An Empty Nest

Our young main nest Ospreys are becoming a rare sight at the nest now, as they are all now confident in the air and independent. The female bird has almost certainly left for Africa already as it's been more than a week since we had a confirmed sighting of her. As is so often the case, dad seems to have been left to supervise the teenage chicks 'finishing school' period. However, even he is becoming a rare sight at the nest, no longer bringing fish in for the chicks, which must mean they are feeding themselves down at the river.

We have been getting reports of Ospreys seen out and about the area thick and fast- from the classic St Marys Loch, to the Yarrow valley, the Tweed river at Thornilee, and even flying over the Kailzie centre on Friday!

Interestingly we are now seeing other Ospreys starting to cross the Borders too , on their way south. As one of our volunteers mentions in his comment, we had a strange female on the nest this week- females are usually the first to start moving south, having spent so much of the summer sedentary. Others will doubtless be young birds who didn't manage to breed this year, heading south early. It won't be long now until many of the highland birds will be crossing the Borders ( most use a route over us or Galloway) on their way to Africa- we'll be wishing them well as they pass us over!