Monday 21 May 2012

New arrivals boost osprey family numbers


osprey chicks
Chicks from a previous Tweed Valley brood
 Two further eggs have now hatched in the osprey nest in Tweed Valley meaning we now have proud parents of three chicks. The eggs hatched over the last few days and the male osprey has now had to double his efforts to make sure he catches the largest fish possible to feed his brood!

We are still awaiting images of the new chicks. These will be posted on the new FC Scotland facebook page when we get them.

A fourth egg still remains in the nest. Volunteers at the centres remain hopeful that this will hatch, however four chicks in one nest would be an extremely rare occurance.

On a sadder note, our blue tits have been seen on camera dragging three dead chicks from the nest. It is believed that the chicks failed to survive through a lack of food. Blue tits feed heavily on caterpillars and the recent damp weather has seen a drop in caterpillar larvae in the area meaning the young birds have been struggling to survive on small insects.

Hopefully with the weather now beginning to improve, the rest of the chicks will be able to get the nutrition they need to grow.

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!