Monty and Glesni are due back three weeks today!

Operating our cameras costs around £20,000 each season, and as you probably know by now, we do not receive any funding from the EU or anywhere else. DOP 2018 will be operated purely by the donations and shop sales we receive.

Those of you watching on Facebook will have seen some of the work we got up to this week. In a nutshell:

• Nest strengthened and realigned
• All old cabling and trunking removed
• Complete re-wiring and trunking to all cameras and mics
• Skimmed around 6 inches of the nest surface
• New AXIS PTZ High Definition camera installed (AXIS Q6055-E) 

We think we've found the cause of the cracking sometimes heard on the audio...

We have a brand new camera this year designed to give us extreme close-up views, specifically within the nest itself with a 32X optical zoom macro function. We tested this camera yesterday by zooming in on a 8mm house-fly on one of the far nest branches - it filled the screen!

The close-up videos we take this year of the eggs and chicks should be the the best we've every seen, probably the best anybody has ever seen.

A team of 18 volunteers carry the scaffolding from Dyfi Junction across the reserve and under Glandyfi Bridge

With the scaffolding up - an osprey-eye view from the nest

One of our camera techs, Aled, installs a new perch and camera on the larch pole

We've bought another trail-camera too. Last year's images were simply breathtaking; this year we'll have two up.

Menai caught with last year's trail-cam

Can you help us with our camera appeal?

There are three ways you can donate:

1. Via the BT MyDonate button on the Live Streaming page (best, as BT don’t take a cut and you can click a box for Gift Aid if you pay tax in the UK – another 25% is added to your amount by the tax wo/man)

2. Via the PayPal button on the Live Streaming page (but no Gift Aid and Paypal take around 3%)

3. By sending a cheque payable to ‘Dyfi Osprey Project’ to:

2018 Camera Appeal
Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust
42 Broad Street
Welshpool
Powys
SY21 7RR

Thank you very much for your generosity. We are so excited about the 2018 season - bet you are too. DOP opens in just over a fortnight - 26th March with the live streaming going active before then.

If everything goes well with testing next week, we may even have the cameras live for you a week before we open. We'll let you know.

Will Glesni beat Monty back to the nest this year for the first time - she was only a couple of hours behind him last year