The ospreys may have left but there's more wildlife to be found...

Once our new young osprey 7M5 (affectionately known as 'Gwion Bach') finally got the impulse to migrate, back in September, the Brenig Osprey Project volunteers turned their attention to other wildlife at Llyn Brenig. First though, we decided to treat ourselves to a trip to Poole Harbour and had an exciting day on a boat trip organised by Friends of the Birds of Poole Harbour. The Poole Harbour Ospreys had not migrated just yet and had reared four chicks to fledging. It was magnificent! Seeing them all flying around the harbour with a glimpse of a white-tailed eagle in the distance and thousands of other wading birds around the edge of the harbour, made for a fantastic day.

Back to Llyn Brenig and we turned our attention to the local wildlife. Welsh Water's Nick Kite kindly let us have three boats to survey the lake shore and osprey peninsula from the water. I think the record for rowing across the Atlantic is safe!

It was during this activity that we picked up a pine marten on the trail cams and decided to try and establish if it was a lone individual or whether there may be more. We rigged up a monitoring station designed to get the pine marten to expose its bib to the camera to aid identification. Using two monitoring stations we identified one lone male on the west side of the lake and possibly another individual on the east side, but couldn't confirm if it was a different individual or the same one. 

We installed 22 trail cameras around the lake and checked them weekly throughout the winter, identifying lots of wildlife around Llyn Brenig, including other mustelids such as otter families and polecats. We also had regular sightings of foxes, badgers, water voles, weasel and woodcock. 

Winter gave us an ideal opportunity to install a 4G camera in a barn owl box, and a big thank you goes out to the Welsh Water rangers who gave their time (and a cherry-picker!) to assist in the installation of the camera during a sideways snowstorm and sub-zero temperatures! 

We can now observe these amazing birds laying eggs and rearing chicks through the spring and summer.

Preparing the lookout for the 2026 season

As the worst of the winter passed by, we turned our attention to maintenance of the lookout and hide, starting with a good clean up and installing anti-slip mats on the decking. The hide has had new windows fitted to improve facilities for photographers through the summer season and, to enhance the photography experience and while we had the opportunity to access the peninsula, we also installed extra perching posts for the ospreys. 

Through the winter Sarah (Brenig Osprey Project Officer) arranged some fantastic events for volunteers and the public to attend. We had a mindfulness session and invited potential volunteers to attend a 'Mad About Ospreys' talk delivered enthusiastically and animated by Sarah. Twenty people attended, which gave us a nice start to our fundraising for this year.

Last year we had some success creating nesting habitats by tying rotting birch to healthy trees for females to make their nests, so this year we have repeated the process and experimented by filling nest boxes with rotting wood chippings which the female will hollow out for alternative habitat. Within days of putting up the rotting birch we have recorded the birds using this material.

The ospreys are on their way...

In the last week we've heard news of our adult female (Blue 372) being photographed in Santander, Northern Spain, so we have been cleaning the scopes and repairing the gazebos in anticipation of the ospreys' arrival back from migration. 

The Llyn Brenig Osprey Project lookout is now open for 2026 and everyone on the project is excited for another dramatic season ahead.