round and deliberately gave him a hefty shove and poke with the end of it. It certainly worked as he was up and off in a minute. It seems that the glove of silk may hide a rod of iron!

Ospreywatch
Sunday 6th May 2007 After all our attempts to predict the timing of an egg yesterday it was Ms No-ring’s body-clock that has had the last say, of course. At 09.37 this morning up she stood, pushed and there it was! The THIRD egg - a full clutch. She has surpassed all our expectations. A bare 2 hours of recovery time after this she took her first test of practical motherhood in the face of adverse weather. Would she sit on the exposed nest battered by Bank Holiday rain, cold and wind or would she flee to shelter? Tucking her head low and arching her wings and back into an umbrella shape she sat as tight as she could, only lifting off to turn the eggs when the rain had stopped. She may not have lifted a toe to bring in any nest material in the last two weeks but she certainly has passed the egg producing/nurturing exams with flying feathers.

Ospreywatch
Saturday 5th May 2007.This could be the day for a third egg, so visitors and staff all turned into amateur midwives and watched Ms. No-ring on the Big screen avidly for signs of untoward stress. The day started well with 2 successful matings, which was an indication that another egg might be on its way. (Mating stops very soon after there is a full clutch.) Mid morning we agreed she seemed to be breathing rather heavily – but didn’t seem to be blinking, as she had with the second egg. However, at 11.35 No-ring came in with a fine perch. If she was near to lay she would most likely eat it on the nest (that’s what XS used to do) But no, she took it off to eat in a tree – so all before was a false alarm. Later she did eat a tail end of a fish on the nest edge – but there seemed to be no other signs by then. Also by 17.00 there had been no more matings. It is frustrating but absolutely fascinating trying to ‘read’ this new bird.

Ospreywatch
Friday May 4th 2007 We all have winter moments – when something so dramatic or profound or beautiful happens in the natural world that it imprints on our memories; to be treasured and taken out in the dull sunless days to give joy again. Here is just such a once in a lifetime moment – a gift from the Lake to the watchers at Dodd.Since their return seeing ospreys would be more than enough, flying and fishing in a sunlit vista over one of the most varied and wonderful habitats in England.But fell, marsh, wood and water hold constant surprises. So, earlier in the week, suddenly, another bird of prey is on the scene, quartering the reed beds. It is identified as a rare female marsh harrier, her brown back and buff head catching the sunlight as she wheels and soars. No-ring spots her and furious at her intrusion on ‘his’ lake, flies to the attack. The marsh harrier responds, also showing aggression as No-ring presumes to fly over ‘her ‘reed beds. As both birds are of similar size, the resulting dogfight is watched with awe and hearts in mouths. Although bluff is the name of the game fights such as this can result in injury, if split second timing is out when a razor sharp talon whistles by. Then comes the caviar on the cake! As the marsh harrier swoops low over a clump of reeds it erupts in a flurry of brown limbs and fur. One of our otters has been caught napping! In a panic it rushes across the marsh with the ungainly gait of a water mammal out of its element, short legs going like the clappers, nearly leaving bits of its body behind. No-ring and the harrier, equally startled, back off and the Lake life resumes its calm tenor for the rest of the day. Beauty danger and a spice of comedy – file that under the top 10 in the memory bank!

Ospreywatch
Thursday May 3rd 2007 14.15 today – ANOTHER egg! Well done Ms No-ring. As eggs are laid at approximately 2 day intervals -will there be another on Saturday? She is sitting very nicely, starting off incubation.

Ospreywatch
Wednesday 3rd May 2007 A fantastic day with weather the stuff of fantasy. Blue skies, bright sun, green woods and a cool wind.Two proud birds have been sitting in turns on the nest, both of whom seem absolutely fascinated by their beautiful egg. For Ms No-ring it is all of course, an entirely new learning curve, but you’d think that for No-ring, father of 10 eggs/chicks events in the nest bowler would be a bit of inverted old hat. Not a bit of it. He is on top of the world as in previous years, and still especially keen on incubation, eagerly awaiting his turn to snuggle down, rocked by the gentle breeze like a contented Never-Never Bird in the nest cap.

Tuesday 1st May 2007 The Lake District Osprey Project team are celebrating today after an egg was spotted on the nest near Bassenthwaite Lake. The news comes less than two weeks after the male osprey, who has been nesting in the Lake District since 2001, found himself a new partner. Following the new female’s arrival in the Lake District just after Easter, the pair of ospreys quickly settled in together at the nest. The egg was first seen just after 7pm on Monday. The female bird is now incubating her precious egg and it is hoped that further eggs will be laid in the coming days. Ospreys normally lay a clutch of three eggs. Incubation is carried out mainly by the female and takes between 34-40 days.

Ospreywatch
Monday 30th April 2007 Time flies. Already No-ring and his new Ms have been here for nearly 2 weeks. In the normal course of things we would expect eggs to be laid 14 days after first mating. However, other factors may come into play.A first time mother may take longer to develop eggs inside her, she may only lay one egg or sometimes none at all until her second year. On the other hand she could lay a full clutch of three with no problem. We’ll just have to see!

ospreywatch
Sunday 29th April 2007-04-30 It has been difficult not to notice that the webcam has had little connection with reality over the past few weeks. Like a malfunctional TARDIS it has been grabbing pictures from the past and squirting them at random onto the net. To all of you who have written in on the subject, thank you for your concern. Our screw-driver wielding Time Lord from the BBC has been trying his best to arrow in on a complex and extremely frustrating technical problem. In the here and now our ospreys have had an excellent day and both are looking far more in condition than when they first arrived.

Ospreywatch
Saturday April 28th 2007 Heave ho me hearties! A fine day and stiff southerly wind has made for a choppy ride on the good ship ‘Nest.’ Landlubbers watching on the Big screen have felt slightly seasick as the picture has swung about but our gallant Captain No-ring has been in and out keeping everything ship shape and bringing in the occasional stick and fish. Mate Ms No-ring has stood on the lookout camera with her telescope eyes surveying the distant shores of Dodd. Land ho! Goose-winged vessels on the marshy horizon – mostly Greylag but look closely to spot a single castaway buff breasted Brent goose amongst them!

Ospreywatch
Friday April 27th 2007 ‘The cuckoo then from every tree mocks married men’ goes the mediaeval refrain, coupling the unorthodox habits of a bird that makes no nest, has no family life and passes on the entire responsibility of child-rearing to unsuspecting foster parents, with the human cuckold. An uncomfortable comparison, but always a welcome and evocative sound, heralding the next stages of Spring. A much more uncomfortable comparison is that the author of the song expected to hear them from ‘every tree’. In the past few days there have been reports of one in Ennerdale, one in Grisedale, one in Borrowdale, reflecting the overall national decline since 1970. It is a worrying trend that unfortunately is probably due to habitat destruction and a resulting lack of hairy caterpillars rather than increased matrimonial fidelity.

Ospreywatch
Thursday April 26th 2007 So with No-ring fully functional again and Ms No-ring enjoying his attentions it is easy to forget Green XS, female founder of this first osprey nest in England in 150 years. Hatched at Loch Inch in Scotland in 1995 she would have been 12 years old this May. She has produced 10 live chicks in her 6 breeding years, culminating with a full clutch of 3 – a bird in her Prime. We have watched her develop from courtship in 2000 into a young mother, not entirely sure how to manage incubation changeovers, to the self-assured matriarch of the last few years. Her first chick hatching coincided with the tragedy of Foot and Mouth in 2001. For many of the people in the Northern Lakes this new life brought a ray of new hope in a very dark and grief-stricken time. Moreover, the 10,000 visitors that came to see the new little family helped save many local people’s livelihoods. Although there is an outside chance that she may still arrive it is daily becoming more likely that she will never return. The 3000 mile journey is one so full of hazards the miracle is that any make it. We still hope she does. But in any case Green XS will always be thought of as a very special, very Cumbrian, bird.

Ospreywatch
Wednesday 25th April 2007 The nest was again empty this morning when we switched on the screen, thankfully today it was bathed in sunshine. Various fleeting glimpses of the birds proved a little frustrating until mid morning saw two positive matings.After this, over lunchtime the female began nest building in earnest, perhaps fuelled by the male who brought in lots of material.This was some of the most dedicated attention to the nest we have seen so far, and the visitors at Whinlatter watched in awe as the female purposefully dug out the nest bowl, and then shaped it by almost rolling around. This may seen a funny picture, but is done with grace and an assured dedication.Mid afternoon saw a fish brought onto the nest by the male, given to the female who devoured the majority of it before the male finished off the remainder. After their afternoon snack, another successful mating occurred, and both birds then left the nest.The viewpoint reported both the male and female osprey sat on the posts on the marsh, and over the last few days things have very much settled down at the nest site, and suffice to say our birds are now very much more of a couple than merely a liason.

Ospreywatch
Tuesday 24th April 2007 The last two days rain left a heavy cloud hanging over the valley and the lake, which gave a silent, slightly oppressive air. Our pair of birds greeted us from the nest when we arrived, and the news from Protection was that they had been busy moving nest material in and out of the nest! Some jovial comings and goings on and around the nest resulted in a successful mating, shortly after which the male left the nest, not to return until the early afternoon. Perhaps by divine intervention, perhaps not, but at the same time the sun broke through the cloud and it turned into a glorious spring day. Some more nesting material was brought into the nest through the afternoon by both the male and female and some frantic digging and shaping of the nest bowl was completed. A late afternoon mating again was positive, and over 300 visitors throughout the day had once again been captivated by our happy couple.

Ospreywatch
Monday 23rd April 2007 The rain has painted the Lakeside world Green. Sap-green grass, viridian hawthorn and lime-green larches all converting water and light into rampant growth. But for non-plant life such as humans and ospreys it has just felt WET. It would seem that the new female, Miss No-ring, is also quite a green girl in many ways and interestingly there are differences in behaviour between herself and our old Mrs. XS. For example, XS rarely ate fish on the nest until after the chicks were hatched whereas Miss No-ring seems to favour eating her meals spitted on the chopsticks of the nest edge. As regards the progression of the relationship of the current pair No-ring seems to be on the mend and has caught a couple of fish, which he has felt able to share with her. There has been some successful mating this morning – although still rather lacking the fire of Thursday.

Ospreywatch
Sunday April 22nd 2007 Misty and wet today with some gusty wind which did not really encourage No-ring’s convalescence. However, he did catch a couple of fish showing that eyesight and muscles are working well although he did not feel up to sharing them with the lady.

Ospreywatch
Saturday April 21st 2007 No-ring’s lazy afternoon yesterday extended into the evening and by 10.00 this morning we had worked that something was wrong. He had caught no fish since 8.00am yesterday and latterly had brought in no moss; mating seemed at a standstill. He sat with his wings hunched in the bottom of the nest, the picture of dejection, his behaviour changed from Superbird to Saddo in 24 hours. Meanwhile, his erstwhile lady-love tried to regain his attention – screaming repeatedly down his ear for nearly 4 hours, but he ignored all her blandishments and haranguing. Was he belatedly pining for his own familiar Mrs.XS or just plain exhausted? In the end Bride gave him up as a bad job and soon caught a large perch for herself, which she didn’t share. It was not until the afternoon that the zoom camera picked up that his left eye was quite swollen and sore. What could have caused it? Was he now incapable of fishing? Dark thoughts of the poor survival rates of injured birds of prey immediately sprang to mind. However, just before 5.00pm he flew off the nest and to our heartfelt relief returned with a fish. Let’s just hope he feels more up to scratch tomorrow.

Ospreywatch
Friday 20th April 2007Passion is a wonderful thing but housework is always waiting in the wings. The new bride has spent periods today digging out the nest bowl . No-ring spent the afternoon quietly paddling by the Lakeside – no doubt recovering from his Casanova impressions yesterday. Then, at lunchtime, far below the nest on the forest floor another first time event occurred. Watched by our 24 hour Protection team a magnificent Red Deer Stag strode up from between the trees. A breathless moment, held until the osprey rose with a clatter of wings from the nest and the deer fled back deep into the wood.

Ospreywatch
Thursday 19th April 2007 ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ is obviously No-ring’s motto this Spring. He and his new maiden are smitten with each other and have been busy consolidating their budding relationship. New moss has been gathered and tumbled around the nest and No-ring has presented his inamorata with 4 fish.

Ospreywatch
Wednesday 18th April 2007 After the euphoria of seeing our male back on the Lake, today started quietly with No-ring revisiting his old perching places and occasionally rising up with a fish in a display flight over the nest territory. Unfortunately, there was no XS to appreciate this, but his efforts were by no way in vain because at 17.45 he arrived on the nest with a fish and a strange new female in tow. After a quick tug of war over the fish she was all his. That’s pulling power for you!

Ospreywatch
Friday 20th April 2007 A new female osprey has been spotted on the nest at Bassenthwaite Lake.The project team has had a number of enquiries over the last few days from eagle eyed osprey enthusiasts who have been watching live pictures of the nest at the Forestry Commission’s Whinlatter Visitor Centre and on the internet. Fish King, the male osprey that has been nesting at the same site in the Lake District for six years, was seen a number of times during the day in the company of another osprey.What everyone wanted to know was whether this bird was Fish King’s long standing partner, called GreenXS after the markings on a ring around one of her legs, or a new bird. After zooming in on the female, using a camera inside the nest, Project staff were able to confirm that this is a new osprey that has no ring. Live pictures from a camera overlooking the nest are beamed to a giant videowall at the Visitor Centre, near Braithwaite. The Centre is open daily from 10am to 5pm.

Ospreywatch
Tuesday 17th April 2007 After what was an interesting, exciting and sometimes worrying start to the season, this afternoon saw the arrival of a male osprey which frequented the nest briefly, and then the posts on the lake shore where it eat a fish before bathing at the mouth of the river.Although at this stage we cannot confirm that this bird is 'our' unringed male, it is highly likely, given its apparent knowledge of the area and use of the same perches which have been used in previous seasons by the resident pair.Late yesterday afternoon, the bird was seen to be in the vicinity of the nest, displaying and apparently prospecting for a mate. If it is 'our male', it is the latest it has returned since the birds nested. This seems to fit into the national pattern with many birds across the UK being late in arriving at their wintering grounds.Fingers, talons and fish scales crossed !

Ospreywatch
Monday April 16th 2007This morning we viewed our vandalised ‘spy’ camera, now abandoned by our fumble-footed visitor, with dismay! We realised that no possibility existed of close-up filming of the nest interior, if and when our birds return. At this point, and completely fortuitously, a knight in shining red hard hat and girded with climbing gear hove into our sights. It was the matter of a moment for this brave individual to shin up the tree, balance precariously 70 feet above the ground, re-position the lens, re-secure the camera fixings and descend again. Thank you to the National Park Authority Climbing Team. (It should withstand a 10 ton bus landing - but perhaps judgement should be withheld until osprey tested)

Ospreywatch
Sunday April 15th 2007 Our tiny spy camera on the nest edge has had a chequered career in previous years. It has been power-pooed and pole-axed and buried but usually it lasts a few weeks into the season. Not this time.This morning a visiting osprey, a delightful dusky-fronted but buxom maiden alighted on the nest edge. Guess where? Yes! And it took no more than a slip of her less than dainty foot to bend the lens 45 degrees. We now, as on past occasions, have a droopy nosed close-up view of a pile of sticks from camera 3. On a more sanguine note her arrival (and later departure) tells us that osprey migration is now in full swing despite the continuing dirty weather in S. Europe. Come on SX and No-ring!

Ospreywatch
Saturday April 14th 2007 One swallow swooping into the outhouses at Whinlatter yesterday doesn’t make a summer and neither do two more dive-bombing a buzzard over the Lake today. For us, our summer will only start with our ospreys’ arrival - soon we hope!

Ospreywatch
Friday April 13th 2007 After a promising start at 6.30am with sight and sound of an osprey in the wood below the nest, there was nothing more. So, presumably our loss is Scotland’s gain. Sightings of ospreys moving North over the past few days from all over the country are keeping us optimistic about our own pair. On a different note the consistent amazingly good weather has brought its own problems. Bracken grass and heather are now tinder dry – with the resulting risk of fire on the fells. Cigarette butts, glass and reflective tins can all cause conflagration!

Ospreywatch
Thursday April 12th 2007No signs of yesterday evening’s birds until ‘Eureka!’ at 12.25 there was one sitting on the nest!! We were so surprised and delighted after our long wait that one or two of us had to sit down to get over the shock. Was it our female SX or male No-ring was our next thought? A breathless camera zoom-in from the Protection team focussed on the bird’s legs. No ring to be seen on either leg. Not SX then ‘Turn around to face us,’ we breathed, wanting to see the pure white breast of No-ring. A half turn and the suggestion of a brown breast band and then it was off. Oh-oh. It didn’t seem to be one of our pair at all. After another brief visit it disappeared. Gone off to Scotland? Not yet, because at 15.00 it was spotted again sitting below the nest and there was confirmation that 2 birds had been seen fishing earlier on. At 17.00 we were left hanging. Will they be here tomorrow or are they just resting passage birds?

Ospreywatch
Wednesday April 11th 2007 Millions of birds are migrating into this country right now. Millions more are flooding out. Of the 416,000 widgeon that spend the winter in GB we are watching the last of those due to leave from Bassenthwaite for the North and East. On the other hand the budding trees and bushes all over the area have today suddenly sprouted Willow Warblers. If birds this small have just made it in from central and southern Africa it means that weather conditions have improved across Europe. Surely our ospreys cannot be too far behind?18.00hrs Two ospreys spotted fishing over the Lake…….

Ospreywatch
Tuesday April 10th 2007No ospreys.

Ospreywatch
Monday April 9th 2007 The best Eastertide message of new life and spring hope would have been a Bassenthwaite Osprey landing on the nest. But no, our pair don’t seem to have been following the same calendar as us. This is disappointing but at this stage certainly not a cause for concern. Dates of return over the past 6 years have ranged from April 3rd to April 18th. Keep watching this space, and willing them onwards!

Ospreywatch
Good Friday April 6th Spring comes so fast in this warm weather that in the time it takes to look over your shoulder the landscape has changed from dormancy to Life! Cheery Celandines are coming up in swathes along damp banks. In the cool of this morning they were all closed up tight, the backs of their petals camouflaged green in the grass. Then as the weather warmed, they all opened together, showing their shiny yellow faces to the sun and early insects. From a little distance it seemed whole areas were turning to gold.

Ospreywatch
Thursday April 5th 6.00pm, Wednesday evening, an osprey is sighted fishing over the Lake. Is it one of ours? Judging by the still empty nest this morning –NO. It was a passage bird probably aiming for Scotland.

Ospreywatch
Wednesday April 4th 2007Lack of Ospreys means there is the opportunity to concentrate on some of the other inhabitants of the woods. The Red Squirrels at Dodd have been out gambolling in front of the Viewpoint for much of the day, their coats glowing vivid russet in the sunlight. Fed throughout the winter they are the pictures of good health. Obviously Red Stars – they weigh the same as four Mars Bars.

Ospreywatch
Tuesday April 3rd 2007'Daffodils, that come before the Swallow dares and take the winds of March with beauty.' Shakespeare's words that have pretty well summed up the look of the Lake District Spring over the past few glorious days. The daffodils are tossing vibrantly in the woods and along the roadsides and the two Bassenthwaite Ospreywatch sites are open and raring to go. Dodd Viewpoint has its bank of telescopes trained on the nest and Whinlatter has live CCTV pictures of the same but alas, no ospreys (or swallows) yet. We are all just hoping our pair are taking the winds of April seriously and will be with us very soon. In the mean time, Welcome Back to all our readers!

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