Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 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 intruder - 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.

The three Backup Nest chicks continue their phenomenal growth curve, and like the main nest 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 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.