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Recent Events

September

Now that September has arrived, everyone at Ospreys are Back In Galloway is patiently awaiting the departure of H/D, our adult female. She has still been seen at the nest site although she is spending more and more time away. This is the latest date that H/D has still been seen on the nest; in previous years she would have started her migration to West Africa. Her delay in departing may be due to her three chicks not hatching until June or she may just be building up her strength for the journey that lies ahead, a distance of over 3000 miles. H/D still has feathers missing on her right wing from the time she was absent for 40 hours at the end of May. This may be a good additional identification feature along with her Darvic ring allowing us to follow her migration south. Once we know that she is on her way we are asking osprey watchers to look out for an osprey with a gap in its right wing, it could be H/D, if you can get a picture of it flying please send it to the "Ospreys are back in Galloway" .

EP, the adult male, and our three chicks will follow on later, possibly as late as the end of September. As it is EP's first time as a parent so it will be interesting to observe his behaviour with the chicks and the order that they leave in. Usually the chicks go first, one by one and the male last. Until then our three chicks are busy coming and going from the nest site. We have not had any conclusive evidence that they have caught their first fish yet and EP is not exactly encouraging them by delivering fresh fish to the nest! However it is an enjoyable sight to watch as the chicks 'tug of war' over the fish with the winner mantling over the prize. Sharing is not an option and they will often fly off to another perching site nearby to devour their meal. There is still lots of activity to keep our interest until the end of the month and you might be the last person to see one of the ospreys before it begins it’s migration, lets hope that they all make it safely to Africa and back again so that we can see them again here in Galloway. Let us know if you think that you see H/D! - or any of the others, of course. On Friday 5th, we saw BA, but since then we have had no further sightings of our ospreys, apart from a brief sighting of H/D on Monday 8th. Bon Voyage to the Galloway ospreys, we look forward to the return of H/D and EP next March, and hope we will see BA, BB, and 08 in 2 or 3 years time, when they will be fully mature adults, ready to breed.