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White EJ

(Photo)

EJ, the resident female at Loch Garten since 2003. Female ospreys have a brown 'bib' which males don't. EJ's forehead also has more brown than those of male birds.

1997 EJ hatched at a nest near Bridge of Cally in north-east Perthshire, where she was ringed by wildlife artist Keith Brockie. Her “colour” ring – white with EJ in black - is on her right leg, the metal BTO ring on her left. Nothing is known of EJ’s life for the next 3 years.

2001 EJ was identified nesting in Rothiemurchus Forest near Aviemore, with an older male osprey wearing an orange VS ring (OVS for short). That year the nest failed, probably due to pine martens predating the eggs.

2002 EJ and OVS nested again in Rothiemurchus Forest, this time raising one chick.

2003 EJ lost her nest to a more aggressive female, and arrived in mid-June at Loch Garten, where she paired with male osprey Henry (ring Ochre HV), who had taken over the nest that spring. It was too late for her to lay eggs, but they stayed together at the nest site pair-bonding.

2004 EJ returned to Loch Garten on 26th March, and was joined by her old mate OVS, until Henry arrived on 3rd April and evicted him. EJ and Henry raised three chicks, which were given yellow leg rings with numbers 27, 28, 29 – Yellow 28 was a male whilst the other two were deemed to be female.

2005 EJ and OVS again mated at the Loch Garten nest, before OVS disappeared. A four year old male, Red 8T, tried to take over the nest but proved to be inadequate at providing food for our female. She laid several eggs before Henry arrived on 25th April, he was covered in oil and almost skeletal. He succeeded in chasing off Red 8T and then kicked the eggs out of the nest, a further egg was laid but that was also ejected by Henry. However, EJ and Henry stayed at Loch Garten as a pair till the end of the season.

2006 Once again, EJ and OVS mated at Loch Garten before Henry arrived. On 10th April he returned, chased off OVS and re-established the bond with EJ. Three eggs were laid, three chicks fledged – they were all considered to be female and were given yellow leg rings 8U, 8V and 8W.

2007 History repeated itself once more as EJ returned to Loch Garten on 4th April and paired up with OVS. EJ had laid 2 eggs before Henry arrived on 22nd April and kicked the eggs out of the nest. On 24th April EJ laid two eggs in two hours, Henry kicked these out of the nest too. This year was remarkable as our couple went on to produce a second clutch, eggs being laid on 11, 14 and 16 May. However all three eggs failed; two eggs hatched but the chicks died within 24 hours, the third egg seems to have failed mid-hatching.

2008 Henry did not return this year, and EJ and OVS were the resident pair at Loch Garten. They raised two chicks, female Nethy and male Deshar. A third chick died in late June.

2009 Neither Henry nor OVS returned to Loch Garten. EJ arrived on 25th March and took a new mate, an unringed male osprey who arrived on 3rd April and was named Odin. They raised three female chicks; Rothes, Mallachie, and Garten.

2010 EJ returned on 26th March and was joined by Odin on 3rd April. They raised three healthy chicks, who were not sexed, ringed or satellite tagged due to bad weather throughout the week scheduled for this operation. All had left Loch Garten on migration by 25th August.