Hey,
Now that the osprey season is more or less over we have decided to give you a rare insight into red squirrels. As some of you may have noticed the live web link that was on our osprey nest has now changed to one of our squirrel feeders at the David Marshall Lodge. These feeders are very popular with red squirrels with them visiting 10+ times a day, you may also be lucky enough to see a pine marten popping in for a quick snack (on peanuts of course!)
These feeders are all part of our conservation efforts to monitor the movement of the red and grey squirrels in the forest. Underneath the boxes are two pieces of sticky tape that collects hair samples from whatever is using the box. This allows us to keep an eye on how the red squirrel is doing and protect it from the bigger American grey squirrel.
Hopefully you will all enjoy this new live link and be able to spot some red squirrels!
Robert
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Friday, 10 June 2011
So near yet so far!
Hey Folks,
As most of you have now guessed the osprey nest has failed again for the 3rd year running. This is a great disappointment for us all here at the David Marshall Lodge and also many of you who have been following the ospreys closely this season.
This doesn't mean that all is not lost though, we are now hunting the forest high and low for new things to put cameras on and our new Swallow nest cam went in yesterday and will hopefully become stars of the show!
Wildlife Watch is still open and will be throughout the season so make sure that you pop in if you are close by!
As most of you have now guessed the osprey nest has failed again for the 3rd year running. This is a great disappointment for us all here at the David Marshall Lodge and also many of you who have been following the ospreys closely this season.
This doesn't mean that all is not lost though, we are now hunting the forest high and low for new things to put cameras on and our new Swallow nest cam went in yesterday and will hopefully become stars of the show!
Wildlife Watch is still open and will be throughout the season so make sure that you pop in if you are close by!
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Could this be the end?
Hi All,
As many of you will have seen on our new live web cam our female has not been on the nest incubating her three eggs for the last few days. This comes as a great disappointment to all of us here at the David Marshall Lodge as the eggs were due to start hatching yesterday.
We are still unsure of the reasons why the bird has stopped incubating her eggs, but we are fairly confident that it isn't disturbance as both male and female have been spotted on the nest. Unusually though the female is sitting on the side of the nest and every now and again she will touch one the eggs.
We are trying to say positive but things aren't looking very hopeful, but I will keep you all informed.
Robert
As many of you will have seen on our new live web cam our female has not been on the nest incubating her three eggs for the last few days. This comes as a great disappointment to all of us here at the David Marshall Lodge as the eggs were due to start hatching yesterday.
We are still unsure of the reasons why the bird has stopped incubating her eggs, but we are fairly confident that it isn't disturbance as both male and female have been spotted on the nest. Unusually though the female is sitting on the side of the nest and every now and again she will touch one the eggs.
We are trying to say positive but things aren't looking very hopeful, but I will keep you all informed.
Robert
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Live footage of the nest
UPDATE, 5.10pm - the camera is live from 10am - 5pm each day.
If you take a look at the right hand side of the blog you'll see that our images from the nest are no longer stills - we're now streaming live footage! These cracking pictures are being beamed directly from the osprey nest camera.
From 5pm this evening you can also view the nest camera on the main Aberfoyle ospreys website (www.forestry.gov.uk/aberfoyleospreys).
Enjoy!
If you take a look at the right hand side of the blog you'll see that our images from the nest are no longer stills - we're now streaming live footage! These cracking pictures are being beamed directly from the osprey nest camera.
From 5pm this evening you can also view the nest camera on the main Aberfoyle ospreys website (www.forestry.gov.uk/aberfoyleospreys).
Enjoy!
A bit battered but doing fine!
Just a quick update to say that after the hurricane strength winds on Monday I am happy to report that our osprey nest and ospreys both stood tight and battled against the winds. Our female is still incubating on the three egss which are due over the weekend. Our male is struggling to fish at the moment due to the ribbles that are being caused by the winds but he is being persistent, which is a good sign!
Monday, 23 May 2011
It must be love!
Well our ospreys are certainly experiencing the Scottish weather today with rain and high speed winds to tackle. It shouldn't be to long now before we start to see the first egg hatching, it will be 37 days on the 30th May ( a week today) since the first egg was laid.
I just thought that I would let you know about something that has been happening over the last few weeks on the nest that shows our new osprey pair are defiantly in love....
As with any other osprey pair its the male that is doing the fishing while the female is incubating the eggs on the nest. As we would expect the male is bringing the fish in headless having taken his share leaving the rest for the female. Usually what should happen is the female would fly away to eat the rest of the fish, while the male does a little incubation. But this is where our tale takes a twist!
Our female is flying off to perch on a nearby tree then bringing back some of the fish to give back to the male, kind of saying "Thanks I've had enough now would you like some more?"! How sweet :-)
P.S All 9 blue tit eggs hatched on Thursday and we currently still have 3 barn owl chicks, who are growing rather rapidly!
I just thought that I would let you know about something that has been happening over the last few weeks on the nest that shows our new osprey pair are defiantly in love....
As with any other osprey pair its the male that is doing the fishing while the female is incubating the eggs on the nest. As we would expect the male is bringing the fish in headless having taken his share leaving the rest for the female. Usually what should happen is the female would fly away to eat the rest of the fish, while the male does a little incubation. But this is where our tale takes a twist!
Our female is flying off to perch on a nearby tree then bringing back some of the fish to give back to the male, kind of saying "Thanks I've had enough now would you like some more?"! How sweet :-)
P.S All 9 blue tit eggs hatched on Thursday and we currently still have 3 barn owl chicks, who are growing rather rapidly!
Saturday, 30 April 2011
1st there was one, now there are three!!
Just to let you all know that our unringed female osprey laid her 3rd egg of the season on Thursday (28th).
If was a year ago this weekend that the nest site suffered from an invasion by another osprey (who is actually this years male) which resulted in the egg being kicked out of the nest. Fingers crossed this doesn't happen again.
Both male and female are taking on parental responsibility well, with the male bringing in both fish and taking his turn at incubating the eggs!
Don't forget you can watch all the action from the comfort of your home, thanks to our online webcam!
Robert
If was a year ago this weekend that the nest site suffered from an invasion by another osprey (who is actually this years male) which resulted in the egg being kicked out of the nest. Fingers crossed this doesn't happen again.
Both male and female are taking on parental responsibility well, with the male bringing in both fish and taking his turn at incubating the eggs!
Don't forget you can watch all the action from the comfort of your home, thanks to our online webcam!
Robert
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