Main Nest 21st June
The chicks are growing well and the male is bringing super-sized fish in, to feed the family. The soft grey down is beginning to lessen on the chicks’ bodies as proper feathers begin to break through. While wing stretching yesterday one of the chicks revealed the growing stubby feathers, which will become their flight feathers in such a short time. The chicks are now three weeks old and are developing at a terrific pace. Thankfully the sibling squabbles, which were witnessed when they were very tiny, seem to have been settled and now the two chicks seem to have a more harmonious relationship.
Yesterday repeated visits from another osprey startled and upset the family and the male bird eventually gave chase to drive the intruder away.
The weather picked up and a lovely summer day with bright sunshine meant that the chicks were seen clearly instead of sheltering beneath their mum. Later though, a thunderstorm bringing more rain served as a reminder to us that the pair still have a long way to go before their young are independent and capable of coping with whatever weather is dealt to them.
Back up nest
The back up nest chicks continue to thrive and all three are healthy and strong.
Windows on Wildlife
The Tweed Valley Barn Owls have now been ringed and we are delighted to report that even our tiniest chick has made it through this bad weather. There are three female chicks and the little one is a male. After the chicks were ringed the cameras were set for filming from 10pm to midnight at their nest to see how the family were doing. This latest footage revealed over a two-hour period a staggering seven voles were brought in to feed the young brood!
The technical problems, which we reported earlier, have been sorted out now. No wonder we couldn’t connect the camera, the wires had been completely destroyed due to being chewed by cows!
The latest DVD of the barn owl ringing and the voles being fed to the youngsters is now on show at the osprey centres.
At Glentress Osprey Watch we are very pleased to present a superb film called Forests of Butterflies, which was filmed by Osprey Watch Volunteer Harvey Robertson and is narrated by Walter Elliott. The film has tremendous footage of close-ups of butterflies set in the beautiful Tweed Valley Forest with lovely views of the landscape forming the backdrop.
At Kailzie the cameras have been moved from the sad swallow site and put onto another swallow nest, which is still in the process of being built. We hope to see the nest occupied shortly.
Next door to the new swallow nest we discovered a wren nest, which is newly built as well. We will keep a watchful eye on this and pop a camera on it, if the birds take up residence. The male wren often builds a few nests and then the female chooses the one she likes best. Let’s hope she likes this one. It’s in a fine location with commanding views over the Kailzie Fishery!
The spotted flycatchers are growing well and there are four chicks in the nest not three as we thought. These will fledge in about a week’s time and we will be arranging to ring the chicks before they go and this will be filmed. As soon as we have a date for the ringing it will go in this diary and visitors to the centre on the day will be able to watch the chicks being ringed live.
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