Farewell for another year.

An empty nest, at the top of an old Scots Pine, looking like a flattened out platform of larch sticks, garnished with dried out yellowed moss, is the scene on the live cameras for most of the time towards the last days of summer.

photo by J.Lister



Only a few short weeks ago this was the scene of bustling activity with three juvenile ospreys the same size as their parents, all squashed together, occupied with wing stretching exercises and flapping to strengthen their flight muscles. After fledging, the juvenile birds also continued to use the eyrie as a dining area to practice gripping fish in their talons and using their hook tipped beaks to tear off strips to eat.

In what seems such a short time, the birds are ready to make their way in the world, it is time to journey south and although we are sure that mum and one of the juveniles have already gone, it seems likely that the second young bird has left now too. A brief appearance at the eyrie of a lone juvenile on Monday indicates that there is one still to make a move, to start the migration journey and dad will most likely wait until this one goes before he too will make his way down to West Africa.

We are delighted that this 10^th anniversary of the parents, at the main nest site has gone without any hitches and young ospreys have successfully fledged once again from this nest all watched with privilege from our live viewing facilities at Glentress Wildwatch Room and at Kailzie Gardens osprey and nature watch centre.

The Tweed Valley Osprey Project is a conservation success story and a project to which the dedicated few who are involved should be very proud of because in a matter of 15 years this region has gone from somewhere where ospreys were extinct to a region that has now produced upwards of 160 fledged ospreys, mostly from artificial eyries created to encourage them to breed here. These magnificent birds will need careful monitoring and protection in the future if they are to continue to thrive. We hear reports of a couple of nest sites that have failed to produce young and we are all too aware that the biggest threat to them is from disturbance.

Photo by J.Lister

We are lucky that the main nest site location was so carefully chosen at the start of this project, as for ten years this site has been relatively disturbance free and its security has been very well maintained. The Forestry Commission for Scotland staff have maintained and renovated the nest site while the birds are away on migration, created new artificial eyries, they install all the camera workings to make the live images possible and the licensed Conservation and Heritage Manager actively monitors the birds by ringing the fledglings at six weeks old, so that they can be tracked in the future with visible identity rings.

Although the centres are quiet at this time of year we still have many visitors on holiday in the area and folk from as far as Lancashire and Devon have called in to see our ospreys this week and to hear how the project is progressing. Most of the time the centres have volunteers on duty and they do a great job to interpret the osprey activities and tell visitors all about Tweed Valley Ospreys and their amazing comeback to the area thanks to the work done by this project. We are extremely grateful to all the volunteers that have given their time so generously to support this project once again for this season.

This week is the end of osprey watching for the season and The Osprey and Nature Watch Centre at Kailzie Gardens will be closed from Sunday 1^st September although the Wildwatch Room at Glentress will remain open for longer.

I would like to thank everybody that has supported the osprey project this year and wish for a safe migration  journey for our ospreys and a safe return next spring when hopefully I will be able to bring news that our pair have returned for an eleventh season together.

Best Wishes

Diane Bennett.

Tweed Valley Osprey Project Officer.

Successful first flight for our three osprey chicks

On the first day without rain (12th July), two of the osprey chicks took to the skies at last, followed later in the day by the third chick.



Our three chicks at the nest after a successful first flight

 It is always a very worrying time when the birds make their first flights as they can crash land and struggle to make lift- off again. The birds were away from the nest for a considerable amount of time and we waited in anticipation to see if the family would return safely.

The day after their debut flights all of the family were seen back at the nest and all were looking healthy and well. A safe first adventure for the youngsters and this has now set them well on their way to full maturity. They will spend their time from now on familiarizing themselves with the landscape and following their dad to learn fishing and hunting skills.

On Monday 16th July, the whole family were together at the nest. Dad had brought in a good sized fish and the boldest chick (CK1), seized upon it and began to tear off strips of flesh and feed herself. She continued to feed until she was full, before mum took the fish from her during much squawking and complaining and proceeded to share the rest of the fish by tearing off bits and offering them to the two other chicks one at a time.

The family altogether at the nest are an incredible sight and the young birds are now fully adult sized. The female brood are bigger than their Dad. They have been nicknamed the ‘Pointer Sisters’, as we waited for such a long time for them to ‘go ahead and jump’, to make their first flights!

Of the three chicks, the most dominant and leader of any activity is the chick with leg ring CK1. She was the first to fly, the first to feed herself and she takes off from the nest first after feeding. She is a bold bird that will hopefully have good survival instincts to ensure a long life.

Nearly ready to fly from the crowded nest.

Dad in the middle of the nest with his young family
 and Mum watches from the side branch.

The Tweed Valley Osprey chicks on the main camera nest have not flown yet. At the viewing centres, the on- screen antics of the birds limbering up ready for flight is super to watch.

We have witnessed many concerted wing-flapping sessions and valiant effort but lift-off has been achieved only briefly so far, rising from the nest and then straight back down again. The birds are well feathered and look physically ready to go but they are not in a hurry to venture out into the wider world just yet.

It's a bit of a squash !

While on duty, one of our volunteers, Iain Coates, made this observation about their flight practice:

"One knew what it was doing, another tried but didn’t quite have the rhythm and the third wasn’t really sure what it was supposed to do!"

When the whole family is at the nest it is a very crowded place now. The huge nest structure looks really small when occupied by the five family members together.

Survival against all the odds

The Tweed Valley Ospreys have done remarkably well to raise chicks to survive this summer of deluge and rivers mostly in a state of spate.

We have heard news of chick fatalities across the whole of the UK. Birds have simply not survived due to the cold wet summer and lack of food. One chick from each of the nests at Caerlaverock, Aberfoyle, Loch Garten and Kielder have been reported as having died in the nest; two chicks died at the Dyfi nest in Wales.

A final count up of all the osprey nest sites in the Tweed Valley has not been reported yet but we know that at least two of the nest sites have very good, healthy chicks ready to fledge. The parent birds are finding a good food source to exploit and this is looking very optimistic for the future of Tweed Valley raised ospreys.

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.

Nest Visitors

The chicks are now flying freely and the family leave the nest to go off to hunt for fish. The young ospreys are honing their flying skills and becoming competent and strong. The younger chick ringed (HF) does return to the nest on a regular basis and she can be heard calling loudly demanding that her parents return with food for her. Her patient Dad sometimes brings a fish for her and both parents do come over to the nest and join her while she proclaims loudly that she would like to be fed. The other chick can be heard nearby but always seems to be perched just out of camera site.
During periods of absence, other birds have been visiting the nest, so far we have seen a jay, a spotted flycatcher, a pied flycatcher and chaffinches all taking a look around and finding little scraps of food.

More osprey ringing photo's

These photo's were taken on 5th July during the ringing of chicks from Tweed Valley osprey nests.

One of the main nest chicks has been ringed but the larger chick is now fully fledged and was off flying when the ringers arrived. The ringed chick is very well advanced and we can now see the parents encouraging her to leave the nest by withdrawing food supplies. If she wants feeding she is going to have to fly to mum and dad to get some. She is fully capable of flying, her feathers have 100% broken through the quills and she is a powerful youngster. She just needs a bit of courage to take the leap of faith to test out those magnificent wings.

Stig Takes Off!

To everyone's joy, our smallest chick Stig, who got into such trouble earlier this week, has finally taken his first flight. Late yesterday he took off rather tentatively and made a short trip around the nest. He was back on the nest within five minutes looking very pleased with himself. However, he has only repeated the attempt twice since- he's still taking things slowly thank goodness!

Stig Still on the Nest

To all our enormous relief it seems little Stig, our smallest chick, has learnt from his misadventure at the beginning of the week, and is taking things slowly. He has been sitting on the nest all day again yesterday, doing some wing stretching and flapping, but not trying to take off. Some unkind people have suggested he's a little 'backwards' but we think he's just being cautious as his unscheduled first 'flight' was such a disaster!

There has been lots of action at the nest, with the two oldest chicks making regular short flights and both parents appearing on the nest regularly. However, when dad brought in a fish and mum was absent, there was an bit of squabbling over the fish- with no mum there to ensure they shared fairly, Tokyo the oldest and bossiest unsurprisingly got the majority of ti!

We expect all three chicks to be using the nest a lot in the next two or three weeks or so- unlike many small birds, the Osprey chicks first flight is just the start of a gradual 'fitness' regime, aimed at building wing muscle and strength for the long journeys ahead.

We Have First Lift Off!

This afternoon our oldest Osprey chick 'Tokyo' took his maiden flight. After a week full of vigorous wing stretching and flapping and a few attempts at flying across the large nest in the past couple of days, and at the grand old age of seven and half weeks he took his first flight from the nest at 1.57 pm today.

He was shepherded back to the nest by his ever watchful mother just three minutes later, as is often the case with Ospreys- they do not leave the nest permanently at first, continuing to use it as a base for several weeks to come, and only gradually building independence.

We will keep you posted on the progress of the other two chicks and be sure to drop in a visit us if you can to enjoy the thrills and spills ( crash landings and ungainly manoeuvres being common) of this eventful time in the young Ospreys lives.

Herons and Nuthatches

Those of you who have enjoyed views of our local Heronry at the Kailzie centre this spring will be pleased to hear the colony is doing well. There are at least seven 'teenage' herons, all either just fledged or on the cusp of their first flights. There are also, unusually, three freshly laid eggs!?!

We were privileged to witness the ringing of some of these young herons last week, when they were brought safely to the ground (using techniques similar to those we use every year on the Ospreys) for our licensed bird ringer to attached identity rings. These will hopefully enable us to follow their progress and chart how many of these local youngsters survive.

If you would like to see pictures of this process , please just ask centre staff

Our Kailzie Nuthatches have also fledged recently, with all six making their first flight within 20 minutes of each other on Thursday. These delightful little birds often lay two clutches of eggs per year so we will be leaving the nest camera connected in case. If you would like to see footage of this nest, there are highlights available in the centres. The adults are also still a common feature on the live feeding station at Kailzie.