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.

Two eggs now and counting!

A second egg has been spotted in the nest and this was first seen late on Monday 15th April when the volunteer on duty at the Glentress Wildwatch room realised that when the female was turning what he thought to be one egg, there were actually two! We will keep a watchful eye for more eggs over the next few days.


Proud Dad to be looks down as female reveals 2 eggs


The birds have begun their incubation duties and as ever the male bird from this pair is always keen to take his turn. Both birds appear to be relaxed and very settled. The eggs are gently and carefully turned regularly and the adult birds curl their talons in, to make sure that they do not accidentally pierce the eggs while they lean down and roll the eggs into a favoured position using their beaks.

The weather has been very stormy with high winds. The female has been hunkered down into the nest cup which she frequently scrapes and shifts about material, so that it is to her liking. The male bird has been perching above the nest looking down like the proud father to be.

More wildlife news from around Tweed Valley

The pond camera at Glentress is now showing lots of toads mating in the water. The one at Kailzie has revealed masses of frogspawn and frogs lumbering about.

Breeding condition - Bright orange base to the beak

At Kailzie Osprey and Nature Watch Centre, the ‘live’ heron camera is giving superb views of the female heron in impressive breeding condition.

Her beak has a very bright colouration with a vivid orange base and yellow tip. During rest periods at the nest she has been seen resting her long beak on the sticks in the nest. She continues to re-arrange the sticks and there is a lot more fresh grassy material which has been added to the top. There has been no sign of any mate, but she certainly gives the impression of a bird with egg laying on her mind!

The first swallows appeared hunting over Kailzie fishery today and the blue tit has begun to build her nest in the nestbox with a live camera link into the centre at Kailzie.

A variety of breeding birds at the Osprey Watch Centres

Swallows

The swallow chicks have flown the nest. It is really good to know that this family have done so well during this wet summer. We will be watching to see if the parents come back to have a second brood as they usually do. They will choose a nest site near to the one they have just occupied and start again. If they do we will move the camera and watch the next stage of summer with this pair of swallows.


Feeding stations

It is good to see that there are many young song birds coming to the bird feeding stations at both Glentress and Kailzie Gardens. The young blue tits and great tits have yellow faces compared to the white faces of their parents. The black facial markings and bibs are the same as the adult birds. Young great spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches , chaffinches and greenfinches have also been spotted.


Red list species of conservation concern

Spotted flycatchers at Kailzie Gardens


The young flycatchers and their parents are really visible down the main drive into Kailzie Gardens, you can see them perched on the post and wire fences and swooping off to chase flies and return back to the perch. A short film clip of the flycatchers filmed along the drive can be watched in the osprey and nature watch centre. The parents and two youngsters can be seen as a family together during a torrential rainstorm.


Spotted flycatchers are described as being on the red list of birds of conservation importance according to the RSPB website. These are birds of the highest conservation concern that have severely declined in population and suffered a severe contraction of breeding range over the past 25 years. We are very privileged to have them breeding successfully at Kailzie Gardens.

Herons and more nest site news from Tweed Valley



Waiting and hoping Mum will bring some food.

Herons. The two heron chicks are fully fledged and flying off to feed themselves and to explore their surroundings. They return to the nest and spend quite a time sitting and resting ever hopeful that one of their parents will pop in and bring some food. The parents have not been seen at the nest for some time though and this is a deliberate ploy to make the chicks leave the nest and hunt for themselves.

Blue tits.

Both blue tit families which were live on camera have now fledged, four chicks in each nest which is a low number, considering some years a single brood can consist of at least 10 chicks. The weather caused a lack of food and some nestlings died of starvation but it is good that some of them have made it.

Swallows.

At Kailzie, a small camera is now revealing life in a swallow nest. The swallows have been seen building the nest up and we were aware that there was at least one egg in the nest at the weekend but now the female appears to be sitting more in the nest, so perhaps she has laid her full clutch now.

Oystercatchers at Glentress.

Oystercatcher eggs in the scrape nest.

Sadly, too much disturbance from people passing the nest meant that the female oystercatcher was away from her eggs for too long.

A smashed egg was first seen with two eggs remaining but a little later all three eggs were smashed. We don’t know what smashed the eggs but presume a crow has attacked while the female was disturbed and away from the nest.  Very disappointing and next time a vulnerable nest appears we may try to cordon it off to allow the parent some peace to incubate without disturbance.

 It was too difficult where this nest was positioned because it was right next to the main path leading to the wildwatch and washroom on a main thoroughfare.

Pied Wagtail

We may prove to be lucky yet though, as it appears that a new nest is being constructed within the structure of the osprey demonstration nest. A small pied wagtail has been seen working away and if she does settle we will move a camera over to watch her and hopefully be able to witness her incubate her eggs and raise a little family.

New arrivals boost osprey family numbers



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.

Blue tits have a new family as eggs start to hatch



Our blue tits are now proud parents

 Yesterday at the centre at Kailzie we were delighted to see 8 tiny little wide open mouthed heads reaching up out of the nestcup begging for food. Mum is intermittently still incubating , so we have 2 more eggs still to hatch. Dad was very busy diving into the nest box with green caterpillars for the brood and bringing food in to mum.

Both birds were in and out of the box all day and bringing back food to satisfy their little ones. They will be fed a diet of green caterpillars as super high protein rations to enable speedy growth.

A foray of feathered activity around Tweed Valley



Our developing heron chicks at the nest



The heron chicks at Kailzie are really big now and they are becoming adventurous. The nest is a midden of rotting food at the bottom and white splashes of heron droppings all around the edges. This is such a contrast to the tidy and clean nesting ospreys.

The precocious chicks are beginning to wander through the branches of their nest tree to explore their world and possibly to escape the stinky reaches of their home.

While the chicks had gone walkabout we think a chick from one of the other nearby nests in the colony wandered on in to have a nose about and see if there was any free food scraps to be had.

This bird seemed much further advanced in feathering, with the pin feathers broken all along the shafts to reveal almost full primary and secondary feathers.

After a good rummage about in the bottom of the nest, the chick then stalked off to continue wandering though the branches.

The two heron chicks return to the nest when they are hungry and mum is due back to feed them.

When their mum returns to the nest with a full crop of fishy food, both chicks violently descend on her and begin tapping at her beak to regurgitate the food. It is like a wrestling match with both chicks competing to win the prize! Most often it is the largest heron chick that wins and gets a satisfied full stomach and the smaller skinnier chick has to take any scraps dropped into the bottom of the nest. We are hoping that this smaller chick will get enough to survive.

The blue tits have now completed their clutch of eggs and it looks like there are 10 eggs in the nest. The female carefully covers the eggs when she leaves the nest but she has now begun incubating and turning them regularly. When she stands up briefly we get a glimpse of the eggs.

The feeder cameras at Glentress are bustling with hungry forest birds such as flocks of siskins tucking in to the peanut feeders. The camera is set to capture, in superb detail, these little finches teasing the food from between the mesh of the feeders.

Two osprey chicks!

Two osprey chicks have been seen and the female was removing eggshell from the nest. We are hoping that there is another egg, as the birds keep moving something about, after feeding the chicks, which we hope is another egg. She appears to be continuing to incubate, rather than just shelter her youngsters. These are possibly, the first osprey chicks in Scotland this year. Congratulations to Wales, with the earliest record ever, for osprey hatching in the UK (9th May). If our main nest birds have 3 chicks this year, that will bring them to the grand total of 20 chicks raised since 2004.

Osprey parents could teach heron parents a lesson or two on parenting skills!



Herons are not doing well, with this cold, wet spring. The early April warm weather must have been a bonus for the early nesters in the heronry but the later ones are struggling in this wet weather.

Blue tits are doing well and are the cutest, if not the ugliest chicks ever!!

First chick has hatched

The first osprey chick has hatched today. The female was seen removing egg shell from the nest and peering down to feed the youngster. The nest is still built up with sticks around the edges, so we do not yet know how many eggs there are or even how many chicks have hatched but there is at least one.

The brand new heron HD cam is now showing live pictures from the nest in the heronry. There has been great drama with the parent birds choosing to remain absent through some very bad, wet, spring weather. The cold chicks set upon the youngest one in the nest and viciously attacked it, repeatedly stabbing the chick on the head and neck. It was not seen in the nest today and so we presume that it has died. The parent bird stayed with the young today and they appeared to be more settled.

The blue tits on blue tit cam, now have 6 young in the nest.

A grey squirrel climbed into the open fronted nest box and deposited an acorn!
All the nests are live on camera in Kailzie Gardens Osprey Watch.

Ospreys and Blue tits

The ospreys are keeping their clutch size a close guarded secret this year! The way they have built up the nest to secure their eggs means that we cannot see into the nest, to determine the number of eggs. We are guessing between 2-3 but it will be a nice surprise once hatching occurs. Viewing into the nest once chicks hatch, will not be a problem, because once hatched the parents stand at the nest edges in order to reach in and feed the young and it is at this stage that the nest flattens out and becomes a flat platform. We will be able to see right in and view the chicks very clearly. It is estimated that hatching will occur in the third week of May.

The blue tit female in the nestcam at Kailzie has finished laying eggs and today she sat down to begin incubation. The male was bringing lovely caterpillar and spider treats in for her to eat and as this nest now has live sound, it was so lovely to hear the interaction between the couple as food is passed to the expectant mum.