WEIRD END OF SEASON GOINGS-ON

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for the length of time since my last blog. I thought that, after fledging, there would be just one more post saying how everyone had left and it had all gone quiet. Ha! I’ve been waiting for over a week to say that and, in the end, I still can’t say it but I’m getting gentle nudges from faithful followers asking what’s going on? I am now getting ahead of myself so, if I may, I’ll remind you that my last blog left us celebrating the fledging of the remaining chick, ringed 688 and named Sasha.

Sasha grew in confidence and skill rapidly over the next few days. There’s a long, horizontal, bare branch in a pine tree on the edge of a nearby group of trees that’s always a favourite with our youngsters, once they’ve managed to acquire the skill to flare out and land under control, rather than grabbing a branch and hanging on for grim death while beak planting whatever is beyond the selected perch and tangling wings in anything to the left and right of said perch. Sasha found that perch within a day of fledging and could usually be located there when he felt a fish was in the offing. He would then meet Samson at the nest and usually returned to the perch to eat, so confident was he with carrying a fish and landing one footed.

He began to explore the area, while keeping an eye open for Samson of course, and I was lucky enough to see him practising his diving in the river on one occasion. Juno, on the other hand, was getting very frustrated as Samson, as soon as Sasha fledged, immediately stopped bringing fish to her, despite her insistent food begging. She soon got the hint and started fishing for herself and preparing for her migration. There was one occasion when she brought in a monster rainbow trout, a rarity to be brought to the nest area, and she ignored the pleading of Sasha, stood beside her on the pine tree perch, and started gobbling it down. It showed she was breaking the bonds with her chick which had now become Samson’s sole responsibility. Unfortunately for Sasha, Samson arrived with a decent sized brown trout while he was food begging and Samson, seeing and hearing him right next to Juno, wrong assumed he was being fed by her and landed out of sight of Sasha and proceeded to eat his offering. Poor old Sasha probably got two tail ends but missed out on the juicy bits of the fish that both parents had brought.

Juno was last seen on Tue 16 Aug and I have to say that she was looking, as someone diplomatically put it, less than aerodynamic, so successful had she been at feeding herself. Following the principle that bumblebees shouldn’t fly but do, she probably left on migration sometime that day. I wonder if she will be spotted at her wintering grounds sometime in the next few months?

Samson continued providing fish after fish for Sasha until he too resembled a barrel and he was last seen on 19 Aug, aged 80 days, when he probably began his migration. All things being well, he should come back to the UK for the first time in 2024. Bon voyage and the very best of luck, Sasha. What an amazing adventure he has set out upon.

Well……. What we normally expect is that a day or two after the male is left on his own, he too will migrate but things didn’t work out quite like that. Some of you who’ve been following me for a while will remember Astra (3AF) who was our female in 2020, although too young to breed. She was hatched at Rutland and was the first known Rutland bird to be seen in Scotland. She returned in 2021 and was one of the many female visitors to the nest that were entertained by Samson last year, before being evicted by the joint effort of a buzzard and later by our present female, Juno. She found herself a mate several miles away, a male from Kielder (Blue 39), and they successfully raised 3 chicks this year. I visited that nest on 19 Aug and saw both parents coming in with fish for the youngsters while I was there. It showed that she was still quite closely bonded to the chicks and the nest at that stage.

Imagine my surprise then when, 48 hours later, I saw a female osprey sitting on the nest perch and, when I got the scope on her, found it to be 3AF!

And here she has remained ever since. Samson at first was his normal skittish self when a new female appears, getting her a fish, which she accepted; finding lots of nesting material, which she ignored; and trying to mate with her, which she rebuffed. However, he soon settled down and they’ve behaved since like a normal pair, comfortable with each other and spending hours sitting together until she decides she’s getting peckish, yells at him and he goes fishing and returns to present her with what he’s caught.

It’s been 9 days now, she is showing no signs of being ready to migrate and he is showing no signs of stopping providing her with fish. As far as I know, we haven’t seen previous examples of this type of behaviour where a female decamps from one nest site to another at this stage of the season and settles at the new site nor where the male has been so keen to feed her so late. Is she making a move into JW6’s territory in readiness for 2023? Are they both seeing the other as an insurance in case their partners don’t make it back next Spring? I’ve asked Tim Mackrill for his thoughts and I’d be interested in yours as well.

I’ll let you know how long this goes on for in my next blog, which I assume will be my last for 2022, but the ospreys may know better.