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So long and thanks for all the fish!

Next Monday will be the last day of my contract as Wigtown Wildlife and Community Officer, so Ithought I had better sign off.

There will be a new contract advertised soon for 2012's RSPB Wildlife and Community Officer which is due to start in March.

2011 has been an interesting year for Wigtown and our ospreys:

It was the start of a trial period for the RSPB taking the lead role in the Wigtown Bay Ospreys partnership, and actively having a staff presence in the Wigtown Bay Visitor Centre to interpret the Ospreys, the new RSPB Crook of Baldoon nature reserve and the Wigtown Bay Local Nature Reserve. Despite a few teething issues it has prooved a useful and successful partnership for the RSPB, Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Wigtown community, and negotiations are afoot for a longer 5 year continuation. Hopefully this will give the partnership a bit more time to develop and the role of Wildlife and Community Officer to become really well established.

It was a difficult but successful year for our Ospreys too. Both EP and H/D returned and did what comes naturally, which resulted in a clutch of three eggs. Two of the eggs hatched successfully on the 23rd and 24th May, unfortunately the third egg must have become waterlogged which meant that the third chick spent over a day trying to break free from the thickened egg membrane, and when it finally did on the evening of the 26th May it was so exhausted that it could barely lift it's own head. I have studied the following days footage and it only ever got one scrap of fish on the following day because it was just too weak to sit up and lift it's head to beg for food, let alone compete with it's siblings for food. It was never seen again on the CCTV footage after the 27th and was presumed to have died shortly after, although this could not be seen due to vegetation blocking the view of the camera.

The two remaining chicks grew well and fast, and were ringed by Andrew Bielinski and Ciril Ostroznik on the 1st of July. I was very lucky to be present during the ringing and got  hold the chicks during the process. The chicks were given blue Darvic rings with the white letters JC and JD whcih became the chicks only names. JC was thought to be the youngest and was the heavier of the two leading us to believe she was female. JD was slightly smaller and lighter which led us to believe he was male, he was also thought to be the first chick to hatch.

After the ringing  both JC and JD continued to grow well, with JD being the most adventurous and dominant. He took his first flight on the 15th July aged 52days, which is average for a male chick who tend to develop quicker and fly first due to being smaller and lighter. JC didn't seem to show a lot of intertest in even exploring let alone wing exercising at first, but she was ready to make her maiden flight on the 19th July aged 55 days, again average for a female chick.

Unfortunately JC went missing just three days after fledging, and was last seen on the 22nd July. Despite searches around the nest area and a "missing" article in the local press, no definate evidence was ever recovered of what happened to her. The closest we got was a report from the crew of a boat sailing in Wigtown Bay at the time she went missing who saw a large brown bird floating dead in the water amongst storm generated flotsam. We assume that this was JC who probably got caught out in the storm and drowned in the sea.

JD however remained at the nest until the 25th August which was the last date that both he and H/D were seen at the nest. We assume that all three of our remaining Wigtown Bay Ospreys set off on their independent migrations at this time, which was fortunate becas.use subsequent bad weather in Dumfries and Galloway seemed to delay the departure of the some of the birds from NTS Threave and WWT Caerlaverock.

Let's hope that H/D and EP both had safe migrations to Africa and return safely back to Wigtown Bay in late March, and who knows perhaps JD as a male chick may return to Dumfries and Galloway to set up territory himself in a few years...

So anyway back to my goodbyes, it's been a good year and I've enjoyed the post. I've made new friends and created new osprey followers and had the chance to renew links with some old friends from my time with the Glaslyn Ospreys in 2005.

Who know's what 2012 will bring for me, hopefully a chance to continue with some more practical conservation work which is my main passion, but there's every chance that I may return to ospreys if not next year then some time in the future because they really are remarkable birds.

And 2012 should be an exciting year for osprey followers in Dumfries and Galloway and nation wide: staff from WWT Caerlaverock's Ospreys; NTS Threave Ospreys and from RSPB and Dumfries and Galloway Council hope to host a national Osprey Festival across all three D&G Osprey sites on the 28-29th July. More details to follow in the New Year....

So in the words of of Douglas Adams, here's good bye from Ian Brown, "So long and thanks for all the fish!"