This is Telyn's 6^th year breeding on the Dyfi – that makes her the longest breeding female at the nest (Glesni was here five years: 2013 - 2017).

She has laid three eggs every year - so this is her 16^th.

Here's a quick video of her pushing herself into the Dyfi record books on Thursday evening...

And as a reminder, here is the family tree of the Dyfi Ospreys so far...

A Waiting Game?

I talked about the assessment period each female osprey affords herself between the first meeting of a new season and laying her first egg in the previous blog.

For Telyn and Idris this has been, in previous years, 11.6 days, 13.7 days and 11.3 days.

This year, however, that assessment period was 14.0 days. Well within a normal range, but there was something happening this year we have not really seen before.

You see, Telyn looked 'eggy' long before she laid that first egg. Experienced watchers of the live stream were mostly in agreement that Telyn was giving off the usual behavioural cues that laying was imminent two or three days before she actually did: proximity to the nest, roosting on the nest, plus of course, the behavioural 'faffing' that preludes each egg laying.

Whilst all this nest faffing was going on, we were experiencing severe weather on the Dyfi. Winds of 70 mph were recorded as well as heavy rain and even hailstorms.

Did Telyn actually wait until the bad weather had passed before laying her egg?

Aw's that work then..?

Blue 5F (Seren) at the Clywedog nest just 12 miles away did something very similar this year in similar weather conditions of course. Both Telyn and 5F laid their first egg within 10 minutes of each other on 13th April. Coincidence?

If a female osprey could suspend egg laying operations for a day or two whilst any severe weather passes, that would be an enormous evolutionary advantage. Such a strategy would be so beneficial, it would very quickly be passed on on a population level.

But how would such a delaying mechanism work?

Did Telyn re-absorb a developing egg and start again? Is it hormone controlled? Did she somehow manage to literally suspend egg development in the uterus before the egg shell was made for a day or two until the bad weather passed?

I honestly don't know - but to me, there was definitely something going on here that warrants further consideration.

Egg 2 is due later this afternoon and Egg 3 on Wednesday. Will the time cadence between eggs this year be slightly different to the norm? 

This could well be our clue in understanding whether a female osprey can stop time, biologically, when it comes to egg laying.