Empty nest

This is the image from the Aberfoyle Osprey nest. There's something badly wrong with this picture, and it's the fact that there is no bird sitting there. The first chick was due to hatch by now, and we should be seeing an attentive mother bird protecting a tiny chick from the elements and a proud dad coming in with fish.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the female seems to have abandoned the nest, and there is no clue as to why. There have been intruders, but not to the extent that it would cause her to leave the nest. She'd been taking leaves of absence which had made everyone watching nervous, but now seems to have left it completely. Due to the chilly weather and wind, it's almost certain that the un-hatched chicks will have died.

It's very, very sad. This is the third year running that this nest has failed, with different birds.

From a visual point of view, the staff at Aberfoyle will set up a camera at a back-up nest which will hopefully have chicks hatching out for people to see, but it is a mystery as to why this particular nest has suffered three consecutive years of failure. It's also perhaps a reminder that nature is pretty damned cruel, and how precarious the lives and success of the osprey in Scotland is.

Sunshine

And yet another gloriously sunny day :-)

If you're reading this from a country that habitually gets good spells of sun, and has a proper "Summer" then I can only urge you to think about everything you've ever read about Scotland's weather - which is all true, by the way - and then imagine how wonderful this warm sunny weather is for us and why I feel the need to talk about it every blog entry!

So today is a Bank Holiday and that meant D was off work too. Since we'd used up nearly all the bird seed in a futile attempt to quieten the hens yesterday (they hooted and buKAWKed for nearly 5 hours as they all wanted in to lay at the same time), we headed up to Dobbies in Stirling to get some more. Interestingly, I've just thought that we could have gone to the one in Livingston but it never crossed our minds... Hmmmm...

So as usual when surrounded by so many plants I lose my head a bit and decided that their offer to buy four perennials for £10 would be very useful and we could pretty up the front garden. Now of course, back at the casa, I realise that there isn't really the room but I'm sure I can squeeze them in somehow!

I also had a brainwave that enabled me to buy some veg plug plants. The carrot seeds are taking *forever* to germinate (it's probably the dry weather) as is the kale. So I bought some plug plants to provide a crop while the seeds grow and mature, thereby providing a continual cropping. Clever, huh?

So this afternoon we adjourned to the Allotment and while D watered (no hosepipes allowed, only watering cans) I got on with planting out the chard and leek seedlings I'd grown. Also sown some fennel and since I've decided that the peas I sowed are duds, some different pea seeds.

Tomorrow marks the first day of my holidays - my sick leave has now officially ended but I had a few days booked for a trip to Belfast that never happened. So I'm on holiday and it feels... remarkably similar to the last few weeks... I feel I should be doing something "holiday-like" but to be honest I think it'll be like every other day. Maybe going back to work will be good to provide a contrast and let me appreciate holidays more!

Thursday I have decided to go to Aberfoyle and the ospreys. The weather's to change, and D's working from home, so I'm relieved of house and allotment duties. As well, it's the Scottish Parliamentary elections, and a day away from the media coverage seems like a very good plan!

It's been disappointing to see the UK Government's plan to remove the burden on local councils to provide allotments if there's a demand. It doesn't affect Scotland, but it does seem short-sighted when the benefits are so great and there is land which is waste land and is fulfilling no other purpose. Let's just hope that sanity prevails...

All about the birds

To start with I've sorted out the mad time issue I know at least one reader has spotted, the miracle of how I can enjoy a few hours at the allotment, sit in the warm sun and it still be only 8am - in Scotland. I had my time zone set for some exotic location in the Pacific, but it's set back to Blighty Time now.

After yesterday's exertions at the allotment and then spending hours on the phone chatting to friends, today is a wash-out. The sun is shining (though it's a lot colder), but I have absolutely no energy today at all. That there will be napping this afternoon is a given, which is a real pity because I was hoping to get out and about. No chance. In fact D is going to have to do the shopping and housework on his own while I lie on the sofa. What a nuisance.

So today's blogs is about birds.

My minuscule back garden, as well as being home to hens, also has a fair few wild bird visitors to the various bird feeders hanging from the apple trees. I have regular visits from a pair of blue-tits; a pair of coal-tits; a charm of chaffinches (isn't that a great collective noun?); a pair of sparrows (who also happen to be resident in the clematis hedge that I should really have cropped back, but didn't have the heart to so they could have winter shelter), and a pair of blackbirds.

Today the blue-tits have been hard at work nest building, they've been stopping on the apple tree with beaks full of moss, before heading onto wherever their nest is. The blackbird - the female one in particular - has been amusing me by her "lawks-a-mercy" antics. She'll quite happily land on the bird-seed tray while you're in the garden, and ignore you while she feeds, them as soon as she's done, she pretends to be outraged and terrified that you're there, and flaps off screaming indignantly. She'll repeat this process endlessly, which always makes me wonder why she is astonished at finding me in the garden with her...

So yes, it's very nice seeing these signs of spring and sap rising and all that.

However, the big neon "IT'S SPRING" indicator arrived back in Scotland yesterday: EJ the ospey returned to Loch Garten.

I've been hooked on the story of EJ and ospreys for years. These raptors who eat only fish, who come to Scotland every Spring to breed (the long Scottish Summer days means they can fish almost 24 hours a day, ideal when you've hungry mouths to feed), and whose life stories have thousands as glued to their daily antics as any soap opera. Who were extinct in the UK only 50-odd years ago due to hunting but who now number 250 breeding pairs. I am so enraptured by these birds that I decided to volunteer at the David Marshall Lodge in Abeerfoyle, in the Trossachs, where there is a healthy osprey population, to share my enthusiasm with others.

Flying back from Senegal and the Gambia in March, these birds travel hundreds of miles in 3 weeks, returning to the same nest they left back in August. When they arrive, their stories are ones of adultery, violence, infanticide, heroism, desperation, sacrifice, heartbreak and miracles.

So now the games begin again and the questions which are posed at the start of every season will be eventually answered.

Will Odin, EJ's regular mate return in time to stop her mating with Red8A, a male who has at least one other mate and nest on the go?

Will the "camera'd" nest at Aberfoyle be successful this year? The last two have seen empty nests when fighting males kicked out the eggs.

Will a miracle occur and allow Lady, Scotland's oldest osprey, to return, or will she have died on her migration south last year after some of the most incredible events last year which had people all over the country weeping, and then cheering as events unfolded on webcam?

Stay tuned :-)