Scottish Osprey webcam

[MAK]

  The Lady is simply amazing!  

[Donna]

Kris G sent this to me. How cute!!  Thanks!!

[Donna]

http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/osprey-hatches-chick-number-48-1-2309961

Osprey hatches chick number 48   

[MAK]

Woohoo! The Lady is just amazing!!! 

[DebInTexas]

Here's a pic of Lady and chick 1, from 5-27-12 on their blog post.  Egg 2 was expected to hatch by Sunday, but no obvious signs as yet.

[Dumpsterkitty]

Here's a pic of Lady and chick 1, from 5-27-12 on their blog post.  Egg 2 was expected to hatch by Sunday, but no obvious signs as yet.

One is good! She is amazing!

[Donna]

Here's a pic of Lady and chick 1, from 5-27-12 on their blog post.  Egg 2 was expected to hatch by Sunday, but no obvious signs as yet.

One is good! She is amazing!

Exactly, 1 is better than none. 

[carly]

A second egg is hatching for Lady!!!   

Great news this afternoon as it looks like the process of hatching has begun for one of the remaining two eggs on the osprey nest at Loch of the Lowes. Staff noticed a tiny hole in one of the eggs this afternoon, and the tell tale tiny egg tooth of the chick moving beneath. As the evening has progressed the crack running out from this hole has been getting bigger, and we have noticed the usual behavioural changes in our female osprey too- lots of listening, shuffling and fretting over the hatching egg, as well as her rather wiggly older chick.

We believe the egg that is hatching is the third egg ( today is day 38 of incubation for this egg) and not likely to be egg number two, which it looks like wasn’t viable. We will be over the moon of this chick manages to hatch successfully and if it makes it through the first few critical weeks, and survives to fledging it could be our female ospreys 50th fledgling- a remarkable achievement.

http://blogs.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/osprey/

[Donna]

Well I'll be an Osprey's uncle! Thanks Carly, great news. 

[MAK]

  Gotta love this girl! 

[DebInTexas]

Egg-cellent news, thanks Carly!! 

A second egg is hatching for Lady!!!   

Great news this afternoon as it looks like the process of hatching has begun for one of the remaining two eggs on the osprey nest at Loch of the Lowes. Staff noticed a tiny hole in one of the eggs this afternoon, and the tell tale tiny egg tooth of the chick moving beneath. As the evening has progressed the crack running out from this hole has been getting bigger, and we have noticed the usual behavioural changes in our female osprey too- lots of listening, shuffling and fretting over the hatching egg, as well as her rather wiggly older chick.

We believe the egg that is hatching is the third egg ( today is day 38 of incubation for this egg) and not likely to be egg number two, which it looks like wasn’t viable. We will be over the moon of this chick manages to hatch successfully and if it makes it through the first few critical weeks, and survives to fledging it could be our female ospreys 50th fledgling- a remarkable achievement.

http://blogs.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/osprey/

[Donna]

egg with pip and crack

[DebInTexas]

And they want to satellite tag the chicks this year!!  Maybe another 'Quest' type saga to watch unfold. 

Q: Are there any plans to tag/ ring the chicks this year?
 
A: Yes, we would like to put satellite tags on the chick or chicks (the funds for this research project were raised by volunteers and members a couple of years ago and we’ve been holding them until we get chicks). If possible, this would happen at around 6 weeks of age- we will be explaining a lot more about this closer to the time, but meanwhile, why not read up on ringing and satellite tracking under our FAQ’s ( see the tab at the top of this page) .

[Donna]

And they want to satellite tag the chicks this year!!  Maybe another 'Quest' type saga to watch unfold. 

Q: Are there any plans to tag/ ring the chicks this year?
 
A: Yes, we would like to put satellite tags on the chick or chicks (the funds for this research project were raised by volunteers and members a couple of years ago and we’ve been holding them until we get chicks). If possible, this would happen at around 6 weeks of age- we will be explaining a lot more about this closer to the time, but meanwhile, why not read up on ringing and satellite tracking under our FAQ’s ( see the tab at the top of this page) .

SCH-WEET!! 

[Kris G.]

May 29th update:

All our excitement about a second hatching on our Osprey nest seems to have come to nothing, as neither of the remaining two eggs have hatched in the last 24hrs or so. We have not given up hope altogether as it has been known occasionally for eggs to take longer than 24hrs to hatch, but it is looking increasingly less likely. Not only have the cracks in the eggs not gotten any bigger, there has not been any more movement visible by a chicks beak at the hole, and the female’s behaviour has also changed. She was almost frantically restless yesterday evening, as she presumably responded to the sounds of the chick moving inside the egg, but she has since grown much calmer. It is normal for ospreys ( and most other birds) not to help the chick out of the egg- hatching must take place slowly and naturally for the chick to survive.

Why these eggs haven’t hatched is a difficult question. If we presume that they were both fertile, it is possible that the chicks inside were too weak to hatch or that the egg shells were too hard for them to be able to break through (due to hot dry weather?) or there may be another cause. We may never know the answer exactly, though we will try to investigate further when we can do so safely.

Despite our disappointment we must focus on the fact that we have one healthy and very strong chick who is doing brilliantly- and that in itself is an important achievement for our birds.

Today this wee one has been doing brilliantly, actually waddling over to the male to peck at the fish- a bold confident chick indeed. The male osprey has brought in four fish so far today, but the last at around 7.20 pm caused quite a stir: the large Pike was brought in alive by the male to the nest, and he had serious problems releasing it from his talons despite the female grabbing it greedily. In the struggle, the fish got loose and it was still alive so flip flopped around the nest and almost flattened the wee chick several times- despite it being very comical the wee one was at serious risk, so the male promptly removed the fish from the nest and brought it back 20mins latter with the head removed- a  much safer dinner!