First Time Camera Watchers put to the Test
This issue of our weekly update was aided by two new volunteer camera watchers while carrying out their first shifts for UVO. Luckily, both of them got to witness and log the details of special events on the nest this week!
Saturday 25th April started quietly with Clogwyn incubating. A breakfast fish was brought in at 07:04. Both birds were seen in turn eating on the nest perch. During the morning Syfaddan went collecting materials; a sod or two from a ploughed field across the valley for padding around the outside of the nest cup. From around 15:30 there was increasingly unsettled behaviour from Clogwyn, who did not seem to know where to put herself to be comfortable, repeatedly standing and repositioning, gular fluttering and splaying her wings as she incubated. Clogwyn laid what would be the last of her 3 egg clutch at 17:03. The timing and behaviours were noted by a first time watcher who also got to witness Syfaddan’s return to the nest with a fish at 17:35 and his first viewing of the third egg. Clogwyn was ready for a meal by this time and took the fish away to eat. Syfaddan readily and confidently took over incubation.
Clogwyn stands back and Syfaddan gets a first look at the 3rd egg in the nest
Sunday was a three fish day, the catches perhaps slightly smaller than those of the day before. At 09:00 Clogwyn was emitting disturbed calls and looking above her. Syfaddan too was bothered by something and left five minutes later. At 11:23 both birds were again calling and suggesting disturbance but on neither occasion was the source of their concern identified. Feeding breaks were taken off the nest during the day, with Clogwyn preferring the National Grid perch, with its close proximity to the nest, and Syfaddan opting to dine in the oak copse, when he wasn’t chasing corvids.
On Monday things seemed far more relaxed. Clogwyn went for a morning bath and returned to preen at the nest before taking over incubation again. There were some soft nest materials brought throughout the morning and then Syfaddan was absent, or just not visible from the towpath, for quite a while. He returned from upriver with a fish, which he took to the dead tree. This was the first fish of the day and yet surprisingly, at 15:41 when Syfaddan took Clogwyn’s portion to the nest, she still had not uttered any food soliciting calls.
Syfaddan brings a partially eaten fish
Tuesday was very much routine in as much as there was no evidence of distress or distraction for the pair, other than the usual visits by the neighbouring jackdaws. The first fish of the day at 08:46 was quite large and was passed back and forth between them until they had eaten it all. There was more material added to the nest and then at 15:32 a second, headless fish brought in for Clogwyn. She initially took it away but then returned to eat on the nest perch whilst Syfaddan nestled himself down on the eggs.
On Wednesday, Clogwyn spent some periods off the nest. During the morning she fed on the National Grid perch, collected some nesting material, took a bath and preened, and was seen from the towpath on some impressive flights, including chasing corvids close to the nest tree. Later in the day it was Syfaddan whose flying skills were put to the test, when he was spotted in pursuit of an intruding osprey which he joined some way upriver. Syfaddan forced the intruder downward a few times, remaining above it and eventually seeing it on its way. Later he was chasing another, larger osprey (so possibly female) racing past the nest tree to the big river bend and then back toward the canal, where Syfaddan peeled off and headed back to the nest leaving towpath watchers and visitors to catch their breath. Come teatime Clogwyn was distinctly restless on and off the nest in Syfaddan’s absence and calling. Eventually she briefly joined Syfaddan who was hot on the heals of two intruders over by the river but she returned to the nest and left him to it. Syfaddan brought an evening meal at 18:06, suggesting that peace was restored to the valley.
Blue 8B2 shows his leg rings as he drops down onto the nest
Thursday 30th April brought yet another intruder. But this time it touched down onto the nest, and crucially, it was identifiable. Clogwyn had looked up and around anxiously for about a minute and a half before emitting a disturbed call as a pair of long white legs bearing rings dangled down towards the nest. Clogwyn’s call and wing flapping were sufficient for him to take off again and a few seconds later Syfaddan arrived, also vocalising. He took off again shortly afterwards and osprey calls were heard faintly but unmistakably in the distance. This all happened very quickly indeed and was a real baptism of fire for the second new watcher on her first camera duty. The intruder was no stranger to the Usk Valley. It was Blue 8B2, who visited twice in 2025. This Welsh-born osprey has quite a back story and you can read about him in the weekly blog that covered his first visit. 9K5 week 7 of 21/7/25 ]
The moment their eyes met. Syfaddan and the grey squirrel as it leaps from the perch
Friday at 08:31 Syfaddan had a surprise when an unsuspecting grey squirrel leaped onto the nest from the nest perch. The squirrel was gone in a flash when faced with an angry adult osprey. In the afternoon, Clogwyn was suddenly alert, calling in alarm and flying from the nest. She circled high above it, calling repeatedly. Eventually she came to land on the cup camera, giving herself the best vantage point, and continued calling. But the source of her obvious distress remained unseen. Eventually she returned to the eggs and settled. At 18:20 Syfaddan brought a large, headless fish and all was well again.