Alys is 49 days old today

Today, Friday 20th July marks the day when our oldest chick reaches seven weeks old. This year the chicks are very close in age to each other. Here are their current ages:

Alys is 49 days old
Helyg is 48 days old
Dinas is 47 days old

When will they fly for the first time?

The Great Fledge Competition!

Synchronised wing beats make it very hard to know who will fledge first

As always the aim is simple enough - Guess the day and time (to the nearest minute) that the first osprey will fledge, for example: "Monday 23th July at 11:35". It doesn't matter which one fledges first which is a good job, as it is so hard to predict this year as they are so close in age and development. It could be Alys as she is the oldest, it could be Dinas as he is the lightest or maybe Helyg will take to the skies to escape the constant wing beating in the nest!

To enter you need to add your guess to the 'Guess the Fledge competition' post on our Facebook page and donate a minimum of £5 or more per guess using the donate button on the Dyfi Wildlife Centre page, you can add gift aid to your donation if you are a UK tax payer.

All guess donations go towards our Dyfi Wildlife Centre £250,000 Appeal.

Definition of fledging: Alys, Helyg or Dinas leaves the confines of the nest in a controlled flight and either lands back on the nest or another location, including the nest perch. In other words, a prolonged 'helicopter' flight does not constitute fledging.

Dinas has lift off for a few seconds

To help you with your guesses, here is a bar chart showing all the fledging ages of Dyfi chicks since 2011. The blues are boys, reds are females:

(Remember, Alys is 49 days old today Helyg is 48 days old and Dinas is 47 days old)

Competition open to all, including international.

1st Prize - The nearest guess will win a wonderful A3 print of Ceri with a fish flying over the Ceri Hide. Only two have been made and donated to DOP by Beryl Everall - thank you Beryl.

We sold the first one for £200 and this is the second one we held back for the fledging competition.

The two closest runners up will receive a DOP competition winners baseball cap.

This year every single penny raised will go towards the Dyfi Wildlife Centre appeal.

Pob Lwc - Good Luck!!