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.

More news via the wildlife cameras.

Swallows.

The swallow family on camera at Kailzie now have three chicks hatched and the busy parents are swooping into the nest taking turns to deliver food for their brood.  The parents seem to have chosen a good location for the nest on a ledge at the back of the fishery building.

Pond Camera.

The pond camera is revealing good views of the diving beetles swimming about, with the characteristic air bubble on their backs to enable underwater breathing.  The newts have not been seen for a while, so perhaps the adults have left the pond now, and we are hopeful of seeing young newts (efts).

Efts resemble the adults only with dragon-like adornments to their heads - external gills for their underwater life cycle until they are ready to become truly amphibious adults with lungs for breathing out of the water.

Wildflowers

At Glentress the wildflowers are in full bloom all around the wildwatch room and car parks. There is an abundance of birdsfoot trefoil, yellow rattle, clovers, oxe-eye daisies, and vetches, all attracting plenty of butterflies, moths and bees. One of the cameras has been fixed on to the flowers to watch bee activity.

Kailzie Wildlife Festival and more from Tweed Valley

Visitors to the wildlife festival were left in no doubt that the Tweed Valley is indeed teeming with wildlife. Below is a summary of just some of the wildlife seen in absolute close-up, over the whole weekend event.

· Live mammal trapping caught two voles and two wood mice and these were safely returned back to their homes after greeting the public!

· Marathon Pond dipping with Anna Craigen from Borders Forest Trust caught lots of pond life mentioned above.

· Burn dipping caught – mayfly nymphs, cased caddis fly larvae, leeches, fresh water limpet, trout fry and lots of fresh water shrimps.

· Moth trapping with Reuben Singleton and moth group friends caught, angle shades, brimstone, prominents and many more but the star moth caught one of our volunteers Nigel Palmer! It hitched a lift on his sleeve for most of the afternoon! It was a magnificent hawk moth.

· Bird ringing with Stuart Craig was absolutely brilliant with visitors able to see birds in the hand such as great spotted woodpecker, blue tits, siskin, nuthatches, great tits, chaffinches, coal tits and swallow.

The pond dipping activities during the Kailzie Wildlife Festival proved to be one of the most enjoyable sessions and kids were enthralled by the myriad creatures lurking in the deep. Sticklebacks, diving beetles, leeches, water boatmen , tadpoles and water shrimp were just some of the fascinating pond life that was found. The pond camera back at the osprey and nature centre continues to reveal the life in the underwater world and we have witnessed the occasional diving beetle whizzing by but by far the star attractions are the palmate newts stalking prey on the pond bed.
We will be running the event again next year so we hope to meet even more visitors for an even bigger event.

Meanwhile.....

The heron chicks spend very little time at the nest now. The less than subtle hint from their parents to make the chicks hunt for themselves seems to have finally pressed home.

Our swallow has settled down to incubate her eggs on the nest, this can be viewed at the Kailzie Osprey and Nature Watch Centre which has a camera pointed into the nest and the images are relayed to a large screen in the centre. The adult bird is such a beautiful sight with dark blue wings, back and tail with a red face and cream under belly. These beautiful migrant birds are easily recognisable by their forked tails and long tail streamers.

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.

Update on Other Birds

Just a quick note to answer some enquiries about our other birds we've been featuring at the centres over the last few months on live cameras. Though Ospreys are of course our stars, we like to think of them as ambassadors for all our local wildlife and try to feature other species in the centres as well.

Firstly, the live Heron nest on camera at Kailzie fledged at least 7 healthy chicks, and though we've had one sad mortality since then, these youngsters are often being seen in the Kailzie fields and on the Tweed river below the centre.

Similarly the nuthatch family who so fascinated us on live nest box camera are all fledged and still visit the bird feeding table outside the centre- though trying to see any leg ring numbers on these visits has proved impossible!

At Glentress, the swallows have just yesterday fledged their second brood on the live nest camera - a grand total of 10 chicks this year- well done parents! Its a pleasure to watch the swallows swooping around Glentress carpark oblivious to all the human activity below.

We have also had exciting regular reports of Tree Sparrows on our live feeding station camera- as well as all the usual suspects- which is a quite uncommon species distinct from the common House Sparrow.

Lastly we have a family of Jays frequently using the Live Osprey nest at the moment- two adults and at least one youngster have been making appearances, mostly when the Ospreys are away, to scavenge for scraps. They have even appeared when the nest is occupied occasionally, and after ignoring them imperiously for a while , the young ospreys eventually give chase! Jays are lovely forest birds, not often seen up close, but are versatile scavengers and a colourful addition!

There is still lots to see in the centres, including highlights of the season so far, so drop in before the end of August.

Fledging Youngsters

News today of our other nesting birds on live cameras in the centres.

The swallows at Glentress have begun to fledge from the nest- all six are absolutely huge and hopefully will therefore have a good chance on the wing. The jackdaws have also fledged but are still using the box to roost in.

The Kailzie nuthatches are doing well, with several of the ringed young appearing on the feeders at the window very regularly. We are still hoping their parents will lay another clutch in the televised nest box.

The Herons are still using the nest their nests in the colony on camera, and are often to be seen sitting in a loose group in the field along the river bank- sometimes up to seven or eight of them!

We also have a blue tits live on camera at Kailzie at the moment on camera.

We are hoping to have more youngsters on camera in the centres soon- just in time for the school holidays!

More Babies!

More delightful news as our swallows at the Glentress centre have hatched at least two young live on camera. One of our young visitors this morning was the first to see the two little beaks begging for food. The adult birds have stepped up their activities to bring in enough food, and can be seen flying frantically in and out of the shed doors opposite the centre.

The nuthatch chicks at Kailzie are also doing well, growing fast and finally feathering up. They were ringed on Tuesday so we can hopefully follow their progress after fledging- look out for young nuthatches on the feeders wearing tiny metal leg rings.

Hopefully there are many more baby birds yet to come this year!

New Arrivals Welcomed

No not osprey chicks yet- they'll be at least another week to ten days before they hatch. But we do have babies already at our Kaizlie centre with delightful Nuthatch chicks on live camera. There are six of these amazing wee birds , who are perhaps the ugliest babies we've ever had, but will soon grow into beautiful adults. These birds are notoriously quick fledgers so be sure to drop into the centre to see them live soon! We are also awaiting our swallows at Glentress hatching soon.

All Quiet on the Nest Front

All is quiet here on our local osprey nest with incubation of the three eggs continuing. Both parents have been sharing the duties on the nest, and the male has been supplying two or three small fish a day to keep his mate happy. Despite the cold and windy weather here this week, the eggs seem snug in their moss lined nest. The male osprey has been showing his usual tender care of his partner, by bringing in yet more sticks, and quite often placing them across her back when he arrives with them- which doesn't always please her!

Here in the centres we are enjoying watching other species on nest camera , such as swallows, herons, and nuthatches whilst we await the ospreys hatching at the end of the month.