Our Ospreys

So I realise I’ve wrote a blog on this but I thought it more appropriate to dedicate a whole page to them.

In this section I will try and describe our ospreys and what they mean to me.

Dai Dot

Dai Dot

Dai hovering while looking for dinner photo credit Jean Dovey

Length of time here: 2014 – 2016

Sex: Male

Number of known offspring to date: 5 – 2 males and 3 females.

“was that an osprey?”

I first saw Dai Dot in 2013. It happened completely out of the blue! I was standing talking to a colleague up at a well used mobile phone hotspot (when you work in a forest, knowledge of these hotspot locations are vital) when this large bird of prey flew straight over us from behind us. It dropped down below us towards where the nest is now. We both looked at each other and asked the same question “was that an osprey?”

After that it really had captured my total interest and every day I kept a look out for this bird. At this point in time I knew next to nothing about them. The only thing I knew is what they look like and that they ate fish! I kept an eye out every time I was in that area just in case I saw him again. I did see him a few times usually sat in an old dead tree not far from where I first spotted him.

Then one day I drove past that tree and there was not one but two ospreys sat there! I now knew something could be happening here. I then got in touch with the Dyfi Osprey Project and told them about what I had seen. They seemed very interested and I invited them to come and meet me and Rhys on site. Unfortunately the osprey didn’t play ball and weren’t there when we met. But the meeting was very useful. They seemed pretty confident we could have a breeding pair here next year and so it began!

Delyth

Length of time here: 2014 – 2019

Sex: Female

Number of known offspring to date: 15 – 6 Male and 9 Females.

Delyth or Seren?

Delyth arrived here in 2014 and she could well have been the other osprey seen with Dai Dot in 2013 but we can’t be sure of this.

Although she is known as Delyth to me, to others she may be known as Seren and that’s because we believe that there is a strong chance that Delyth is the female who for a while was in charge of the Dyfi nest. At that point she gained the name Seren.

Here is Emyr’s blog about Seren in 2013.

http://www.dyfiospreyproject.com/blog/emyr-evans/2013/04/26/seren

Seren (left) Delyth (right) underwing pattern comparison.

The possibility that these two birds could be the same one came after a chat I had with Janine one day at the DOP. I went home and looked at all my photos and tried to compare them. My thoughts were that they are nearly identical and very likely to be the same.

In 2016 Delyth managed to do something which doesn’t happen very often, which was to lay a second clutch after the ousting of Dai Dot. We obviously don’t know how many eggs Delyth was sitting on before Dylan took over but she was definitely showing signs of incubation which means there was at least one egg. What I do know is that she laid another 3 eggs which were fathered by Dylan. They also successfully hatched and fledged.

Delyth Mother of fifteen ospreys to date, is she a grandmother yet? I would like to think so but very unlikely. Delyth is a very determined female and a great mother protecting her young through some very foul weather and we definitely have plenty of that. Also by not giving up on her chances to successfully raise young, after suffering major setbacks. I think makes Delyth a contender for a Super osprey title surely?

Dylan

Dylan – photo credit Jean Dovey

Length of time here: 2016 – Present day

Sex: Male

Known offspring to date: 17 – 12 male and 5 females.

“The laziest osprey i’ve ever seen!”

Dylan arrived in such a style that left me unsure whether people would like him or not. Let’s face it, he ousted a very popular character in Dai Dot who had been known to thousands of osprey watchers from around the world. He would have to be some special osprey to change people’s mind about him.

Well I think he is! He is very different from Dai Dot, he is much paler. He shares some of Dai’s habits but not all which really frustrates many of the regular osprey watchers here. He tends to spend much of his time away from the nest out of sight from the hide. Which I must admit does give me some unsettling times but I just have to trust in the ospreys and remember that they know best what they want. One regular visitor calls him “the laziest osprey I’ve ever seen!” which annoys me a little but I laugh it off and tell him that he isn’t so bad at all. I have to remind people that he is a different bird to Dai Dot and that he has different habits and different preferences.

Ultimately he isn’t as bad as some would think and he is just doing what ospreys all over the world do. I’ll leave you with a few more photos of Dylan.

5F

Length of time here: 2020 to present day.

Sex: Female

Known offspring to date: 7 – 6 Males, 1 female

5F was first seen here on the 1st of April. With lots of activity in the beginning with both Blue 24 and Tegid Z1 (a 2016 dyfi male) all spending a brief amount of time here before Dylan arrived on the 4th of April.

5F is from Rutland nest K originally, born in 2012 from parents Red 08 (m) and Yellow 30 (f). 5F has been seen in Wales for the last few years spending the majority of her time in North Wales on the Pont Croeso platform.

In 2018 she formed a polygamous pairing with the male from the Glaslyn nest Aran. She laid 3 eggs in the Pont Croeso nest unfortunately the male concentrated his efforts on providing for his main nest and didn’t feed 5F at all. So she had to hunt for her self which left her eggs exposed to predators, and the elements. Unfortunately these eggs failed to hatch. Last year she spent a lot of time with the young Dyfi male Tegid (Z1) also at the Pont Croeso (near Glaslyn) nest. It was thought that they may of returned there in 2020 and attempt to breed there. But 5F had other plans.

5F is well followed, to the point we know the exact area in Gambia that she goes to each winter. Chris Wood who volunteers at the Rutland osprey project, has been following her for atleast 7 years to Tanji Marsh in the Gambia.

5F in Gambia (credit to Chris Wood)