732 (URSULA) FLEDGES

It’s a strange old feeling when you see the nest empty for the first time since breeding commenced and that’s what I was met with this morning when I arrived and, although I expected it, there is a deal of emotion I always experience each year it happens.

732 (Ursula) has been almost ready to go for a couple of days and she was helicoptering nicely on 22 Jul. I think she would have gone yesterday had the weather been better and I could have shown you her helicoptering in the morning, despite the rain, apart from the fact that all you’d have seen would have been her emerging from and disappearing back into a large blob of rainwater on the camera lens that was obscuring most of the nest. So here’s her on 22nd instead.

Suffice it to say, that the 23rd was a complete washout until late in the afternoon and the wind that sprang up from mid morning made helicoptering, and certainly fledging, something to be avoided.

The camera came on a little later today than it should have done which was hardly surprising considering that, for the last couple of days, the solar panels had been working hard to suck any tiny bit of light they could from the gloomy skies to power the kit. Today was different though and the sun was shining and the wind had dropped. 732 was on the tip of the nest perch and looked ready to go. I wondered if she might have already fledged but I’m fairly sure she hadn’t when I subsequently saw her take off. Her brother in the meantime was doing zoomies round and round the field, clearly enjoying the nice weather and his rapidly developing flying skills. He returned to encourage his sister to follow. She didn’t manage to match his effortless looking launch of 4 days ago, taking off from the cot rails at 0720 and catching some foliage as she did a bit of a lurching first few wing beats. On the video you can see her recover, fly off across the field and then return to circle round against the blue sky.

The landing was even less impressive. To misquote from Casablanca and in his best Humphrey Bogart voice, you could forgive 733 for saying “on all the perches, in all the trees, in all this field, you had to land on my one” as she crash landed onto him, and clung on until she was able to hop back onto the nest, forcing him to do an impromptu circuit. Her later efforts were slightly more effective.

So the centre of attention will now start to move to the surrounding area from the nest, although fish will continue to be brought there for the chicks. In most years, the male would continue to supply the chicks but the female would normally start to fish for herself and would share very little of the future parenting duties with the male; her job of guarding the nest while the chicks were there would have been completed. However, this has not been a normal year and JW6 has been supplementing fish supplies brought in by Samson for quite a period of time. So what will happen next is unclear. Will she carry on as she would do in other years and concentrate on feeding herself up prior to setting off on migration, or will she continue to help feed the chicks and delay her own preparations for migration in view of the difficulties Samson has faced in providing sufficient supplies? Can we expect another visit from 3AF once she has left her nest and what will happen if JW6 or either of the chicks are still present? There’s still plenty to interest us as we move onto the next phase of the chicks getting more confident and spending more time flying around, learning about their surroundings and maybe having a go at putting those fishing instincts into practice. One thing is for sure: August will be an interesting month.