A slow start to the osprey season

Blue XD got home late afternoon yesterday and immediately started to visit his regular fishing sites and this morning gave a call to Loch Garten, where the old pair EJ and Odin are resident. It’s a late season for ospreys and yesterday and today I’ve visited 12 nest sites in Moray and found ospreys at just 5 of them, so there are still lots of ospreys on migration. It’s much the same for other summer migrants – two sand martins at the colony near my home but not much else on the move.  With this weather it should pick up quickly  -I plan to monitor all the other nests in Badenoch & Strathspey tomorrow and it will be interesting to see who is back. Last evening I monitored Beatrice’s nest and found that she had driven off the new female but retained the new male.  May be he will be chased off as well if and when Beatrice’s last year’s mate returns. It’s a chancy business looking for a place to breed in the osprey world, when local populations are full.

Beatrice seeing off buzzard from her nest site

Beatrice seeing off buzzard from her nest site