Time To Go

Photo by J.Lister

There is a definite autumnal nip in the air as we are approaching the end of August. Gone are the long stretched out evenings, as the daylight hours begin to shrink back. Ospreys have felt it too and most certainly the female from the main nest site is now on her way. We are not certain of the exact date that she left but she has not been seen for quite a while now.

photo by J.Lister

The male was seen regularly back at the eyrie with three of his young juveniles, feeding together but for this past week only two juveniles have been present with the male. This is hopefully a good sign that the boldest youngster has followed Mums example and headed off south to longer days and warmer climate, to escape the start of the Scottish cold season with short days.

This week a lonely juvenile osprey sat for hours on the eyrie calling and wing flicking and looking skywards. Perhaps the male bird was somewhere close by, feeding on a fish and the youngster was hopeful of receiving a meal. A second young osprey joined the first one at the nest site but appeared quite content and was preening feathers. A whole morning passed by and Dad never put in an appearance. Eventually both young birds flew off but returned later to sit and wait for Dad again. He must be feeling the need to push his remaining brood into independence. He will stay around until he sees them depart before he will also begin his long journey south to Western Africa. The impulse to migrate must be strong and certainly birds will face a better journey if they leave before autumn sets in properly with gales making passage difficult.

The river camera at Kailzie revealed a surprise visitor last week and the volunteer on duty was able to take snap shots and a small amount of video footage of what appears to be a juvenile buzzard bathing in the burn that leads down to the River Tweed.  The raptor is a chunky brown bird with streaky brown markings over buff coloured chest and belly. It was a bit difficult to distinguish what it was at first and was thought to be a sparrowhawk but after careful scrutiny it was decided that it was one of the young buzzards.

The buzzards remain thoughout the seasons and do not migrate to foreign climates. When times get tough over the winter months with snow conditions they will adopt a localised movement to better conditions and being a bird that relies quite heavily on carrion, it manages to scratch a good living for itself topping up its diet with road kill and earth worms or any other scraps. It is equally equipped for hunting prey such as rabbit or occasional birds and squirrels.