Spring Sunshine

Here in the Tweed Valley today, we are blessed with glorious sunshine and it is so warm it feels like summer already! Can it only be six days ago it was artic cold and hailing on our poor hardy birds?

The female osprey still sticks diligently to her nest incubating her eggs. She has been frequently today seen 'panting' with her beak open trying to cool herself, and sometimes opening her wings and flying short distances to cool off.

Incubation is a delicate balance of keeping the eggs at just the right temperature- perhaps she is trying to keep them from getting too warm!

The male too seems to be taking it easy in the heat, spending most of the day sitting in trees nearby, probably dozing in the sunshine, although he did bring a nice wee trout today for lunch for his lady.

Here in the Osprey Watch centre it really feels like spring. We have swallows beginning to nest on our camera at Glentress and great tits at Kailzie. Other birds such as dunnocks, house sparrows and wrens are beginning to make homes around the centres and we hope to catch some more of these on live nest camera soon.

Many of us were up at dawn on Sunday for a national dawn chorus day walk at Kailzie- a great chance to see and hear many of our local birds at their spring best, and worth the early rising. This was just one of many special events planned for the summer, suitable for the whole family, so stay posted.