2022
Mrs G safely returned from migration for the 19th year running on 26 March.
Just over two weeks later, and to everyone’s enormous relief, Aran returned to the Glaslyn nest on 10 April, in great shape and with no sign of the wing injury he sustained during the heartbreaking season of 2021.
But before that, as she waited for Aran’s return, Mrs G had spotted Z2/Aeron (Dyfi, 2017) returning to his nest at Pont Croesor on 31 March. She soon headed down the valley to join him.
A week later they were still together with Z2 providing Mrs G with daily fish and they were mating. It is not unusual to see this courtship behaviour in areas where ospreys breed close to one another, while they are waiting for their own partners to arrive. Basically, they are hedging their bets. If their own mates fail to arrive, they still have a chance of breeding success, which is their main priority.
Fortunately, on 11 April, the female Blue 014 (Poole Harbour,2018) returned to the Pont Croesor nest and evicted Mrs G. By the evening Mrs G was back on the Glaslyn nest with Aran!
The following day both males were hard at work bringing sticks and nesting material to their respective nests and providing fish for their females. Happily, the two pairs of breeding ospreys in the Glaslyn Valley were reunited.
Aran and Mrs G went on to produce three healthy male chicks, 497, 498 and 499. The eldest, 497 and Mrs G’s 50th chick was thought to be a female at ringing but months later in January 2023 when spotted in Senegal was judged to be a male from the size and colouring.
Mrs G was the first of the Glaslyn Osprey family to leave, last seen on 8 September and the following morning the two youngest Glaslyn juveniles began their journey south. Interestingly, the three remaining members of the Pont Croesor Osprey family were seen for the last time that same day. Aran and the eldest juvenile, Blue 497, remained at the nest site for a few more days. 497 was last seen on Tuesday 13 September and Aran was last seen on camera at the nest site the same day. However, he was then photographed on 15 September at a favourite fishing spot on the estuary.
We had learned, during the season, of the first of Aran’s offspring known to be breeding. Blue KS1, the middle chick of the 2018 brood, and was nesting at the Bolton Estate in North Yorkshire with her un-ringed mate. They successfully raised a male and female chick together at the first osprey nest in Yorkshire in modern times.
Over at the Pont Croesor nest Z2/Aeron and Blue 014 bred two healthy chicks.