To say that this last seven days has been a crazy week would certainly be an understatement. This is the 10th year that ospreys have been breeding in Wales, but the events of last week are certainly the most frenetic and exciting that I have ever seen.

Let's try and break things down into days and try to understand and make sense of what has gone on:

Sunday, April 28th
Nora has not returned and Monty has pair bonded, to various degrees, with two females to date. Both of them are unringed and to avoid confusion we've called them Elin and Seren. On Sunday morning, however, Monty had a third female on his nest, but this time a ringed bird - Blue FS.

This osprey was ringed as a chick near Dores, Loch Ness, Scotland on 14th July, 2010, so she is three years old. Blue FS had been with Monty since the day before but despite bringing her 10 fish in less than 24 hours, she showed no interest whatsoever in mating with him. All of his advances were rejected.

Monty, under the claw, big time. This image is called "The Stare"

Monday, April 29th
The day starts as usual, incessant food calling by Blue FS followed by Monty duly obliging.

How about a flounder this time dear?

Despite all the fish deliveries, however, Blue FS was still not not interested in any kind of mating behaviour. As a three year old, was she simply inexperienced and not acquainted yet in the rules and regulations of osprey pair bonding? Maybe as a two year old last year she had already bonded with a Scottish male (unlikely to have bred, however, although there are records of females breeding at two) and was on her way back up to her nest, Monty being a convenient pit stop? We may never know.

Blue FS did have a bit of a foot fetish though (videos best watched in HD)

At 10:00 the silence was broken by the arrival of another female - again this one was ringed, White UR, and again, this bird was a three year old.

White UR - one of two chicks ringed at a nest in the Ythan valley in Aberdeenshire on 10 July 2010

Shortly after White UR's appearance however, all hell broke loose. Seren, the female that Monty had bonded with most this year so far, was back. And it didn't take long for her to displace Blue FS off the nest, and send White UR packing also, even before she got a look in.

Here's the remarkable video of Blue FS enjoying her last Monty meal, before being ousted by Seren

As soon as Seren had fought Blue FS off the nest, it felt like Groundhog Day all over again. Two years ago on April 14th, 2011, Nora had kept disappearing for long periods and only properly took 'ownership' of the nest for the first time  when another female (Scottish White DA) later on that day showed an interest in Monty.

Monty immediately brought Seren a fish, had she come back for good this time?

Tuesday, April 30th
Serenity, and Seren, had returned to the Dyfi valley, peace and quiet once more. Surely Seren would now stay with Monty after being around for over a week, off and on? She had even started to rearrange the nesting material and was allowing Monty to mate with her.

Had Seren had a good look around and finally picked her nest and mate for the season?

Just as we were putting the headache tablets away and starting to breathe normally again, we get another visitor, only we know this one.

Blue 12 was back.

A HUGE osprey and an old friend - Blue 12 returns to the Dyfi

Blue 12 is a Rutland female born in 2010 - so again a three year old! She was also around last year, being spotted on the Dyfi several times and also at her natal Rutland Water. Blue 12 is, in fact, related to Nora. She is Nora's niece, their mothers being sisters. We had thought all winter that Blue 12 may return, she was often seen on the Dyfi nest last August, once Nora had returned to Africa on the 7th. Here is a 2012 blog about Blue 12.

Interestingly, Blue 12 had been spotted first this year by the Rutland guys actually at Rutland on April 27th, three days before being sighted on the Dyfi.

Ceulan receives a visit from his big cousin Blue 12 last August

Then something curious happened. All three birds, Monty, Seren, and Blue 12, took to the air.. and stayed there. They soared high over Cors Dyfi Reserve and came really low over us at the visitor centre on numerous occasions - the visitors that day got some unbelievable views and so did we.

As we were busy looking up, however, we had a power cut and all four cameras went dead. We tripped the switch like we usually do, nothing. It quickly transpired that something had gone seriously belly up and we were looking at the prospect, if the problem was nest side and something had gone bang there, of no cameras for the rest of the season.

Wednesday, May 1st
Our friend and BBC cameraman Jesse Wilkinson had been filming the Dyfi ospreys for Springwatch when we experienced the power cut. He confirmed that the ospreys had continued flying overhead well in to the evening and for at least seven hours until he lost sight of them as it got dark.

In the morning, as we were trying to sort the cameras out, we were getting sporadic reports of two ospreys in the air - it was Monty chasing Blue 12 for all he was worth. He was defending his (and now Seren's) nest from the intruder, despite knowing the newly arrived female from the previous year. Blue 12 was being extremely persistent, she clearly wanted Monty and his nest for herself after doing her homework the previous year. The fact that her auntie, Nora, had not returned must have been an added bonus and must surely have spurred her on even more to try and lay claim to Monty's nest.

Blue 12 - Monty gives chase all day (notice white pigmentation in Blue 12's right wing primary feather, P6, and some tail feathers)

As we were closing up for the day at around 18:30, a male osprey was seen soaring high over the reserve. He wasn't joining in with Monty and Blue 12's hostilities, just keeping his distance. On closer view of this bird on a computer screen, he looks remarkably like Dai Dot, a male that we know calls the Dyfi home and had been spotted several times in 2011 and 2012. This bird's plumage and chest pattern is consistent with Dai Dot and you can just about see white feathering just above the beak, characteristic of Dai Dot's unusual head markings.

Is that you Dai?

Thursday, May 2nd
We finally get our cameras back thanks to volunteer electrician Al Davies and Network Rail. Thanks a million guys. Thankfully, all the surge protection devices we had installed at the nest worked and the only bits that got fried were at the visitor centre end.

No sign of Seren today, but Monty continued to chase Blue 12 away at every opportunity.

Blue 12 lands on the camera post, but not for long..

Monty now had some serious decisions to make. His new mate of a few days, Seren, is nowhere to be seen (by humans anyway) and has shown little appetite in defending the nest as her own. Understandable you may think, as she has probably no idea who Blue 12 is, and that she may be a mate from previous years with a strong urge to defend and fight. Maybe that seven hour aerial stand-off on Tuesday was all about both females trying to weigh each other up and deciding how much to commit, or not?

Friday, May 3rd
It's decision time for Monty and at 10:45 he makes that all important decision. He knows Blue 12 from 2012, he has seen her persistence and commitment to him and his nest site for the last three days. He's seen Seren's seemingly anaemic position on matters. It's turned out to be a no-brainer.

For the first time, Monty accepts Blue 12 and presents her with a fish on his nest. He places the fish on her back, thinks about mating, and then disembarks again. With the fish!

Saturday & Sunday, May 4th & 5th
We are all amazed how well Blue 12 has settled in. She's hardly been away from the nest, has allowed Monty to mate with her right from the off, she's even been collecting nest material and scraping out an egg cup. All in just over two days since Monty's change of heart.

Seren nor any of the other females have been seen since Thursday. Seren will not have Monty's eggs inside her, it's not as simple as that. No fertilisation takes place for at least a week after good, strong pair bonding. For new pairs, quite a bit longer still. All the matings, 'successful' or not, are all part of the strengthening (or otherwise) of the bonding between male and female for the first several days. For new pairs, actual fertilisation will not occur for the best part of two weeks.

Given that Nora has not returned, was the pairing up of Monty and Blue 12 kind of inevitable all along? She had shown her cards last year so the crystal ball gazing did not need to be that deep perhaps. It's not too late to breed for 2013 but it is getting close, very close. Blue 12 may actually have timed her arrival to perfection, missing all the action of the initial three year olds and muzzling in there just in time before Monty and Seren really hit it off.

It's been a week like no other, but it does looks good. It's early days, just two days in fact. Time, as ever, will tell.

Friends at last