With the magnificent DVD of the Ringing playing at Whinlatter Visitor Centre it is easy to see that the chicks are some of the best we have had – healthy, weighty and well developed. During this week they have been practising getting those floppy muscles into trim and at regular intervals stretch out a wing or a treat watchers to a series of flaps.

Their co-ordination is improving and their feet, already formidable with centimetre long black talons, will have been developing hooky spicules beneath. No-ring and Mrs, aware of this have been giving them their next lesson in table manners – using their own knives and forks. In the past few days Mum has stopped jumping onto the nest to feed the chicks every time a fish comes in. Instead she has watched carefully to see how they cope with holding down the slippery scales with their talons whilst pulling pieces off with the beak. In previous years it has been compared to playing that amusing and painful party game where one holds an empty cornflake box between the feet, bends double and tears strips off it with the teeth (no hands allowed). The difference is that for human players failing is generally only marked by a crick in the neck, but for those osprey chicks unable to master the ‘game’ quickly, it can have terminal consequences. Luckily Mum is still lending a hand to help if our little YoungYouth has any difficulty.