Our hungry osprey chicks have an appetite for life!

Our hungry chicks jostle for food

The chicks are now three weeks old and have begun to move around the nest a lot more. They spend a lot of time sleeping and only become very active once they begin to feel hungry.

When dad arrives with a big fish, the hungry chicks become very animated and jostle for best position in the nest to be fed.

 Mum takes the fish from dad and then in an orderly manner, feeds the chicks with strips of raw fish. She will continue to feed, until all three bellies are full and the chicks begin to shuffle away and lose interest.

Our new osprey family

Once they are well fed and satisfied, they will usually indulge in a bit of stretching, then they empty their bowels over the edge of the nest. When all this activity is over, they snuggle down for another sleepy rest. 

Occasionally, the parents may look skyward with alarm as other birds fly over the nest. Often, this may be harmless passers-by or inquisitive ospreys.

At the young chick stage, this could be a threat if it was a crow or a buzzard but the parents are nearly always nearby.  

If one of the adult birds is not actually sitting in the nest with the chicks, then they are usually on a nearby perch and can protect the young when needed to. The chick response when there is any sign of danger is to lie flat in the nest and play dead. The parents give off high pitched alarm calls and this alerts the chicks to be on their guard.

The chicks usually have darker more orange coloured eyes than that of the parents’ bright yellow irises and this begins to change as they develop. Their faces have changed in appearance and they are beginning to look more like little ospreys, with large hook ended strong beaks for tearing fish and the stripe down the crown of the head, as well as the dark eye-stripe. The wings are showing the first signs of feathering breaking out down the shafts of the pin feather, the mid rib tube, which splits to unfold the genuine feather. The soft grey down of their bodies will also become covered over the coming weeks with their first true feathers, which will be brown in colour with a golden edge to each.

Heron 

The heron nest on camera remains empty and is a sad reminder of the differences between the species, with ospreys being great parents and protective of their young, whereas, the heron’s lack of good parenting led to the two chicks being left in the nest alone and it was raided by an opportunistic crow. Both chicks have gone and then the crow obviously made a return trip to take the third egg too. Although this is a sad occurrence to us, it is nature in the raw and the hapless heron parents will hopefully have better luck next season. The crow family would have full bellies and this struggle of the survival between species is on a grand scale, biologically, likely to balance out over time.  Only if the crow population becomes overly large which can happen, to tip the balance and then conservation action in the form of intervention or population culling could be an option. Mostly nature does a good job of ensuring the survival of the fittest and apart from local fluctuation, populations between predator and prey species tend to reach a balanced proportion.

Blue tit 

The blue tit family have grown and are squashed into the cup of the nest. We have counted nine chicks but often when the parent comes in to feed them, only six or seven gaping beaks can be seen as they all struggle in the small space to reach up for feeding time. It will be a matter of maybe a week or so now until they will fledge and leave the snug little nest box.

Swallow

The swallows have made their nest on the edge of the fishery building at Kailzie, and a camera has been put into position to watch them for the season. The swallow is incubating eggs at the moment and all that can be seen is her head and tail poking out of the mud cup nest. As soon as the eggs hatch, the young chicks will line up at the edge of the nest for feeding and we will be treated to superb views of this little family.

Our osprey chicks are now over a week old



Our three chicks and proud parents

The osprey parents have settled into the routine of family life and in just one week since the three chicks have hatched, they have grown considerably. From the tiny, fragile, wobbly chicks that they were, they have become strong and sturdy and covered in light grey downy feathering.
These soft fluffy type feathers are excellent insulation against cold weather but are not waterproof, so the young chicks are very susceptible to cold at this stage in their lives. Because of this, the osprey parents remain very attentive of their young until they can become more independent. In cold or wet weather the female will shelter the young chicks beneath her. The warm sunny weather means that the chicks can be left for short periods but the parent birds will never be far away, perhaps sitting on a nearby perch to preen, to keep their feathers in prime condition. Any sign of danger, such as a passing crow or predator and the adults will be back on to the nest and ready to protect their young straight away.

The female appeared to be pre-occupied with some nest adornment during the week as she returned to the nest with a larch stick which must have been at least 1.5m in length. She put it across the centre of the nest and perched on it for a while with the young chicks below, looking up at her. Eventually she decided to move it into a side position along the flank of the nest and seemed to be satisfied with her handiwork. Throughout the season, the adult birds add material to the nest and they will often grab a clump of moss from the forest floor and add this to the occupied part of the nest. This will help to keep their living space clean and to prevent from attracting flies.

The young chicks are pretty well house trained too and they can be seen moving into position to point their rear end towards the outside of the nest, to fire excrement away from the eyrie.  This is essential hygiene to keep the nest site clean and free from flies which could carry disease. 

Herons.

The heron nest remains abandoned since the sad demise of the two chicks and the disappearance of the third egg. It is far too late in the season for the parent birds to attempt to breed again for this year.

Blue Tits

The little blue tit family has finally hatched but over the past few days the number of chicks is going down. The blue tit had a clutch of ten eggs and it seemed to be a full clutch of chicks that had hatched but there were only 6 heads reaching up to be fed today. The very cold spring and the awful summer last year has brought about a decline in number of butterfly and moth caterpillars. Usually the young tits would be seen being fed on juicy green caterpillars but again it would seem that flies and spiders have been offered to the young chicks. This is not as nutritious as the caterpillars which are high in protein and water content. Most of the insects are made up of exoskeleton and are of little value to young which need to grow quickly. The adult bird removes dead chicks from the nest to prevent attracting predators.

Highs and Lows at the Tweed Valley Nests



Three tiny osprey chicks hatched



A hat trick of osprey chicks, have hatched this week. The first osprey chick hatched on 22nd May exactly 40 days since it was laid,  followed by the second and then the third chick on consecutive days.

The chicks are so fragile and tiny looking when they first hatch, looking like tiny fluffy ping pong ball heads with the characteristic dark eye-stripe marking their osprey identity.

After hatching, they wobble about and strain to reach up to mum as she leans in to feed them with tiny scraps of raw fish torn straight from the live catch brought in by her faithful partner, white leg ring SS.

After only a couple of days the chicks begin to find strength and they are reaching up and stretching and holding their heads steady, to receive meals. They grow at a phenomenal rate on the diet of raw fish which is superbly rich in protein. Dad will have to work really hard to make sure that he brings in enough fish to feed his family, so that they will become big and strong. He is a very good provider and this is his tenth brood of chicks this year with the same unringed female. They are very experienced parents and they take great care of their young.

Tragedy Strikes



Sadly, the heron family that was on camera with two chicks hatched and one egg still not hatched, has been struck by tragedy. Firstly one chick seemed to have disappeared followed by the second chick gone by the next morning. This just left the single egg and the next day when the cameras came on, even the egg had vanished. We keep seeing the sad parent birds dropping in to the nest and standing and looking but their whole brood for the year have vanished. We did not see what happened but we have witnessed the shadowy black form of a crow lurking in the tree top and it would seem that it must have predated on the young chicks and then returned to take the egg too.

We have often made reference to the contrasting parenting skills of the two species of osprey and heron. Herons make little effort to safeguard their young and leave them for long periods of time which leaves them open to all manner of dangers. The birds have paid a high price this year for their nesting strategy. The ospreys, by comparison are very attentive to their young and there is always one of the parents at the nest to guard their brood. They will see off any threat with tenacity and this has made them the successful breeders that they are on the main nest.

The chicks will grow quickly and the daily family life can be viewed on high definition camera in real time in the two visitor centres of Glentress Wildwatch room in Glentress Forest and in the Osprey and Nature Watch Centre at Kailzie Gardens.



First osprey chick hatches in Tweed Valley



First pic of the new chick in Tweed Valley

 Volunteers on the Tweed Valley Osprey Project are celebrating as they’ve spotted the first chick of the season.

The chick is hopefully the first of three eggs to hatch at the secret nesting site in the heart of the Tweed Valley.

The proud parents have been together for 10 years and if all eggs hatch successfully, they will have brought 26 ospreys into the world.

The new chick can be seen on high quality CCTV footage which is beamed back to Glentress Forest and Kailzie Gardens viewing centres, both just outside Peebles.

Osprey information officer Diane Bennett said:

“We are thrilled to bits that the first egg has hatched and that it could be the first in Scotland.

There’s a lot of fussing going on at the moment by the adults, making sure the youngster is warm and fed.

We’re hopeful that the other eggs will also hatch over the next few days so that visitors to our popular viewing centres can watch all the antics live.“

Ospreys have been nesting in the Tweed Valley for more than 15 years.

The Tweed Valley Ospreys Project, a partnership between Forestry Commission Scotland, Kailzie Gardens and RSPB Scotland, has helped safeguard the birds and allowed the public to enjoy them through two viewing centres.

The visitor centres at Glentress Forest and Kailzie Gardens, near Peebles, are open to the public.
As well as ospreys, visitors can also see a range of other wildlife at the centres including heron and jackdaw chicks.

We hope to have some images of the new arrival very soon....

Three eggs each for our ospreys and herons!



Male brings a fish for the female and then takes a turn to incubate.

The ospreys have settled in to a routine of incubation shifts at the main nest now that they seem to have reached a full clutch of three eggs. The camera has been remotely switched on to the close up view, so we now have stunning views into the nest. Much of this month will be taken up with incubation duties and it is always a pleasure to watch the swap over as the parent in the nest stands off the eggs, gently curls in their talons to make sure that they do not accidentally pierce the eggs and then carefully backs out of the nest as the next shift is deftly taken over by the other waiting parent bird, who quickly takes up the incubation spot and continues to keep those precious eggs warm.

The appearance of the sun and a spell of warm weather will be most welcome to ospreys all around the region as when reviewing last years’ report of nesting activity in the area it would seem that one of the factors affecting nest failure correlates to poor weather. Of a possible ten osprey nest sites as part of the Tweed Valley Osprey Project, only seven were successful in rearing young last year. Of the seven successful sites, all were early returners from their migration and had time to take full advantage of the early warm spring that we had last year. The disastrous wet summer that followed made it very difficult for not just ospreys but for many invertebrate feeders too.


Male white leg ring stands to reveal 3 eggs

Our male bird, White leg ring SS is fifteen years old this year and he came from a nest in Aberfoyle originally, he is with his unringed partner and this is their tenth season together. They have raised 23 chicks in total since they got together and there will be three more to add to the list this year if all the eggs hatch out.

To date, we can celebrate that the Tweed Valley Osprey Project has raised a minimum of 160 osprey chicks since the start of the project in 2000. This is a fantastic conservation success story for the region and it is thanks to the Forestry Commission Scotland, in particular to Tony Lightley, Conservation Manager for South of Scotland and his team for creating nesting platforms to encourage the ospreys to breed here, monitoring sites and ringing the chicks.

The project is a partnership between Forestry Commission for Scotland , Kailzie Gardens and RSPB working together to provide the public viewing centres and trained volunteer staff who educate the public all about this great project and help to spread the news of the amazing story of the return of the iconic ospreys to full breeding success here in the Borders.

We are very grateful to Bill Irvine and his technicians from FCS because they do all the technical work, setting up the cameras and making the live images possible in the viewing centres with amazing new technology.



Heron turning her three eggs.

The centres are open daily from 10am to 5pm. On camera across the two centres there are the heron nest with three eggs, blue tits that are still nest building, jackdaws with 5 eggs, pond camera, meadow and river camera, and bird feeding stations as a constant hub of activity.





Golden Eagle flying over Innerleithen - photograph by Jan Lister

Another exciting bit of news for the area was the presence of a white tailed sea eagle spotted flying over Cardrona Forest in the Tweed Valley on 10th April, this was reported in the bird listings, in Birdwatching magazine, so it is a reliable record.

Last year on 13th April, a Golden Eagle was photographed by Jan Lister as it flew over Innerleithen Town and she kindly sent the photographs to us at Tweed Valley Osprey Project. This is another exciting species to add to the list for the area.