Young ospreys left home alone and visits from the Jay family

Two jays check out the empty nest.

The osprey eyrie is sometimes unoccupied by the osprey family when they are out on a fishing foray. This leaves a desirable residence open for exploration from other species checking it out.

The jay family which presumably nested quite near to the osprey family, have been frequently seen at the nest, moving sticks about and pecking around on the nest floor to pick up any titbits.


One of the jays flew on to the nest and was startled by the arrival of one of the osprey youngsters. The bold jay nonchalantly moved towards the edge of the nest and as it gained confidence and felt less threatened by the presence of the osprey, slowly made its way back to the middle of the nest, just pecking at the sticks. Then both osprey and jay flew off at the same time but parting in different directions.

On Monday 30th July, two of the young ospreys were at the nest with a fish each and were feeding themselves. There was no sign of the parent birds and so there is no way of knowing whether these young birds had caught the fish for themselves, or if parents had given the fish to them. They both arrived at the nest with the fish. The third young osprey flew in to join her sisters but one of them took off presumably not very enthusiastic about sharing her dinner!



Chick all alone in the nest squawking loudly.

There can be long periods of squawking from the chicks as they hang around the nest site waiting for food. Sometimes they may perch to the side of the nest and call loudly. We cannot see if there is a parent nearby but assume that there must be and that the young birds are begging for food.


There are occasions were the birds appear to look skyward and begin to alarm call and this could mark the presence of intruder ospreys or other perceived threats such as buzzard or maybe goshawk nearby. There have not been any incidents that we know of at this site, or of any intruder birds actually coming down to the nest this year, although in the past other ospreys have popped down to check out the site.

At the Osprey Centres

Young great spotted woodpeckers have been seen coming to the bird feeders regularly at both Glentress and Kailzie feeding stations and they seem to favour the peanut feeders. A hedgehog has been patrolling the area outside of the Kailzie Osprey and Nature Watch Centre and even had a snooze in the hedgehog box!

There is a clear path from the hedgehog box to the pond edge where it must come for a drink. Young birds seem to be everywhere at this time of year and they are rapidly spreading out to make up roving mixed flocks feeding through the woodland areas.

Soon the wader families of oystercatcher, lapwing and curlews will abandon their upland home for a more coastal and estuarine habitat for the autumn.

Buzzard visit

The three big chicks were in the nest when an adult sitting in a branch close by began alarm calling, the smaller two chicks instantly lay flat in the nest and shielded their fish. One of the chicks boldly sat at the edge of the nest to survey any drama, the adult male was seen to take off and all the chicks sat back up into a more relaxed position.
A short while later a buzzard was heard flying around the nest and calling loudly, the chicks did not flatten back down and the adult returned. There was no alarm call and the buzzard sounded very close by but did not seem to be perceived as a threat.