June 28, 2006
Loch Garten Ospreys
Nest Update: I have a long post tonight, so please bear with me and we’ll get to all the good stuff. First, we’re trying to break out of a vicious rain spell that is causing serious problems throughout Maryland. Some areas have received almost a foot of rain in the last several days. Government buildings are closed in Wash., DC, many roads have been washed out in the county where Blackwater is located, and in my home area, several thousand people have been evacuated because of a possible dam breach. So the weather is a real issue for everyone.
The weather forecasters say it should get better in the next couple days and clear up so we can dry out. From what we can tell, the osprey family is doing well, but we have noticed quite a few feeding sessions where the three oldest chicks are mobbing the food, and the youngest is being forced to stay back, mainly because one of the older chicks is intimidating him. It’s possible the father osprey has been hampered by waterlogged wings and poor fishing conditions with the heavy rain, and there might be some hunger tension in the nest.
We have seen the youngest getting fed, but he has to wait. The other day I saw one session where the youngest had been bullied into a corner, and both parents were feeding the young. The mother finished first, then she promptly hopped over to the father and took away his remaining fish, then she fed some to the youngest and also ate some herself. So we’re hoping that as the weather improves, this tension might ease a bit. Something else that will help is when the youngest chick gets a bit bigger -- and closer to the other chicks’ size -- then he won’t be so easy to intimidate. As we can see, since the oldest three have gotten closer in size, the squabbling between them has diminished.
At this point, we’re waiting to start our Chick-Naming Contest. There is some discussion going on as to how we want to run it this year with four chicks to name. Also, I had planned to go to the Refuge this weekend to capture some video of the chicks, but I think I’ll wait until next weekend because of the weather. Finally, we'll update the Gallery in the next few days.
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In this web log post, we have a special treat for all our osprey fans. Helen Wycherley is one of the Voluntary Wardens at the Osprey Centre at Loch Garten in Scotland, and she has been kind enough to share an account of her experiences as a volunteer with the famous Operation Osprey.
Ospreys are very special birds to the people of Britain because egg collecting and hunting had once driven the raptors to extinction there, but now they are coming back. At this time it’s believed that there are around 160 pairs of ospreys in the United Kingdom, but the revival of ospreys has not been easy, and the achievement is largely due to people like Helen who volunteer their time to look after the ospreys and to ensure that they have every chance to re-establish a healthy breeding population.
Loch Garten was the first place in Britain where ospreys made their official comeback after it was believed they were extinct (there is currently some controversy about whether they were completely extinct or whether a couple osprey pairs had remained in isolated areas; but if so, they were in very small numbers).
Henry and EJ are the current osprey couple on the Loch Garten Osprey Cam, and their entertaining exploits over the last few years read like a human soap opera. To give one example: Last year, Henry returned late from migration, and showed up with oil on his feathers. Watchers assumed he might have been blown out to sea in heavy winds and landed on a ship or oil rig to rest. But EJ had already mated with another male and was incubating the new male’s eggs. Henry showed up at Loch Garten, drove off the other male, and then promptly kicked all the eggs out of the nest since he “knew” they were not his! They really are a colorful pair of birds.
So please join us as Helen describes the beautiful area of Loch Garten and her interesting duties as a member of Operation Osprey. (And please click on the thumbnail photos to see the larger versions.)
Loch Garten and Operation Osprey
by Helen Wycherley
In 19th century Britain, ospreys were persecuted into extinction by egg collectors and hunters. It is thought that the last pair bred in England in the 1840s and the last pair in Scotland in 1916. After that, no pairs were known to breed, although ospreys were seen on migration sometimes on their way north to Scandinavia. Thankfully in 1954, a pair decided to breed in Strathspey, Scottish Highlands, rather than continue on to Scandinavia. But after a couple of years of no additional young -- often due to continued egg-collection -- George Waterston of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) (which is the British equivalent of the Audubon Society) made the brave and visionary decision in 1959 to open the nest to public viewing in order to create support for the birds, and in that first year 14,000 people came to see the nesting ospreys.
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In those days, the blind was a Romany caravan, and people had to queue to go inside one at a time. A round-the-clock vigil was organised to safeguard the nesting birds from egg thieves [osprey eggs have been called the handsomest of hawks’ eggs]. Volunteers would brave the cold and camp in tents, in the sub-zero temperatures of a Scottish winter, to ensure the safety of the birds.
Back then there were no mobile phones, so lengths of string were fed back to others through the woods so that if anything happened, a couple of sharp tugs would have the cavalry arriving! Thankfully, we are now in the modern era, and such rudimentary techniques are no longer needed, but it was the dedication of this army of volunteers that enabled the osprey to return to Britain and be successful again.
So for my part, I packed my bags, and like many of my predecessors, started my annual migration northwards to Scotland and Strathspey. This is a beautiful valley, lined by the Caledonian Forest and nestled at the edge of the Cairngorm Mountains, with the River Spey winding its way through the strath pass lochs and lochans. Operation Osprey takes place in the heart of this landscape at Loch Garten, which is part of the Abernethy Forest nature reserve. The Romany caravan has long since been replaced by a purpose-built Osprey Centre made from locally sourced timber from the sustainably managed forest of Abernethy.
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In April the temperatures here are known to plummet to -15°C or 5°F, and this Easter was witness to blizzards, so you have to be prepared! Osprey watching is a game of sitting and waiting, so wearing enough layers to warrant auditioning for the “Pillsbury Dough-boy” is just fine! The volunteers appear to shed pounds when they return off duty! There is a definite fashion when it comes to hats, too. Do you go for the Sherlock Holmes deer-stalker complete with ear-flaps, the traditional bobble hat, or a funky affair? It’s a tough decision!!!
As a volunteer my duties are really quite varied. There are three teams of two volunteers, and between them twenty-four hours in the day are covered, seven days a week from before the osprey return, until after they depart. The rotation was allegedly created in the 1960s, but the amazing thing is…it still works. Each day there are four shifts, 8am - 1pm, 1pm - 6pm, 6pm - 10pm, and 10pm - 8am. The minimum stay is one week, and the maximum is two weeks as up to one hundred volunteers want to take part in Operation Osprey each season.
So depending on your shift, there are always hours in the day to call your own and do other things. The side-trip options are endless and include the “Walkers” shortcake biscuit factory, the Malt Whiskey Trail, a round of golf at Nethybridge or Carrbridge, a steam train ride to the real Harry Potter “Hogwarts” station, or a trip up the funicular train to the top of Cairngorm Mountain. The great outdoors can deliver as well, with red deer herds, cheeky red squirrels, majestic golden eagle, Scottish crossbills, crested tits, goldeneye, snow bunting, ptarmigan, red grouse, great northern loon, king eider and of course the largest grouse, the capercaillie. All of these are on the doorstep of Loch Garten as the Osprey Centre is situated in the middle of the Abernethy Forest, an enormous reserve covering 33,400 acres (13,500 hectares) which stretches from the tree-lined valley floor to the montane high plateaux of the Cairngorms.
Personally, I go for the company of “my” ospreys.
When you are on duty, you sit in a blind that is seventy-five yards nearer to the osprey nest than the Centre, and is the nerve-centre of Operation Osprey….the hallowed turf of the “Forward Hide.” To the uninitiated it’s a glorified shed in the woods; to the select few, it’s a place in paradise.
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It is here that all of the duties are carried out. We watch in relative comfort compared to the old-times, for we have a gas fire, a gas hob for brewing that all important coffee, and the TV monitor! And of course the infamous volunteers’ biscuit tin! The ospreys sit about 200 yards in front of you, relatively oblivious to the fact that we are there, though I know from experience that a good loud sneeze will earn you the osprey equivalent of a “hard stare”!!!!
Just you, the ospreys, and the mountains… perfect.
The Loch Garten ospreys are the most studied pair in the world, and the volunteers play a crucial role in this. We record all the movements they make! Oh and I mean “every” movement! Be it flying off to get a fish… what time, which direction! Or coming back with one…what time, from which direction, what sort of fish, how big was it, did it have a head! To even mating… how many times a day, at what times, and were they successful! The poor birds -- I often feel as if I am a judge at the Olympics and should be holding a card up with 8/10 on it!!!! They really do get no privacy!
If we are inclined, we can also help out the RSPB staff in the Osprey Centre. Up to 40,000 visitors each year come to see the world famous ospreys, and have included many famous faces. The visitors are treated to glorious views of the nest, the ospreys’ favourite perches, and a bank of TV monitors relaying live images from cameras to the Centre. Many visitors have never seen ospreys before, so explaining the life and times of our pair to them can be enlightening and cause a lot of laughter! The current pair “Henry and EJ” have been here for 4 years, and their story is enough to beat the plot of Dallas or Dynasty! The details can be found at the Osprey Diaries website.
There is even a live feed every sixty seconds to the Internet, so if you want to follow Henry and EJ’s story for 2006, go to the current diary.
If we are on night duty, then we get the privilege to spend the night with the ospreys in the woods. It is magnificent, and most volunteers see it as the most wonderful privilege rather than a duty. There is a bunk if you fancy a kip (although warm sleeping bags are needed in March!) and mosi-coils for the summer when the midge wakes up out of its winter slumber! The Scottish midge (Culicoides impunctatus – or the Highland Biting Midge) is ten times smaller than the mosquito, but probably even more annoying!
In the spring, the morning brings the capercaillie out to lek [meeting of males for a competitive mating display], and visitors to the Osprey Centre between 5.30am and 8am can witness the magnificent display of these “turkey-sized” grouse. In the summer, Henry may even wake you up with his early morning display, a high pitched “peep-peep-peep” accompanied by the roller-coaster “sky-dance”. You’ll certainly hear him, but as he does this at 3am or 4am, you’ll be very lucky to witness the flight as its dark! In the summer, the volunteers appear smaller too, as they have almost certainly ditched the thermal underwear, and are now found in t-shirts positively basking in the sunshine!
In the evening, walks down to the Loch may be rewarded with views of otters playing on the banks, and sometimes roe deer come to within 10 yards or so of the Forward Hide. Red squirrels are frequently heard dropping pine cones on the roof, or if you are really, really lucky, it’ll be the Scottish crossbill!
When not on duty, the volunteers relax in the chalets, Swiss-style cottages with steep-sided roofs to repel the snow. Each team of two shares the same chalet, and you can meet people and make friends which will last a lifetime. People come from all walks of life (electricians, radiographers, artists, students, teachers, or retired), are aged eighteen to eighty (or so!), and come from all over the world. But they all have things in common: a love for the great outdoors, a passion for wildlife, and the need to conserve the osprey for everyone.
Two million people have visited the Osprey Centre, and enjoyed the wonders of these birds at close hand. The good news is that thanks to the volunteers of Operation Osprey, the nest at Loch Garten has not been robbed since the early 1970s. The dedicated Operation Osprey volunteers, and enthusiastic RSPB staff, continue to ensure that the legacy of osprey breeding at Loch Garten will continue for many generations.
If you want more information regarding volunteering at Operation Osprey at Loch Garten, please visit the Loch Garten RSPB website. And if you are interested in other opportunities to volunteer for the RSPB please visit the general RSPB website.
If you require further information on any volunteering issue for the RSPB, please contact the volunteer coordinator via email at:
volunteers@rspb.org.uk
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Much thanks to Helen for sharing her wonderful account with us. And a big thanks to all those in Britain who work so hard to ensure that the ospreys will never vanish again.
Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
(contact)