Part of an update posted by Cilla Kinross on October 2:
Bula is missing?
I may be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve recorded a sighting of Bula since 1300 on 30th September ie Friday. This is not at all a good sign. As far as I can tell Diamond has not had a feed since then (over two days) and, coupled with the frenzied activity on the Thursday, when I suspected an intruder, and the eggs were only irregularly incubated, I fear the worst.
And I don’t think that it is a coincidence that the box was visited by a strange female today, a very large bird that was instantly chased away (definitely not Bula). I’d show you some stills, but the software is once again playing up. I’ll send them to Scott and see if he can upload the stills or a videos. I went around afterwards to see if I could see this bird again (or Bula) but all was quiet. It could be an offspring from previous year.
Bad weather (and we’ve had plenty of that) does often lead to reproductive failure and so these problems may stem from difficulty in procuring food (they can’t complain of their nest getting wet!). Or it may be that something has happened to Bula and he’s no longer able to hunt.
I did see Diamond having a meal in the early evening yesterday. She walked to the front of the nest box, and came back with a fairly small food offering, which took her only a few minutes to consume. She then returned immediately to her eggs.
