THE three “beautiful” Osprey chicks which hatched at Dyfi Osprey Project in May have now been named after their sexes were confirmed.

Monty and Glesni, the two ruling adult ospreys at the centre, which sits in the Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve on the A487 between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth, have seen their three fledglings ‘ringed’, where an identification tag is attached to one of their talons.

The process also allowed the birds to be weighed and sexed, which in turn allowed them to be named — Aeron, Menai and Eitha.

“I say this almost every year, but when you get to look at these birds from just a few inches away, they defy description,” said Emyr Evans, Dyfi Osprey Project manager.

“Even 4K cameras don’t come close to portraying how beautiful they are. It kind of grabs you. You are bereft of words, just looking at them, staring at how astonishingly beautiful they are.

“The whole ringing operation took 46 minutes and Monty and Glesni were off the nest for 55 minutes in total. We also took saliva swabs under license for our osprey DNA research.

“Many people ask whether Monty and Glesni attack us when we’re ringing their chicks — they don’t. They circle overhead, continually calling to their chicks to ‘play dead’.

“This is their only form of defence against a real predator. Their camouflage mimicry is highly effective at this age, so long as they stay still. It makes our job a lot easier to boot."

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