Blue 3J is settling in!

Who is Blue 3J?

She is a five-year-old female born and ringed at the Manton Bay nest at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust's osprey project.

She was one of three in the 2013 clutch, the others being Blue 1J and 2J. Her mother is Maya, an unringed female who is still breeding at Manton Bay and her father was Green 5R, a 2004 Rutland born male who is sadly no longer with us.

(WARNING - Chronic Ospreyholics Only: Green 5R's sister (Green 5N) also returned to Rutland to breed and she's still there today. One of her 2010 chicks is familiar to all of us: Blue 12 - Glesni. So Blue 3J is Glesni's full cousin as is Blue 24, due to Blue 24's father being the brother of 5N and 5R!)

Up To Now

Blue 3J is no stranger to Wales.

She has been seen regularly both here and at Rutland as an adult; she actually started to breed at a Rutland nest in 2016 with a local lad before being usurped off their nest by Egyptian geese. Last year she was seen at all the main Welsh nests, usually tagging along with a Scottish male, Blue HR7 (who was back in Wales mating with the Glaslyn female yesterday!)

Blue 3J first appeared on the Dyfi nest the same day as Monty did, a couple of days ago, 4th April. She was with us yesterday too before flying north to the Glaslyn nest to see what was on offer there.

Hello gorgeous

Today

With Glesni still not back (she's not officially late yet, she arrived on 10th April in 2014), Blue 3J was not only back on the Dyfi nest this morning, but this time her behaviour had changed; she looked a lot more settled, keeping a watchful eye on Monty as he went about his business.

At midday he returned with a fish, but as soon as he saw Blue 3J on the nest he took a sharp left turn and diverted to one of the low perches to eat it. For the next two hours Blue 3J remained steadfast on the nest, slowly growing in confidence as she started to solicit for food, her calls becoming increasingly vociferous over the next two hours.

At 14:05 Monty gave in, flew up to his nest and shared his half-eaten trout with his wife's cousin. Round 1 of a tenuous pair-bonding exercise complete.

A few minutes later the inevitable happened. And it happened again. And again. And again.

As I write this Monty has gone fishing and Blue 3J is sat looking at him on top of the camera pole.

Here's the whole day condensed into less than two minutes. There may be trouble ahead...