Tweed Valley ospreys - Diary of the 2007 season

 

3rd September

The season draws to a close

As the end of the Osprey season approaches it seems a good time to take stock of the birds’ progress this year and reflect on their success.

It has been a difficult year for our birds in some respects, especially with all the wet weather.  Our female birds had their patience and skills sorely tested keeping eggs warm and downy chicks dry during the seemingly constant downpours.

Their mates have had their fishing skills tested to the limits, fish being difficult to find with the river in frequent spate. The muddy, high waters made fishing by sight almost impossible - we suspect they did so well by using other sources such as the upland lochs and reservoirs in the worst weeks.
 
In other respects it has been a highly successful year for our birds, with, we believe, a total of seven pairs nesting in the Tweed Valley - one more than last year. But of these nests just three have managed to raise young, with a total of seven chicks this year, including two youngsters on our main nest and three on our backup nest.  Many of the other nests lost their eggs or very young chicks to the cold and wet weather.

The birds' overall success is thanks to the policy of active support and protection of the birds by the combined efforts of Forestry Commission Scotland, the RSPB, Tweed Forum, and local landowners and residents alike, and the support of our Police Wildlife Liaison Officer. We can only hope the birds continue to go from strength to strength in this area and in the UK as a whole.

Our special thanks go to the dedicated group of volunteers who have staffed our two visitor centres over the summer, and who have done such a wonderful job of sharing the sight of our birds with the public.

Visitors have been treated not only to live images of ospreys expertly interpreted, but also the whole season's story brought alive with great highlights footage, as well as unique insights into other birds and animals via our Windows on Wildlife features.

We hope you’ve enjoyed seeing and hearing about all our local wildlife as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing them to you. If you would like to get more involved next year, contact us about volunteering, and keep an eye out for special events at the centre next season.

Lastly, a quick summary of the key points of this year’s season on the Main nest – it seems like a fairly typical season overall.

• 5th April: Our regular female Osprey arrives at the Main nest (no rings)
• 12 April: A rival female bird drops in and is seen off
• 15th April: A new male bird (leg ring black 07) drops by the flirt with our female
• 17th April: Our regular male (leg ring white SS) turns up and begins courtship
• 21st-28th April: 3 eggs laid
• 1st June: First chick hatches
• 2nd June: Second chick hatches
• 4th July: All chicks ringed and the third unhatched egg removed (proved unfertilised)
• 24th- 25th July: Chicks first flights
• 10th August: Chicks catch their first fish
• Last week of August: Adult female leaves on migration

23rd August

Growing Confidence

Our ospreys are becoming a rarer site at the nest now, except for occasional visits to rest or eat a proudly-caught  fish.  These visits have been varying from a few seconds' touchdown to a lonely hour or so.   The chicks occasionally look surprised that there is no one there to greet and mollycoddle them! 

The youngsters are obviously growing in confidence and ranging further and further afield, whilst honing their fishing skills they will sorely need in the weeks ahead on their first long journey.  Very rarely, all four birds still gather together - this was last seen on Friday 17th August. Our female adult bird may well have left since then as the instinctive pull to migrate south must now be growing very strong.

It is amazing how well grown our chicks are, now virtually indistinguishable from their parents, and it often takes us a minute to identify our visitor on the nest. Of course the leg rings are invaluable for this, and should provide an opportunity for our southern friends to identify our youngsters if they fly over on their way south. Look out for a white leg ring with the letters HA, or HB (the chicks from the main nest) or HC, HD, or HE (the chicks from the backup nest).

The Kailzie Gardens Osprey watch centre is open until the 2nd September, so don’t miss your chance to catch a glimpse of the birds before they disappear for the year, and to see the fantastic highlights of this season. There is also a wide variety of other wildlife footage available for viewing, recorded this season on site.

Lastly, don’t forget our last two Small Mammal Mornings at Kailzie Gardens on the 25th and 28th August at 10am. Great for kids and adults alike! A small charge applies.

14th August

Countdown to independence

Our main nest osprey chicks are fast approaching independence, and are busy practising the skills they will soon need to fend for themselves.  Both are now flying strongly and spending up to a few hours away from the nest at a time. All the ospreys seem to using the nest a bit like hotel - a place to have meals and roost at night, and only occasionally all meeting up there.

The male chick surprised us all by being the first of the two youngsters to bring back his very own fish (as far as we know), probably caught locally in the Tweed river.  It is great to know our youngsters are able to begin feeding themselves, as it won’t be long now before mum and dad will simply stop supplying fish to give them the hint!

August is the prime time to try to see our ospreys on the wing as there are more birds aloft now than any other time of year.  Both parents and all the chicks are now out hunting and building fitness, and likely to be seen around the river and upland lochs and reservoirs in the area - centre staff can give you good hints of where to look, but be warned you need some patience and considerable good luck!

In previous years it has been late August when our female adult osprey has begun her long journey south on migration, leaving dad to supervise the teenagers’ final weeks here in the Borders. Can you blame her after all the dedicated weeks of immobility on the nest caring for her chicks?  Other ospreys may also be seen flying over the Borders from now on, heading south, initially those young adults who haven’t managed to breed this year, gradually followed by other parents and chicks over the next month or so. We expect our birds to be in the area until the end of the month, so don’t miss your last chance to see them this year!

Windows on Wildlife

If you’ve visited Glentress lately, you may have seen our swallows incubating a second clutch of eggs, and you’ll be glad to know they have successfully hatched this week. Despite the Glentress centre now being closed we will keep you up to date with their progress.

We now have a great selection of highlights DVD’s in the centre at Kailzie of the species we have profiled this year:  tawny and barn owls, buzzards, great tits, swallows and spotted flycatchers, as well as pipistrelle bats and small mammals.  We still have a live fish camera giving a wonderful view of the underwater world, and we also have some great library footage of ospreys in action hunting, courtesy of the RSPB.

Don’t forget our upcoming small mammal days at Kailzie for your chance to get up close and personal with some of our local wee beasties! Friday the 17th, Saturday the 25th and Tuesday the 28th August.

13th August

Please note that the osprey watch centre at Glentress has now closed for the season.  The centre at Kailzie gardens is still open until the 2nd of September from 10am until 5pm daily.

7th August

At the main nest

It was an exciting day at the nest today, with plenty of comings and goings from the family. When the cameras came on this morning, the female adult and  female chick were both present on the nest with a fish each. They heartily tucked in to their breakfast.

The young male soon joined them and his mother fed him. Even though he is now capable of independent flight, he still reverts to the behaviour of a younger chick for a feed. Eventually the two females flew off and the young male finished the remainder of his mother’s fish. Once he was full he took off.

Sometime later the adult female returned with a fish and began to show signs of agitation.  She left her fish and flew off again. Perhaps she was giving chase to an intruder bird. After a while another female landed at the nest.  It was an adult and her chest markings were strikingly different to our female bird.  She looked about furtively and stole the fish!

The adult male arrived at the nest and stayed for a while but he didn’t bring any fish and the rest of his family were not around.

The whole season of highlights for this family of ospreys is now being shown on DVD in the centres. It begins when the females first arrived back in the spring and runs through through to this year's chicks taking to the wing.  This recorded footage has superb sound quality and the birds' every call and movement can be heard, all set to the backdrop of forest noises and at times howling winds.

Windows on wildlife

The small mammals trapping events at Glentress Forest were a great success and proved to be very popular with the public who attended. There is now a highlights DVD showing at the centres, with footage of the mammals trapped and released at these events. We caught bank voles, short tailed field voles and wood mice.

After a brief stop over in the traps they were released unharmed back to their territories - most were quite reluctant to go before they had scoffed the lovely food we had left for them.

Due to the success of these events we have decided to run a few more, to be held at Kailzie Gardens after the Glentress Osprey Watch closes for the season. Details below.

Small Mammals Mystery Tours. 17th August, 25th August and 28th August.
Meet at Kailzie Gardens Osprey Watch Centre at 10.00am. No Booking required.

Come along and see which small mammals we have caught in the live traps. A chance to see mice and voles close up and then release them back to the wild. All children must be accompanied by an adult.  Admission fee: £3 per adult, £1 per child over 5 years, under 5’s free.  This specially reduced fee for the events will allow entrance into the osprey watch centre and the gardens.

1st August

'Ladies First'

There’s been so much activity on our osprey nests over the last few days it’s been hard to keep a track of the birds' comings and goings. All the chicks are now adult size and only distinguishable from their parents by their plumage, which has pale feather edges, giving them a speckled appearance.

On both nests the female chicks have now outgrown their brothers and seem to be bolder and more advanced. On the 24th of July the female chick on the main nest first took off, and while her brother gave it a go the next day, she seems to be leaving him behind.  She is now doing very regular circles around the nest and the valley and practising her landings, which are quickly becoming quite accomplished. She has also progressed to taking whole fish from her parents and devouring them greedily herself without sharing!

Her brother, by contrast, has been much quieter and still spends most of his time on the nest, only reluctantly taking off a couple of times a day, and his landings leave something to be desired.  Mum is also still feeding him like a baby! Hopefully he will mature in the next week or so and become more independent because it’s not too long before he’ll be on his own in the big wide world and he’ll need to be able to fend for himself.

At the back-up nest

Our two monitored nests are almost synchronised and all the chicks took their first flight around about the same time. On the back-up nest, again it was one of the female chicks who was bravest, leaving her siblings in the nest to admire her skills. With three youngsters on the nest it’s rather crowded with all their wing stretching, flapping and rather wobbly landings.

Windows on Wildlife

We now have some fantastic bat footage on display in both centres, filmed locally by Diane Bennett, our Community Wildlife Officer. It features a Pipistrelle bat colony and, thanks to Diane’s quick thinking rescue efforts, a wee bat who fell from the colony in rare close up, before it was returned to the roost. We also have a large section of highlights from other species filmed over the season so far. Coming soon: small mammals filmed locally during our close encounter events.

25th July

The main nest

The first flight for one of the chicks took place yesterday. When the centres opened in the morning, one chick sat in the nest, all alone.  We think it was the male chick and he seems reluctant to take to the skies.  After about twenty minutes the female chick returned, followed by the return of the female adult.

The female adult and the female chick did not stay around too long and left the nest for most of the day, leaving a forlorn looking little brother at the nest. Occasionally he would do a bit of wing stretching and even lifted off by a few centimetres but never made it to an adventurous first flight away from the nest.  Maybe today he will make a serious attempt.

At the back-up nest

All three chicks were still there this morning and they are looking like they are ready to go. They were preening their plumage and wing stretching and we hope that the recorded footage taken today may reveal the first flight of these youngsters.

Windows on Wildlife

The swallows at Glentress have moved onto another nest and have begun to line it with feathers in readiness for laying again for a second brood. We have moved the camera across so that this can now be watched live.

The live feeding station cameras are revealing beautiful close ups of a juvenile great spotted woodpecker which is feeding on the peanuts. The birdseed feeders were resplendent with finches today, species such as goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, blue tit and great tit could all be seen in great close-up detail.

All of these species can be seen outside the osprey centre in Kailzie as well at the feeding station, which can be viewed from the centre. Nuthatches are a welcome addition to the birds feeding at Kailzie as well.  The latest highlights DVD from a house sparrow nest can be seen at both of the centres.

Coming soon there will be a DVD of the small mammals that live around Glentress Osprey Watch, as we have held some live mammal trapping events and filmed the mammals that we caught.  So far we have filmed bank voles, wood mice, and a short-tailed field vole.

18th July

The main nest

The two chicks in the nest have been confirmed as male and female from the results of the DNA testing, which was carried out by vet Anna Meredith at the time of ringing.

It is incredible the speed at which these two chicks have developed and even in the short time since ringing there has been a remarkable change in overall size and feathering. The female chick is larger than her brother, but both birds are now at the stage where time is spent wing stretching and flapping.  It will be only a matter of maybe a week or more before the birds take to the air for the first time. Much of their time is taken up with preening as well, which is another sure sign that they are not far from flight.

During one of the flapping sessions one of the chicks lifted a couple of centimetres up from the nest and quickly ceased exercising, so not quite ready yet!

At the back-up nest

The chicks in this nest have been confirmed as two females and a male.  The family is at the same stage as the main nest, so it will be a race to see which chicks are the first to become airborne.

The latest highlights DVD for the nest is available for viewing at the osprey centres. It shows the family from their arrival in the spring right up to the ringing of the chicks on 5th July. There is even a nice sequence of bedtime with the ospreys!  We often get asked what the ospreys do at night so now you can see for yourselves how on a horrible, windy and wet night the female sheltered her brood and slept.  There is some incredible footage taken in gale force winds where the female has to brace herself against the wind and use her wings as stabilisers to prevent her from being swept off the nest.

Come along to see the birds at the osprey watch centres before they fledge and watch some of the highlights from both families, which have been filmed during this season so far.

Windows on Wildlife

All of our other species have fledged now but we did film every stage of their lives while they were with us and these are available to see on DVD at the centres. Glentress is currently showing the barn owl family, the tawny owls and Forests of Butterflies. There is still live action on the bird feeder cameras and we are waiting for the swallows to decide which nest they will use for the second brood. Once they have chosen a site, the camera will be moved on to their new nest.

At Kailzie Gardens we are currently showing great tits, spotted flycatchers, buzzard ringing, barn owls and tawny owls, all on DVD highlights. Live images from the stock pond are also on show.  Coming soon – Newcastleton barn owls - the whole story.  Once we have the full footage from this nest a highlights DVD will be screened to show the chicks as they grew up in the box.

House sparrows have been filmed and this will also be on show soon. We are also hoping to get some great footage from a maternity roost of pippistrelle bats.

12th July

The Main Nest

Our two delightful ‘teenage’ ospreys now bear little resemblance to the fluffy balls born just six weeks ago. With their full juvenile plumage of speckled brown, they look very handsome indeed and are approaching adult size. There has been lots of wing flapping and exercising by the youngsters, giving us a chance to appreciate their considerable wing span and developing flight feathers. It won’t be long before they are putting those to good use in their early flight attempts.

Our male osprey has been continuing to provide well for his family, and as the weather has been improving he has had time to relax on the outer nest perch between fishing runs, giving us some nice views of the whole family together. The female has been taking to using the perch more and more as well, now she doesn’t have to constantly shelter the chicks from the weather, though she is still close enough to protect them from danger if need be.

We have had numerous disturbances at the nest lately by an intrude - believed to be another osprey. Almost daily another bird has been circling over and even occasionally dive bombing the nest. Our resident female has been displaying fascinating defensive behaviour, ‘mantling’ and covering her young with her wings, and calling loudly. We wonder if the intruder is a juvenile bird frustrated by its own lack of nesting success, or perhaps even the male pretender we saw earlier in the season at the nest.

At the back-up nest

The three back-up nest chicks continue their phenomenal growth curve, and like the main nest chicks are now huge and very adult-looking. We are going to be watching the nest very carefully in the next week or so for signs of readiness for their first flights.

Windows on Wildlife

Our Glentress swallows have finally fledged, having grown so big that two of them were literally squeezed out of the nest. Our live feeding station camera continues to show us great views of common species and the odd surprise! At Kailzie gardens our viewing window reliably gives us good views of many birds such as greater spotted woodpeckers, and nuthatches as well as our favourite ‘garden’ species. Come and try your luck (binoculars provided) but be warned it can be rather addictive.

6th July

A big day on the osprey nests

On Wednesday the 4th of July our birds on the main and back-up nests had their one and only visit from us and it was a joy to find them strong, healthy and even more fascinating up close, after so many weeks of watching them on camera.

Our assembled team of experts included climbers and licensed bird ringers from the Forestry Commission, our Police Wildlife Liaison Officer, and a specialist wildlife vet, as well as RSPB and Tweed Valley Osprey Project staff.

As we approached the nests, the parent birds took off leaving the chicks with strict instructions to ‘play dead’ which the all obeyed to the letter. The adult birds either circled overhead or perched in nearby trees during the short time we handled their young. After a difficult climb to the nest, the ranger placed the chicks in a canvas bag to be safely lowered to the ground.

Once on terra firma, the chicks were weighed and measured, and given a very thorough ‘MOT’ by the vet to check for signs of disease, parasites or poor health. Happily they were given the all clear, and pronounced a healthy weight which is a credit to their dad's hunting skills in this poor weather. A tiny blood sample was also taken which will enable us not only to screen for disease, but also definitively sex and DNA type the chicks, which will be invaluable in the future.

The chicks were then given their distinctive leg rings which will enable us to identify them throughout their lives. This year's Darvic ring colour is white, so we very much look forward to seeing these in the skies above Scotland in the years to come.

On the main nest it appears we have one male and one female chick, with the female being the larger, as we suspected. One the back-up nest it appears we have two males and a female chick. They were all well grown and had plenty of adult feathers, with just a few patches of downy fluff left.

At both nests, before we had even left the area, a parent was back on the nest checking up on their young, and their behaviour since has been relaxed and normal.

Footage of this ringing event is now available in the centres if you have a head for heights!

This expert team will be going on to ring other osprey chicks in the borders in the coming weeks as it seems we have up to eight nests this year which is wonderful news. It is also a real credit to the habitat quality of the area and the hard work of all the partners in the Osprey Project, as well as the rich local support the birds have received.

Windows on Wildlife

All is well on our Glentress swallow nest with the four chicks virtually bursting from the nest they’re so big!  We also had an unscheduled visit to our Kailzie gardens centre by a young fledgling swallow who decided to fly over the head of a packed audience in the centre on Thursday!  Luckily is was easily caught and freed outside, but it reminds us of how many young fledgling birds there are out their making their way in the world this difficult summer.

1st July

The main nest and the back-up nest.

The chicks are now a month old and have grown to about half the size of their parents. They have begun to look like proper ospreys now. Their dappled plumage with pale edging to the dark brown feathers and ginger patch to the back of the neck are emphasized in the rare periods when we get a bit of sunshine between heavy downpours of rain.

The latest highlights DVD for the main nest showing the chicks development from hatching right up to 30^th June with footage of squabbles between the youngsters and feeding time with the family is now on show at both osprey centres.

Ringing

The licensed osprey ringers will be ringing the chicks on Wednesday 4^th July and this will be screened live into the centres from 10.30am until approximately midday. So far this year all five of our chicks from the main nest and the back up nest are looking very healthy and this will be checked for certain during the ringing. We have a vet attending to take some blood samples and the analysis of these samples will be used for research purposes.

The large Darvic rings, which are put onto the bird’s legs, enable them to be identified at quite a distance once they leave the nest. This way we can keep a track of birds and gauge how well they are doing in the future. It is long-term research and it can often be years later before any records are returned regarding the whereabouts of a ringed bird. For example, the sighting of our visiting male from Fochabers Forest District back in the spring was the first sighting of him since he hatched in 1999.

Windows on Wildlife

Swallows at Glentress are growing very rapidly, there are four chicks in the nest and they are very close to fledging. The new swallow nest at Kailzie has so far not had any occupants. The birds built a nest and have not returned to it. We shall keep the cameras on there just in case. No sign of the wren at the nest either, it is beginning to look like Mrs. Wren chose another nest!

A fantastic sighting of an osprey at Kailzie Gardens on Thursday delighted visitors as the bird was patrolling along the Tweed and decided to come over and check out the Kailzie Fishery affording fine views for the folk in the centre.

28th June

The main nest

Despite the awful weather we’ve had our wee family are doing really well. The chicks have grown enormously in the last week and almost all their grey downy fluff is hidden under emerging speckled brown feathers. They are now so big that mum has an impossible task trying to shelter them under her wings from the torrential rain!

One chick is definitely a little bigger than its nest-mate despite getting equal food.  This could simply be because it was born a day earlier, or perhaps it is a female starting to show the usual size dominance in ospreys.

The chicks are also starting to indulge in a little housekeeping of their own, imitating the parents like all kids, moving sticks and moss around the nest.

The funniest thing we have seen this week was on Tuesday when mum had left the nest during one of the brief sunny spells for a stretch and the male bird returned from hunting with a fish in her absence.  He stood on the nest edge calling frantically for her, as she usually does the ‘serving’ of the food for the chicks.  When she didn’t return immediately, he seemed very unsure what to do.  Ignoring the chicks’ hungry looks and pleas he began to tuck into the fish himself.  A few minutes later when mum did return she grabbed the fish rather rudely and fed the youngsters, having told dad off in no uncertain terms!

At the back-up nest

The back up nest is also doing well, with all three osprey chicks thriving.  As there is a time delay of a few days in getting footage from this nest, we see these chicks on DVD in the centres looking younger than those at our main nest – and you can certainly see the difference a few days makes in the development of these fast-grown birds!

Windows on wildlife

There is some fantastic recorded footage available in the centres at the moment of the spring highlights, with tawny and barn owls, great tits, buzzard ringing and spotted flycatchers all featuring.  The latter have now fledged but unfortunately only two of the four chicks have survived - probably due to the inclement weather that has made life so hard for the small, insect-eating birds.

For earlier entries, see the 2007 Tweed Valley osprey diary archive