Here in the Tweed Valley, our Ospreys are doing amazingly well, but life in the nest day to day is not without its little dramas. For example, there are the daily squabbles between chicks, with one (we suspect the oldest female chick) being decidedly bossy and today pecking her siblings head quite fiercely. Yet again Mum came to the rescue, diverting their attention to break up the fight.
Dad has been working hard to bring in enough fish to keep all the hungry mouths happy, and has taken to bringing in fish still whole. He must be still hungry himself, because occasionally he hangs around nearby and waits until all the chicks are full and then pops back to 'ask' for the tail for himself.
Just this afternoon, Dad arrived back in the nest with a fish, only to find mum was away, and there was no-one around the do the serving! He sat for about ten minutes wondering what to do with it before resorting to feeding the chicks himself- two of them took a few minutes to be convinced it would taste as good from a different parent.
Dad Osprey still insists on bringing in yet more moss to line the nest and yesterday half buried one chick which sat patiently with a moss headdress for a few minutes. Quite the look.
Overall all three chicks are growing well, starting to colour up with the first signs of brown and white feathers, and disproportionately long wings they use as props to waddle about the nest with- not their cutest stage but fascinating none the less.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to leave your comments on the blog. We've got a few house rules:
1. We (Forestry Commission Scotland) will review all comments and reserve the right to not publish them at our discretion.
2. There will be a time delay between submission and posting. Comments posted on a Saturday or Sunday won't be moderated until the following Monday.
3. Please make comments appropriate and relevant.
4. If you've a comment or question about Tweed Valley Ospreys , you can e-mail tweedvalleyospreys@gmail.com as we might not be able to respond here.
5. We won't publish comments that are abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory; published comments may be removed at any time; and individuals are personally liable for the comments they submit.
Thanks!