PARENTAL COMMITMENT & CHICK STATISTICS

Clogwyn feeds her chicks while Syfaddan tidies

The devotion and hard-working efforts of both Clogwyn and Syfaddan continue to impress! As the demands of two growing chicks increase daily they are always working for them.

Syfaddan is now delivering 5-7 fresh fish daily – more of these are provided live and flapping, perhaps an illustration of the extra pressure he feels. The great majority once again are trout. His mate is still there on the nest to take deliveries and feed the chicks. Both chicks are showing signs of feeding for themselves but as yet are unable to do so effectively.

Syfaddan is also watchful to remove part-eaten fish from the nest as appetites become satisfied. It is due to the diligence and reporting of the UVO Camera Watchers that we can observe Syfaddan's careful 'no waste' policy should a portion of fish leave the nest. He will often retrieve it several more times until it is completely used up. Nothing gets wasted, that is for sure. The Field Watchers on the towpath too are equally watchful to check where Syfaddan is perching up between bouts of fishing and how he gives chase to any osprey intruder that dares to enter the territory. One such occasion was late in the day on 3rd July when a ringed intruder was present close by but insufficiently close to read its number. This intruder may have been the third osprey in flight over the valley during the morning of 4th when a climber and licensed team of ringers accessed the nest. Prior to their arrival into the nest field the livestream cameras were turned off to allow all team members to concentrate on the task in hand.

In a swift operation where both human safety and osprey welfare are of over-riding importance the tree was climbed and the two chicks easily gathered. The chicks by instinct lay flat onto the nest as the female left the nest on sight of an advancing ringing team – if you are a viewer of the UVO livestream you would have noticed this with other disturbance events eg. intruder ospreys overhead.

Both chicks together, side by side, were lowered to the ground by rope in a secured bag. The ground team took over to place a metal uniquely-numbered BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) ring on each left leg, and a unique blue plastic distance-readable ring on each right leg. That is standard practice for the ringing of osprey chicks in England and Wales; in Scotland the plastic ring is attached to the left leg thereby providing at least an instant indication of natal country of origin within the UK.

Once the rings are applied, again, standard practice is adopted to measure part of the wingspan (elbow to longest primary feather wing-tip) and to weigh each chick. These measurements, in tandem with their known ages from the hatching sequence, give an estimation of gender:

Chick 1 (age 37 days) colour ringed 0U0 – wing-measurement of 348mms and weight of 1820 grammes.

Chick 2 (age 34 days) colour ringed 0U1 – wing-measurement of 308 mms and weight of 1750 grammes.

These measurements indicate the strong likelihood that both chicks are female. However, while this year the ringing team are pretty confident that this is the case, they would like to remind everyone that this is not 100% reliable and is unlikely to be conclusively proven until either or both birds return and find themselves breeding territories from 2028 or later. It is UVO practice not to name chicks – only un-ringed adults are named once any pair decides to nest in the Usk Valley.

The newly-ringed OU0 and OU1

While this work was ongoing the climber above stayed in the tree and undertook several tasks which included giving the cup-camera lens a wipe to clear off all remnants of the recent chick poo incident.

The chicks were then safely raised back up to the nest, and the climber and ground team retreated from the field. In doing so, security cameras around the tree were set to ‘live’ again and livestream viewing was restored, all within 80 minutes. Clogwyn was back on the nest shortly afterwards. Syfaddan was also present overhead throughout aside a brief period where he escorted an intruding osprey away from the nest area.

Normal service resumed