This morning started with an empty nest but was soon filled by a fourth bird; an unringed osprey, which we thought was a male due to its very light markings. In a tree behind was a green ringed bird which we thought was the same one as yesterdays, which looked female due to a very brown chest patch. Then lo and behold, green ring flew down to the nest and landed on top of the unringed bird! Obviously identification by chest patches alone is not to be relied upon. Lol!
The unringed female was very receptive to advances with submissive posturing but poor green ring seemed out of his depth and tried to mate with her head! Then he landed beside her on the nest and adopted the mating posture of retracted talons and flat legs, with us thinking "but you have to get on top of her first!" Subsequent mating attempts proved just as bad with him approaching the female sideways and this remained the status for the rest of the day. He tried many times but no successful mating attempts occurred.
It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
2 comments:
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when is the webcam going live ?
ReplyDeleteMartin
Martin - we are working to get the cameras live as soon as we can, not just for Aberfoyle but for Huntly Peregrines and the ospreys at Glentress too. We'll post an update as soon as they're ready.
ReplyDelete