Tegid has started his migration.

He fledged at 50 days old, his mother migrated when he was 76 days old and he migrated at 88 days old.

Tegid's problems started soon after Glesni migrated. Suddenly, the main defender of the nest from intruding females was gone, so Blue 24, having spent practically all her time watching Glesni's nest since she arrived on 25th March, wasted no time in moving in.

Just three days after Glesni departed, this happened...

Tegid's sister, Ceri, died just two days after he fledged, so he's had the best possible chances during those critical five weeks or so between when an osprey flies for the first time and starts a 3,000 mile journey of adventure, with all the knowledge and experiences he'll need, or ever get, for the rest of his life.

Getting ready

The ability to fly properly, defend himself, perch, fish and feed himself, all have to be honed and refined during the short few weeks after his first flight at 50 days old. It's little wonder that we only ever see one in three or one in four birds make it back to the UK as adults, two or three years down the line.

A vital lesson for any young osprey when being attacked - take your dinner with you

So Tegid had 12 days from when Glesni left to when he also decided to fly south. From what we saw, he had been eating well, Monty no doubt taking fish to him on perches further down the river due to Blue 24's presence around the nest.

We last saw him late on Wednesday evening at 20:43, where he was again being harassed by his six-year-old Auntie. Here's the last footage we have of Tegid:

(grainy pictures due to low light)

He was heard, but not recorded, very early the next day - just before day break. We think he started his migration soon afterwards, but just to add to the confusion, there was an 'intruder' at 07:04 the following day. Was this Tegid?

It is very difficult to say for sure as the cameras are pointing towards the rising sun, but we think, after dozens of frame-by-frame analyses, this was another osprey. We can say with 100% certainty that this osprey has a Darvic ring on the right leg, so this has to be a Welsh or English bird, notwithstanding a 'wrongly-legged' Scottish bird, which does happen now and again.

So we'll record Tegid's migration time as 06:00 Thursday morning, 25th August.

At 88 days, Tegid migrated bang-on the average for Dyfi birds.

Bittersweet

It is always an emotional time during August, but more so this year. After many centuries of osprey extinction in Wales and many other countries, we are blessed to be alive at the very start of their return and re-establishment. So every osprey youngster is precious and just like Ceulan was the only surviving chick in 2012, four years on we are again left with just one single male offspring.

Ceulan didn't make it but Clarach did. Once these birds get to around 12-14 weeks old, migration age, they not only need good genes to beat the odds, but one huge dollop of luck too. There is no equality in throwing a dice.

We've done all we can to get young Tegid to this stage, as have Monty and Glesni, but he's on his own now.

He's seen so much in his short life already, let's hope he sees plenty more. We will think of him often, proabably every day until he is due to fly back to us as an adult. But for now, we wish him all the very best.

So long.