Heron's lead the way with hungry chicks

Adult Heron feeding chicks

Lots of activity on the heron cam with a full nest. Today we saw the adult heron flying onto the nest, greeted by two hungry chicks who began to tap the adults beak with their own beaks. The adult was then forced to regurgitate its food into the beak of the hungriest chick.

The pond camera is showing the tadpoles free swimming in the little pond outside the centre at Kailzie, whilst the blue tits are out and about feeding up in readiness for the long incubation. The eggs are covered when the female is out and she will begin to incubate once the clutch of eggs is complete.





Ospreys reveal two eggs (at least....)



Osprey at the nest in Tweed Valley



The ospreys have been keeping the number of eggs that they have as a closely guarded secret until yesterday when the female stood up and began to turn the eggs, revealing two, possibly more, but definitely two.

They are taking turns to incubate and seem very settled in their lofty eyrie. This pair are in their ninth year together and have raised 20 chicks to date.

They have laid their eggs very early and so we can expect hatching to be in mid May which are likely to be the earliest chicks to hatch in Scotland this year.

The centre cameras are providing the greatest opportunity to watch them continue their family life in peace in the forest, so that we can really appreciate how they live their lives and raise their families during their annual summer visit to the Tweed Valley.

The great thing about having such a remote nest relayed through camera is that we are seeing totally relaxed and natural behaviour at all times and the only disturbance they generally encounter is another passing, intrusive and nosey osprey on occasion!

Incubation time for our ospreys

Male and female ospreys on the nest yesterday

The camera was working again today and we are relieved that the technical teething troubles seem to be getting resolved .

The High Definition images on the live nest today revealed that the male was incubating a mystery number of eggs. He was in the nest for a considerable time before the female returned and encouraged him to move over, so that she could take her turn to incubate.

We cannot see the eggs, but the expectant parents are turning and moving them, scraping deep down into the nest cup, which takes them further from view but is doing a good job of keeping the eggs safe and warm.

The new equipment allows us to take pictures and video clips of the nest which we will update on the blog and web pages.

The quality of the nest pictures really shows just how good the new equipment is. We hope to have any initial issues sorted soon so we can bring you top quality images throughout the viewing season at the Osprey Watch Centre .

The New Look Centres at Glentress and Kailzie

The New Wildwatch Room at Glentress Peel.
A quick tour of the centre.




The Osprey and Nature Centre at Kailzie Gardens.
A quick tour of the centre.

Tweed Valley Ospreys land on Twitter

With an already avid blog following for the Tweed Valley Osprey Project, we are happy to announce that you can now follow all the updates and goings on at the two viewing centres and nest sites via our brand new twitter feed.

You can follow Tweed Valley Ospreys on twitter @TweedOspreys

The First Egg at Tweed Valley for 2012?

Osprey nest in Tweed Valley

There are a few teething problems with technical equipment at the moment and the technicians have been working over the bank holiday weekend to solve the camera issues.

During a short spell when the camera was working, a keen volunteer David, observed the following and this is what he said:

"In the short time I was able to observe the female on the nest, I think by her body language and manner, that we may have the first egg. She was sitting tight on the nest for most of the time. However, when she did move about she moved very gingerly in little circles, tucking her head down underneath herself as if she was turning the egg. The male also made an appearance. When he landed, they both stood in the nest together looking down at something that was just out of sight, before the female quickly shuffled back down onto the nest. It may be a false alarm, but it looks very likely that there is an egg to me."

This is great news and we will be keeping a sharp look out to see how many eggs that she has.

Looks like it could be an exciting season and well worth a visit. We have two Osprey Watch Centres in Tweed Valley, we look forward to welcoming you along.

Tweed Valley 2012 Osprey Season Starts!

Kailzie Gardens Osprey Watch Tweed Valley has had osprey sightings since 12th March this year. Possibly birds flying north or maybe even our own nesters?

On 26th March the female bird from the live camera nest was sitting on the nest, she was mantling and looking skyward as though there was a bothersome intruder about.

No sign of the male bird as yet.

Blue tits have begun building a nest in the tit box at Kailzie and this is live on camera too.

Check out our web pages for more information on our two Osprey Watch Centres at Glentress and Kailzie Gardens.