Almost Tea Time
Just as we were all starting to think about what we might have for our dinner, 5R flew past the front of the Lyndon Visitor Centre this afternoon carrying a large Trout.
As soon as he arrived back in Manton Bay the female in the nest started food begging. 5R has taken his catch to the nearby perch and is precariously balancing the Trout on there, fingers crossed he will manage to keep hold of it and take her some soon.
We have had the second delivery of Ozzie’s Migration, a book which tells the story of one Osprey’s migration from Rutland Water to The Gambia, written by Ken Davies and illustrated by John Wright.
The book has already been used as a tool for teaching children about the migration in schools in Rutland and The Gambia. You can pick up a copy for £5 at Lyndon or Egleton.
Careful of those eggs!
It’s been a much warmer day today, and we’ve even had the occasional bit of sunshine. 5R has just arrived at the nest with a trout and taken over incubation.
Earlier on, the young three year-old female 00(09), made a brief appearance at the nest. 5R, who was incubating at the time, went into defensive mode, mantling over the three eggs. It is just the type of intrusion that can lead to eggs being smashed, and as you can see in the video, it almost happened as 5R clumsily fell across the eggs, knocking into two of them in the process. Fortunately he didn’t do any damage and his mate took over incubation to allow 5R to chase the intruding female away.
The story so far…
It’s hard to believe that 5R has been back in Rutland for 44 days now and after all the drama with 5N and 00(09) at the beginning of the season the resident pair have been incubating their full clutch for 12 days. The video below shows what has happened in Manton Bay so far this season. Rutland Water is very lucky to be getting a newly refurbished Rutland Water Visitor Centre (formally the Tourist Information Centre) at Sykes Lane near Empingham and this video will be shown on their big screen. All the more reason to pop down and spend a day at Rutland Water!
Enough is enough!
Well it’s been another dreary day in Manton Bay.
5R bought a big Trout back to the bay first thing this morning and after eating for about an hour he unfortunately dropped it on his way to the nest. He was soon sent off again to find the unringed female a meal and spent nearly 15 minutes unsuccessfully fishing underneath the nest pole.
The Manton Bay female is no longer impressed with this awful weather and this morning she looked pretty fed up. Come on 5R, bring her something to eat!
What a difference a day makes
After the horrendous wind and rain of yesterday, the reserve has been basking in glorious spring sunshine for much of today. It has probably been even more of a relief for the Manton Bay Ospreys than it was for us.
The sun may have been out, but a brisk north-easterly wind has continued to make fishing difficult for 5R today. He finally arrived back at the nest with a small Roach at about 4pm. As usual he ate part of the fish before taking the rest to the nest. There wasn’t much left though and the female polished it off within fifteen minutes. Clearly not satisfied by her meal she flew back to the nest and began food-begging again. When 5R didn’t respond she simply pushed him off the nest – thereby forcing him to go off in search of another meal. Now that told him!
Well done Brian!
It has been an extremely wet and windy day at Rutland Water with the Manton Bay nest battered by strong north-easterly winds and driving rain. The female has sat resolutely on the eggs all day, which can’t have been a pleasant task – as this video shows.
Its not just the Ospreys who have suffered in the rain today. Just after 2pm this afternoon a rather soggy, but very relieved, Brian Anderson arrived at Rutland Water having completed his 450 mile charity cycle ride from Loch Garten in just six days. Brian, or Black Jaguar as he is better known to the Loch Garten bloggers, has raised over £2000 for the RSPB’s work at Loch Garten – a fantastic achievement. We welcomed him to the Lyndon Visitor Centre with a cup of coffee and plenty of congratulations. Well done Brian! If you would like to know more, or to sponsor him, check out his JustGiving page.
Brian Anderson at the Lyndon Visitor Centre having completed his amazing ride
Tim Mackrill, Lizzie Lemon and Paul Stammers with Brian Anderson at Lyndon
Hold on tight!
We were hoping that today would provide the Manton Bay Ospreys with a respite from the recent bad weather, but no such luck. The nest has been buffeted by a strong north-easterly wind for much of the day with occasional heavy showers mixed in for good measure. It can’t have made incubating much fun, but as this videos shows, sitting hunkered down in the nest may actually have been preferable to the other perches favoured by the birds. In the video below 5R appears to want to take over incubation, but his mate was in no mood to let him! With more heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, it looks like they’ll be in for another rough day.
00(09) Up to no good…again!
The Manton Bay female hasn’t had a great day today. As if the weather wasn’t enough to contend with, 00 has been making a nuisance of herself in the bay again. And with 5R preoccupied in chasing off the intruder he hasn’t bought her back any fish either.
Judging by the females reaction from the nest and confirmed by our volunteers in Waderscrape hide, 00 has been making her presence known for most of the afternoon.
We caught on video this moment where the intruding female landed on the nest. Careful not to leave the nest and her eggs exposed to the elements the unringed Scottish bird sat tight and eventually 00 left her in peace.
Fingers crossed the weather clears a bit for tomorrow so they can get a good meal in and dry off before Sunday’s deluge!
Difficult fishing? Not for 5R
Another day of gusty winds and squally showers today; just the sort of conditions that usually make fishing difficult for Ospreys. As you can see in the video below, the water below the nest is extremely discoloured – a result of the heavy rain of the past few days. This combined with the gusty wind can’t have made fishing very easy for 5R. That said, he did manage to catch two large trout yesterday and another this morning. He’s also done his fair share of incubating – it’s him in the video below.
The conditions of the past couple of days contrast greatly with what the birds expereince on their wintering grounds in West Africa and it made me think back to the last morning of our trip to Gambia and Senegal in January. We spent a brilliant few hours on Tanji beach watching Ospreys plucking fish from the sea, seemigly at will. Here’s the video diary we recorded that morning.
When it rains…
There is only word to describe today. Wet. Those volunteers and visitors brave enough to venture down to Waderscrape hide at Lyndon will vouch for the fact that conditions haven’t exactly been pleasant! It has certainly not been the sort of day you’d want to spend on an exposed nest in the middle of Rutland Water, but 5R and his mate have sat resolutely on the eggs all day. Here’s a video of the female incubating this afternoon, during a particularly heavy spell of rain.
The rain has relented once or twice, giving the birds a chance to change-over incubation duties. In this video the female takes over from 5R. Notice, in particular, how she curls her razor-sharp claws inwards to protect the eggs as she nestles down on them.
