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.

Heron's lead the way with hungry chicks

Adult Heron feeding chicks

Lots of activity on the heron cam with a full nest. Today we saw the adult heron flying onto the nest, greeted by two hungry chicks who began to tap the adults beak with their own beaks. The adult was then forced to regurgitate its food into the beak of the hungriest chick.

The pond camera is showing the tadpoles free swimming in the little pond outside the centre at Kailzie, whilst the blue tits are out and about feeding up in readiness for the long incubation. The eggs are covered when the female is out and she will begin to incubate once the clutch of eggs is complete.





Ospreys reveal two eggs (at least....)



Osprey at the nest in Tweed Valley



The ospreys have been keeping the number of eggs that they have as a closely guarded secret until yesterday when the female stood up and began to turn the eggs, revealing two, possibly more, but definitely two.

They are taking turns to incubate and seem very settled in their lofty eyrie. This pair are in their ninth year together and have raised 20 chicks to date.

They have laid their eggs very early and so we can expect hatching to be in mid May which are likely to be the earliest chicks to hatch in Scotland this year.

The centre cameras are providing the greatest opportunity to watch them continue their family life in peace in the forest, so that we can really appreciate how they live their lives and raise their families during their annual summer visit to the Tweed Valley.

The great thing about having such a remote nest relayed through camera is that we are seeing totally relaxed and natural behaviour at all times and the only disturbance they generally encounter is another passing, intrusive and nosey osprey on occasion!

A surprise visitor

The osprey watch had another unusal visitor yesterday, as a little fledgeling robin flew into the fishery next door. Jimmy from the fishery brought it over to the osprey centre to find out what it was and to see if it was alright. It was a bit stunned so we put it in the artificial osprey nest outside the building to allow it time to recover and fly off.
The osprey chicks are doing very well, the male brought a feast of fish to the nest and the female fed the raw trout to each individual chick until they were full and sleepy.
The heron chicks are looking huge and glum. A visit from one of the parents did little to raise any activity from them but the parent seemed satisfied that they were ok and left them to continue their treetop trance.

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!!