Osprey Update 07/06:
The pair have been sitting tight on the nest over the past week with the male bringing fish to the female. Male ospreys do share incubation duties although the female will do the bigger share, sitting for around 70% of the time.
The Threave Osprey Platform is obviously a very sought after piece of opsrey real estate. As this picture from Ken Russell shows. Ken took the shot down from the platform on 01/06 and tells us that the a pair of ospreys arrived and were showing a lot of interest in the nest. It took the male a good 8 minutes to see them off, while the female sat tight on the nest looking after her eggs. If you look closely at the photo you can just see the head of the bird on the nest.
Have you any idea when the eggs were laid ? Incubation is 35 to 42 days so this is going to be a very late brood.
ReplyDeleteWe believe that the eggs were laid around the 27th May. It is indeed a late brood but hopefully considering that opsreys as a species are present on every continent but Antarctica, this would indicate that they are quite an adaptive species and should be able to successfully raise a late brood. The problem may arise when the young birds leave for their migration. As they would not have built up quite as much of their reserves by the time they would normally leave this may make the migration difficult for them. They may however stay longer but then would be likely to come across less favourable weather. It will be interesting to see what will happen because as they have proved so far nature doesn't always stick to the rules.
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