Telyn and Idris have their first egg

At 05:58 this morning Telyn laid down in the nest, pushed, and delivered her first egg with her new partner.

As soon as she had laid it, Idris was there to have a look. Pretty attentive.

Here's a short video of the egg being laid just before dawn:

Quick-time Egg

An osprey couple take around two weeks from first mating to first egg, a bit longer usually if one or both of the birds are new to each other, as is the case this year.

But not these two. Telyn laid this egg just 11.5 days after Idris soared into her life; that's pretty quick going. It's also the earliest 1st mating to 1st egg we've ever recorded on this Dyfi nest.

All previous timescales circled in red, below:

Telyn's mother, Maya, back in Rutland is also a quick egg layer. Maybe there's a genetic component to these timescales?

Monty

As I write on the 17th April, Monty is still not back.

Clearly now, the chances of him returning are pretty slim. We don't know what has happened to him, he is not tracked in any way.

There are records of breeding ospreys returning back in late April, but these are rare. Before we start writing him off, however, let's just get to 1st May before we start to think the worse of what could have happened to Monty.

Where are you?

And Finally

With Monty not around, Telyn has been incredibly lucky to have 'found' a male so quickly in the season. To have an egg by 17th April with a new male is some going.

But as I alluded to in the last blog about Idris' provenance; the fact that he seemed, to me anyway, a lot more savvy than your ordinary youngster trying to breed and impress a female for the first time.

I mentioned last week that "Idris has done this before". For Telyn to be so reassured in her new male to lay an egg after just 11.5 days just seems to add support to the hypothesis that Idris has been 'round the block before - and probably more than once.

It matters not one jot at the end of the day, we have four breeding osprey nests in Wales at the moment. Still way short of what if should be, but at least we have them.

Eggspect the next egg early on Monday and the third on Thursday morning.

A fourth...?

Idris - a tad more worldly than one might expect..