Cometh the hour, cometh a young osprey.

At the age of 53 days and three hours, at 09:29 on Saturday, July 21st, Ceulan took his inaugural flight. But just like any aviator would tell you, there was a lot of flight simulator training to be got through first. Leading up to his first controlled flight, here are some pre-flight checks from earlier in the week..

Of the 25 ospreys that have fledged nests in Wales in modern times, we know how old all of them were when they fledged, apart from one (and that is possibly Monty, from the 2004 Welshpool nest). On average, males have fledged at 52.1 days and females 54.2 days. So by this morning, Ceulan was 53 days old and just passed the average age for males. 

The day started with bright sunshine and no wind, quite the opposite to the weather we've been having this 'summer'. Nora stayed on top of the T-perch for most of the early morning, staring intensely at her son - maybe she knew that this was the day that her only offspring to survive in 2012 would take his first flight.

Nora is transfixed by Ceulan's attempts to get airborne for the first time

It began to look good from the Friday night - the weather had improved and importantly, the high winds from earlier in the week had died down. The family had enjoyed three fish between them and young Ceulan had been at his most determined to get to the air. From very early on Saturday morning, Ceulan looked as if he was ready to go. At 09:29 and 10 seconds, he jumped off his nest and home for the last 53 days and headed west. And then south, and then east and then north. He was up and away, he'd made it, he was flying free.

Ceulan's first flight lasted just over a minute and he landed on the ground between the nest and the Dyfi River. Our first thoughts were of the fox we'd seen prowling under the nest just a couple of days before. Then he was approached by a grazing cow - could he get trampled?

These cows are a lot bigger than I remember..

After three-quarters of an hour, he'd had enough cow watching and was airborne again. After a flight of around 30 seconds, he landed safely but rather unceremoniously back on his nest. Big exhalation of breath all round. Ceulan's first foray from the nest lasted just over 48 minutes.

As I write, Ceulan has had two more adventures off the nest since his first this morning, the most recent ending with him grappling perilously to the very top of the ash tree perch whilst Nora circled around him. He's now back in the nest after Monty returned at 17:40 with a decent-sized mullet.

Not as easy as it looks, flying - landing is even worse!

It's been a great week for Welsh ospreys. With Ceulan, four have now fledged, with just one to go at a private nest just to the north - he's also a male. Black 80 (Glaslyn 2006 male osprey) has two chicks with a new partner in Scotland, they are just over two weeks old. And on Wednesday last, the third Welsh osprey ever to have been re-sighted as having returned to the UK was confirmed at the Loch of the Lowes nest. She landed on the nest for a couple of minutes, whilst 'Lady' was away feeding her chick who had fledged, but had not returned to the nest (he has now - great news). This Glaslyn osprey is a 2009 bird with a leg ring White 91, curiously the BTO ring which was placed on the left leg at the time had fallen off shortly after being fitted in 2009. Three years on and indeed, the left leg was ringless. Strange old world.

White 91 - she has that very characteristic broad chest band that her mother has. Image Scottish Wildlife Trust

Finally, many congratulations to two people who won the "Guess the Fledging Time" competition on Facebook. Both Tiger and Nan Kirk tied, predicting Ceulan would fledge on July 21st and just six minutes from the actual time - unreal! A Monty fridge magnet on their way to you both.

Finally, finally, a big thank you to Alwyn who came in on his day off and manned the cameras from 6am to 10am, without whom, we would never have got those fantastic shots of Ceulan fledging and flying around the Dyfi for the first time. Diolch yn fawr Al.

A very proud Dyfi osprey family