OSPREY RETURN BRINGS DELIGHT
Nesting pair back after 3,000-mile migration
A MAGNIFICENT bird of prey again completed an incredible 3,000-mile migration from west Africa to North Wales.
The male osprey, named Aran, arrived at the Glaslyn Osprey nest for the breeding season to join his partner, Mrs G.
It was the 15th time the female osprey, Mrs G, has arrived. Her arrival delighted the community-led wildlife Charity, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife (BGGW) who operate a visitor centre at Pont Croesor near Porthmadog.
Meanwhile ospreys have also been spotted arriving back at the Dyfi Project site near Machynlleth and in the Clywedog area of Montgomeryshire.
Glaslyn Centre manager, Heather Corfield said: “Mrs G landed shortly after 2pm on Easter Sunday and immediately chased away another female osprey that had regularly visited the nest during the previous week.
“There was a huge cheer from visitors and volunteers when they realised that the osprey on the nest was Mrs G. She was several days later returning from her wintering grounds to the Glaslyn Valley than in recent years, and there were concerns that she may have come to grief.
“However, she wasted no time in proving that she was in great condition, and quickly went on a fishing excursion returning within 20 minutes with a flatfish.”
Mrs G and the volunteers waited for four more days before her male partner, Aran, landed with a thump on the nest.
The female osprey was first discovered breeding at the Glaslyn nest in 2004 and to date has hatched 37 live chicks, 33 of whom have fledged the nest.
Five of her offspring are known to be breeding elsewhere in the UK and she is known to have 62 “grand chicks”.
The male osprey, Aran, joined Mrs G in 2015 when the original male failed to return from his winter migration.
At Machynlleth Monty, the male osprey, arrived at the nesting site last week and staff at the project are awaiting the arrival of Glesni, his partner.
Emyr Evans, the project manager, said the male osprey was spotted last Wednesday.
He said: “We saw an osprey flying down the Dyfi estuary earlier in the day and wondered if it was him. Then another bird landed on the Dyfi nest but was only there a few seconds and was gone.
“In the afternoon came the confirmation that Monty had been spotted on the nest. He didn’t hang around long. Ten minutes later he flew down to the Glandyfi bend of the river and after some serious mobbing by crows and a black-backed gull, he caught a flounder.
“He took it to the grassy bank of the Dyfi to eat it on the ground.”