You won’t be surprised to hear that it has been a challenging few weeks here at NWWT trying to find a safe way of working for our staff amid the turmoil that has been caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.  Decisions had to be made to cancel events, close parts of nature reserves and protect our local Branches and volunteers – with everyone’s health and wellbeing being our top priority.

One casualty of our new way of working has been our osprey-related public engagement work at Llyn Brenig.  We so enjoyed talking to everyone last year, and we really miss you – it’s amazing how much people love these remarkable birds and their stories!  It was particularly saddening to have to temporarily stop work on the new Osprey Lookout that had been gifted to us from the Dyfi Osprey Project – quite understandably, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water were forced to close the site to the visiting public.  For the same reasons, the new osprey-themed room at their visitor centre, including its screens and interactive cameras, will not be open to the public for a while yet either.

For us at the Wildlife Trust, the protection of the birds has always been our top priority – and, with our largest nature reserve, Gors Maen Llwyd on the doorstep, we also have to consider how the public are accessing our site.  For the avoidance of doubt: please don’t visit Gors Maen Llwyd or Llyn Brenig or otherwise attempt to view the ospreys in person whilst current government guidelines remain in place.  However, we wanted to reassure everyone that the osprey nest does now have regularly monitored, 24-hour cameras on it, and that members of our staff are also making occasional, essential, solo trips to check on the birds.

We’ll also be issuing occasional public updates over the coming weeks, which we hope will allow you to enjoy the birds’ activities from the comfort of your own homes – we know that the wellbeing of Blue24, HR7 and any potential offspring is very important to you all!  Please keep an eye on our website and social media for the latest blogs and pictures over the coming few weeks: and, once again, please do not under any circumstances visit the site itself until government guidelines permit and Llyn Brenig re-opens.

Watch this space!