The final stage of the rebuilding of the osprey nesting site callously felled by vandals with a chainsaw last April was completed last week when Dŵr Cymru | Welsh Water staff from Llyn Brenig winched a platform into place and assembled a new nest.

The work to repair the damage commenced after the ospreys had migrated away for the winter (to as far south as Senegal and Gambia). In October, Openreach and GT Williams kindly sourced and erected a new telegraph pole. Unfortunately, the next stage - the installation of the nesting platform - was delayed by Storm Arwen in November, which flattened trees nearby. The damage left by the gales prevented the access of heavy machinery intended to lift the platform on to the pole. The team’s only choice was to climb up and rebuild it all by hand. Once the support was in place, the team refashioned a new nest on top, stick by stick.

The platform, paid for out of donations from the public to North Wales Wildlife Trust following last year’s incident, is specially fabricated out of aluminium to make it long-lasting and safer for climbing access.

Storm Arwen did contribute one positive. Because trees were felled by the storm - and more will have to come down for safety reasons - the landscape is much more open, which should make the site more appealing to the ospreys. More about this tomorrow…

The completion of the nesting platform this month together with extra security measures in place offers hope that the magnificent birds of prey will return in in 2022.