You know it’s getting near. The daffodils are out, the garden birds are singing when you get up, and the price of a second-hand Ford Escort Convertible has nearly doubled, almost overnight.

Did that buzzard you saw yesterday look particularly pale, it wasn’t an osprey was it? It was near water. Yes folks, the happy have suddenly become SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder. If you’ve not been caught out yet, you will be soon enough, the season of acute Ospreyitis is nigh. Don’t fight it, there is no known cure.

One of the side effects of Ospreyitis is questions, lots of them. Questions you wouldn’t have dreamt of asking just a few weeks ago now demand answers, and quickly. When? Will? How? Who? What? 

We all need to know, and know quickly. So what better way to start the great migration month of March off with a ‘Everything you Need to Know About DOP 2014’ guide? Here are some of the most frequently asked questions rolled up into a short blog that you can read in five minutes. Here goes.. 

When does DOP open this year?

UPDATE (15/3/14): We have decided to push forward the opening time of Dyfi Osprey Project to Monday, March 31st. After that, we’ll be open throughout the autumn and winter too - probably on weekends and a few other days where we’ll have special events.

Just a few more days..

How much does it cost to visit?

We have a suggested donation of £2.50 for a day’s visit. Ospreyholics are catered for - we’ll have a weekly ticket, as many ospreys and visits that you can bear in seven days, just £5. And for the chronic ospreyholics amongst you, a season ticket (these come with a health warning - consult your practitioner before purchase). Just £10.

Last year's tickets

These are the same prices that we’ve had for the last few years, we want as many people as possible to watch and learn about the ospreys with us. All the money we get goes towards funding DOP 2014. The tickets this year will be available at DOP itself, but in the future we hope to sell these online, so that you can gift them to fellow ospreyholics.

When will the Observatory be open?

We were hoping to open the Observatory at the same time as DOP. However, the wettest winter since 1766 hasn’t helped things! We had buffered in contingencies for weather of course, but nobody could have predicted the amount of water and damage that the weather of the last few weeks could have caused.

Cors Dyfi damage in January 2014

Cors Dyfi is a wet bog habitat, so we’re used to high water tables, but we’ve never seen water this high before. Nevertheless, despite losing several weeks work to the weather, we’ve made some of that time up. The Observatory will be open soon after DOP is - a few days, a week, maybe two weeks, but no more. We’ll let you know of course.

The important thing is that the Observatory is osprey-proof before our ospreys return - in other words, all the outside will be built with scaffolding removed. This will be done by the end of next week.

When will Monty and Glesni be back?

This is the BIG question! Monty has never been back in March. Yet. The earliest he’s returned is April 2nd. 

Glesni bred as a three year old for the first time last year, so we don’t have any history to go on with her. However, her auntie Nora (also a Rutland osprey that bred as a three year old in 2011) returned on March 24th for her second year with Monty. Will Glesni be back as early? Earlier even?

Nora - March 24th, 2012

Here are some previous return dates for the Dyfi ospreys:

Will Nora return? 

No, unfortunately not. Nora has most probably died sometime between leaving the Dyfi in August 2012 and the following spring. There are almost no records of breeding ospreys taking a gap year and returning the following season. She could have bred elsewhere however, but that possibility really is remote. 

Scientifically, half of Nora could return. Einion, the first osprey to hatch on the Dyfi in 400 years, would be three years old this year. We didn’t see him last year, but that is not to say he is not still with us. As we’ve seen recently, many a Welsh osprey has been spotted alive and well several years after leaving the natal nest. Einion has half of his mother Nora’s genes, of course. What a story that would be, we’re still optimistic about Einion.

What about the ash tree perch next to the nest and the camera that was on it?

The whole lot came down in 100mph winds a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to an incredible response on the DOP Facebook appeal, we have enough money to replace the camera and all the electronics. We will erect a larch tree with a perch to replace the ash tree, the camera is on order and will be with us this week.

Thank you to everyone that donated to the camera fund. Incredible response.

Glesni on the ash tree perch in 2013, mulllet in talon

What about Live Streaming?

More than 1.7 million people connected to the DOP Live Streaming last year - we uploaded 87TB of data. That is humongous, off the radar.

To deliver a Live Streaming service well, you need a really fast broadband connection. Like all osprey projects in the UK, we don’t have one of those. Ospreys tend to nest in remote areas with scant regard to the proximity of the nearest fibre-equipped BT exchange. Utterly thoughtless of them.

We have a small copper exchange on the Dyfi that is quite a way away from us. We get around this by bonding several BT lines together and applying some clever tricks. Nevertheless, we are on the very edge of what is possible with the technology we have at hand. 

Live Streaming is always a compromise between video quality (resolution), frames per second, the amount of people watching at any one time, the amount of platforms and web browsers you cater for, the amount of servers you use and the amount of compression you apply. Full HD at 25 fps with no compression and 5,000 people watching at a time is a pipe dream. Anyways, you would need a huge broadband connection yourself to be able to download it. The trick is getting the balance right for what is a moderate amount of money.

People in 60 countries watched Monty and Glesni setting up home in 2013

We’ve had quotes for LS this year where we think the providers have mistakenly put the decimal point in the wrong place. Silly money. We could have a Pay-per-view system so that we get pipe-dream quality, but only for the few that can afford it. That would be just plain wrong. We’ll do what we did last year and start an appeal that can run all summer. We’re still looking at the total costings.

Oh yes, when will the Live Streaming start? Soon. We’ll try our best to get it going for when we open DOP - March 22nd. It won’t be on in the morning and off at night - it will be on all the time, 24 hrs a day, every day. People around the world want to watch at a time that suits them. They can.

What about Live Chat?

We kept this going over the winter and it has proved very popular. This is a fraction of the cost of the Live Streaming, less than £100 per month.

What about osprey stuff to buy?

Janine has been working flat out over the winter to get the best ever range of goodies this year. Cards, mugs, keyrings, fridge magnets, new pin badges, gift sets, posters, and loads more. 

For the first time ever, we’ll have an online shop as well so that you can get your hands on all the osprey goodness right from home with a click of a button. We’ll ship worldwide too. Please be patient though, this is taking time. Maybe another couple of months.

Did anyone mention calendars?

Mugs, coasters and a Ceulan mouse mat!

Do you need more volunteers?

Absolutely. We will have different ways that people can volunteer this year. We’re still planning stuff, so watch this space. Our spring pre-opening volunteer event will be held on Saturday, March 15th in Machynlleth. More details by next weekend.

Anything else?

Oh yes. It just wouldn’t be DOP if we didn’t bring you something different every year. Can’t say too much for now, but we have loads planned. New technologies, new ways of seeing the ospreys, we’re actually waiting for some technologies to come out of Beta testing, we can’t get it quick enough! We’ll take osprey and wildlife viewing to a whole new level this year. There, said too much!

And finally - it’s been a long winter and a wet one. It’s also been a hard working and rewarding one. Soon, we will open DOP but with a huge difference this year. 

The new 360 Observatory is just days away from being finished. It looks phenomenal, but when you stand in it, it is truly out of this world. We can see the Dyfi like never before, we can feel it. We can even smell it. We can’t wait for you to as well.  

Not long now, you know how it goes..

Keep Calm and Look Up

360 Observatory