First Kailzie Wildlife Festival takes place this weekend

The first ever wildlife festival organised by the Friends of Kailzie Wildlife will be held at Kailzie Gardens on 9th and 10th June with events and activities for all the family to enjoy and get involved in.

The festival starts at 10am on 9th June, with exhibitions, stalls and activities. The first activity on the day will be to check the mammal traps for small animals such as mice and voles. These will then be released before the weather gets too warm, as any caught will have gone into the traps the previous evening. They will have had a good feed from the food left for them and a sleep in the bedding provided in the Longworth traps! The mammals can be viewed at close quarters and then selected children from the crowd will be allowed to release them.

Throughout the day there will be themed activities such as pond dipping, stream dipping, heritage tree walks, bird watching trips and bug hunts all led by conservation organisations such as Tweed Valley Osprey Project, RSPB and Borders Forest Trust, Forestry Commission Scotland as well as the museum service and volunteers.

Professional ornithologist Roy Dennis is officially opening the festival at 11.30am on Saturday 9th June followed by a talk in the Osprey and Nature Watch Centre about his ‘life of ospreys’ and many people are looking forward to meeting such an expert whose life has been dedicated to these famous birds since the early days of their return from extinction in the UK.

For more information call Kailzie Gardens on 01721 720007 via the FC Scotland Facebook page or visit the website http://www.kailziewildlife.org/

Good weather brings out an abundance of bird life in Tweed Valley

The good weather has meant a surge in good blue tit food with the emergence of caterpillars and we have 4 chicks left in the box which are now looking like they will thrive. Good news after the unfortunate loss of chicks earlier in the month. They are well feathered and it will only be another week before they will leave the nest and head into the woods. Hurry down to the centre at Kailzie before you miss them!

The starlings have left their porch nest at the centre at Kailzie. We never saw them leave as they often go at dawn, we can only hope that the young birds outwitted the crows waiting to pick them off! The parent birds have been popping back to the nest and we are hoping they are going to try for a second brood. If they do we will be able to pop a camera in to watch them.



Oystercatcher nesting on the stoney ground
at Glentress

There is an oystercatcher nesting on the bare stoney ground outside the Wildwatch Room at Glentress. You may think this is a particularly stupid place to nest with so many people wandering about and disturbing her but is there method in her madness? The presence of so many people around prevents the crows from coming down and is actually helping.

A note to all mountain bikers and pedestrians please keep to the paths as there are quite a few oystercatchers nesting in vulnerable places around the centre buildings.


Our two heron chicks

The two heron chicks are really big now at two months old and they flap about and wander around the nest tree, we haven’t seen any purposeful take-offs yet, so it is doubtful if they are flying yet. The parents are still bringing food to the nest where they are feeding.

Our three new chicks bask in the sunshine but no luck with the fourth egg



Our proud parents watch over their new brood

The fourth egg has not hatched and cannot be seen in the nest. The female osprey has stopped incubating so the egg must not have been viable. However, on a much brighter note, we have three bouncy healthy looking chicks in the nest and they are growing at a phenomenal rate!

Only one week ago we could barely see their tiny heads reaching up for food. Since then they have almost doubled in size! They have grey down covered bodies and stumpy wings with the characteristic black eye-stripe prominent on their faces.

This phase of their life cycle could be classed as their ugly phase, often almost reptilian in facial expressions and mannerisms as they lurch at each other in chick squabbles from time to time. In just a very short period they will begin to get their fledgling feathers and they will gain their handsome colouring.

We are currently having a summer of extremes in Tweed Valley, from the washout spring, (thankfully, before the chicks hatched), to the sudden heatwave. The female now has the greatest concern to shield the vulnerable chicks from the scorching sun as they can very quickly be affected with heat exhaustion.

Pictures of the new chicks can be viewed on the new FC Scotland Facebook page

Feeding the three new arrivals

On Saturday 19th May, the male brought in a small fish with red fins, possibly a rudd or a roach. The fish was still alive and flapping as Mum was feeding the chicks and the tail fin caught the 4th egg and rolled it in the nest so we got a really clear view of it.



Our female osprey feeds her young chicks

 On 21st May the male brought a freshly caught fish back to the nest with the head still intact and the fish was flapping about which was a grisly sight. Usually he would have eaten the head first and then delivered the remains but because the chicks have only just hatched he must be very keen to ensure that his family benefit from the successful fishing trip as soon as possible.The female tore off small strips of flesh from the fish and fed this directly to the young chicks.

After feeding time was over, the female settled down onto the young brood and appeared to be continuing to incubate the fourth egg.

Visit our two Osprey Watch centres at Kailzie Gardens and Glentress for quality live images of our osprey 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.

Wildlife Cameras give us upclose views of the abundance of wildlife in the area



The centre at Kailzie Gardens

There are now more cameras trained on wildlife at the opsrey watch centres at Glentress Peel and at Kailzie Gardens, so it is not just all about ospreys anymore. We have the fondest regards for our ospreys but it is really fascinating to spy on the secret world of our other species live on camera too.

We have seen the blue tit turning her clutch of 10 eggs. most of which have now hatched. The pondcam has been superb to reveal the life of the tadpoles and today a common newt went stalking past the camera too, so perhaps we can expect some efts as spring progresses.

The river cam at Kailzie has a pan , zoom and tilt driver and we zoomed along the river and across the stone dyking and glimpsed a redstart which is exciting as the old dyking is possibly the site of the nest.

We can follow wildlife up the river and focus on a fallen willow which we are hoping may attract kingfisher as an observational perch from which, to dive into the water below to grab fish fry.

First osprey chick in Scotland hatched in Tweed valley



Feeding chick proud dad looks

The Tweed Valley ospreys have hatched what is believed to be the first osprey chick in Scotland.
Signs that the new arrival was due became very clear as the adult birds were becoming very twitchy and restless. The new chick was spotted by volunteers today.

The first egg was laid around the 9th of April and a second one soon after. It is not clear if there are other eggs because the nest is piled so high with twigs and branches.

The osprey family can be viewed on high definition cameras at Forestry Commission Scotland’s Glentress Forest and at Kailzie Gardens, both close to Peebles.

Osprey Information Officer Diane Bennett said:

"This is great news for the Tweed Valley Osprey Project and for ospreys across Scotland.

The adults are old hands when it comes to rearing chicks…this will be their 9th brood to date.

The adult male will be busier than ever now with more mouths to feed. He has already been bringing fish back to the nest and sharing it with his mate who is turn will feed the new chick.

In a few days we will hopefully have more chicks in the nest to keep the proud parents busier than ever."

As part of the Tweed Valley Osprey Project, the chick will be ringed so that its movements can be monitored over its lifetime.

Glentress Forest’s wildwatch room is situated within the new Peel visitor centre development and is part of the wider Tweed Valley Ospreys Project. The project is a partnership between Forestry Commission Scotland, Kailzie Gardens and RSPB Scotland.

The project not only offers close circuit TV footage of ospreys at Glentress Forest and Kailzie Gardens, but also of other birds too. For more information on the Tweed Valley Osprey Watch project log on to www.forestry.gov.uk/tweedvalleyospreys.