DML celebrates Osprey's return



The live Osprey nest viewing room
at David Marshall Lodge


A special event to celebrate the Osprey's Return was held at David Marshall Lodge last Saturday (21st April). Over 100 people made their way to The Lodge to take part in the day.

Experts were on hand to answer questions and provide information about ospreys, whilst our visitors enjoyed a range of activities and competitions including the Osprey Migration Game, Osprey Fishing Challenge, Osprey themed crafts and the Osprey Challenge.

Winner of the Osprey Challenge on the day was Evie Yanik-Corbelt who won a copy of Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis.

The day gave our Osprey fans a chance to find out more about these facsinating birds of prey and given the recent activity in and around our nest sites so far, we are hopeful of a successful 2012 season.

Osprey's return for 2012 Season!

As many of you may have read the Aberfoyle Osprey season is just about to begin. This year for the first time ever we are showing three live nests, two of which are being shown through HD. We have already had ospreys on all three nests and signs of attempted mating between pairs.

On nest site 1 (the nest that we have shown in previous years) we have already seen the return of Red 6A (our female from 2006 - 2010) who failed to return to the nest at the beginning of the 2011 season, but was seen on site later in the year. She seems to have been joined by a metal ringed male, whom we presume is the infamous male from the last few years.

For those of you that want to follow the action minute by minute we will be tweeting @aberfoyleosprey and also Facebooking at www.facebook.com/aberfoyleospreys. We are also hoping to get the webcam link up and running this week, sorry for the delay in this :-)

Other sightings and live cameras currently on show at the David Marshall Lodge Visitor Centre include Barn Owls, Red Squirrels and for the last few weeks we have been catching a glimpse of a Pine Marten, but we are keeping our eyes fixed on the osprey nests as another season at Aberfoyle begins!

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!

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!

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

Web cam up and running!

Just to let you all know that you can now watch the happenings of the Aberfoyle ospreys from the comfort of your home. Our online web cam is know up and running meaning up can keep up to date with the ospreys throughout the season. The camera will take a picture of the nest every 2 minutes between the hours of 10am and 5pm. These will automatically upload to the web page.

These images can be viewed at: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/forestry.nsf/byunique/infd-72ufv3

We are hoping that our female will be laying eggs soon, she has been showing signs over the last few days, so fingers crossed not long now!

Lights, camera, action!

It's that time of year again! Our Osprey cameras are back up and running. Hurray! I have to admit that it brought back a lot of memories from last year when I saw the nest on camera today - Red 6A, Green DX, the intruder metal ringed bird, our change of nests half way through the season, Ozzy, Jemima and Fred and the many fish! I wonder what they have in store for us this year?

We are still awaiting on the arrival of our ospreys (as some of you will know, EJ from Loch Garten has already returned) but hopefully this should be within the next week. The David Marshall Lodge is now fully open so put down your newspapers, finish the housework and pop in and see how we are getting on.

Most of our other live cameras are up and running too, including our Barn Owl Box, where our female is currently sat on 5 eggs!

Winter Hits the Lodge!

The David Marshall Lodge has been hit by the recent Big Freeze, as have many parts of the UK; because of this the Lodge has been closed for many days. The good news is that we are now open!

Wildlife Watch currently has live cameras on Red Squirrels, Bird Feeders and recorded footage of the 2010 ospreys season, plus many other recordings of different species that you might find in the forest e.g. Pine Marten, Peregrine and Barn Owls!

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one with Christmas Tree sales, Christmas crafts and the Rockin' Robin trail, so why not pop up and join in the fun!

Gearing up for the season

As you might have seen from our counterparts' blog at Tweed Valley, it's osprey breeding season once again.  Unlike Tweed Valley, though, here at Aberfoyle, we're still waiting for the birds to return to their nest.

The good news is that ospreys have been spotted close by, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that they'll soon be back on camera.

At David Marshall Lodge, the viewing room is open (10.00am - 5.00pm 7days) and the cameras are on - but at the moment, the only birds on view are the tits, busying themeselves in their nest box. 

Our other cameras feature tawny and barn owl nests, a bird feeder, and of course the osprey nest.

This year we're welcoming a new interpretation officer, Robert, who will be keeping us up to speed with what's going on throughout the season.

We'll be bringing you updates on the blog, but you can also sign up to our Twitter feed to get news too: http://www.twitter.com/fcscotland.

We hope to see you at David Marshall Lodge but if you can't visit, we'll try to keep you involved with our posts here.

Web cam live at last

We've now got the web cam up and running, both here (on the right of the page) and a larger version on the main Aberfoyle Ospreys pages at http://www.forestry.gov.uk/aberfoyleospreys.

The camera is live from 10.00am to 5.00pm every day. It shows stills from the nest updated every couple of minutes, rather than a live stream, but it gives you a taste of what's going on.