ADDENDUM/ERRATUM

Do you remember what I said in my last blog about where the birds might be…Ignore it.

I went down to my normal location and sat for about an hour with nothing happening. Then I heard the tell-tale sound of a food-begging juvenile osprey and saw an adult osprey, plus fish, hotly pursued by a juvenile, approaching the nest. Samson touched down and dropped the fish with 9J6 grabbing it straight away. Nothing unusual there; we’ve been watching similar for a while now. Apart from the fact that it was neither bird. The adult took off straight away and disappeared but not before it was clear that it was Augusta (you know, the one we haven’t seen for 11 days that we assumed was well on her way to her winter grounds) and 9J8 (chick 1, despite the fact that her younger sister had already navigated all the way down to Poole and had been there for almost a week).

Titch, the juvenile I had expected to see, arrived a minute or so later and immediately started her normal noisy claims of being starving. 9J8 hadn’t been that bothered about the fish to start with but she wasn’t going to let anyone else have it so she mantled at Titch and grabbed the fish more firmly but still didn’t eat it. Eventually, Titch broke the deadlock and attacked her older sister and managed to prise the fish from her. She then flew off to her favourite perch and started to eat. She wasn’t pursued by her sister so I imagine she’s been well fed, wherever she’s been. Augusta has not been seen since this short appearance but who knows where she is and what she’s doing. I’ll keep you posted.

Today, Samson turned provider and Titch the receiver and, again, she flew away with the fish to a perch across the river. It was too far to positively identify but she was joined by another juvenile; I assume it was 9J8. To update you, 9J7 was still fishing at Poole yesterday but we have no confirmation that she’s caught anything decent yet.

I’ll try and let you know of any more updates as I hear or see anything but bear in mind that you can probably take any of my claims about the birds’ whereabouts with a generous pinch of salt because they delight in proving me wrong!