An Easter egg to remember!

Bird lovers across the UK were celebrating this week after it was confirmed that Monty, our very own osprey, has successfully mated with his new girlfriend Nora!

 

The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust confirmed that the egg was laid on Easter Monday at the Dyfi Osprey Project, near Machynlleth, at 2.03pm, making it the first recorded egg to be laid in Mid Wales for 400 years.

 

Monty has become one of the area’s most famous residents but has gone two years without attracting a female in time to breed. This year he has been successful.

 

The Dyfi Osprey Project manager, Emyr Evans said: “This is a wondrous event for us, and for the ospreys. It was in 1604 that ospreys were last recorded breeding on the Dyfi and now we are witnessing history in the making. The osprey is Wales’ rarest bird of prey and today we are delighted to be able to say that Wales has two breeding pairs, probably the first time this has happened in several centuries.

 

“Monty returned from his African wintering grounds on April 6 and three days later he had attracted a female. This new osprey however had been ringed as a chick so we know exactly where she is from just by focusing the nest cameras on her ring and reading the numbers off it; it is a white ring with the digits 03. She was born at another Wildlife Trust reserve, Leicester and Rutland Wildlife Trust in 2008 and her father is a 1997 born bird who is still breeding at Rutland Water and who has fathered 23 chicks to date!”

 

The news will create a massive economic boost for west Montgomeryshire with up to 50,000 visitors expected to see the birds’ progress until the end of the summer.

 

The Dyfi Osprey Project is open between 10am and 6pm until September 1.