Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 17th July

Main Nest 17th July

The two chicks in the nest have now 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!

The Back up Nest

The chicks in this nest have now 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 between nests to see which chicks are the first to become airborne.

The latest highlights DVD has now been produced for this nest and is available to be seen at the osprey centres. This 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 on a horrible windy, wet night the female sheltered her brood and slept.

There is some incredible footage taken in gale force winds were 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. Small mammals will be filmed at our small mammal event

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.

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary

Main nest and 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 30th 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 4th 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, our visiting male back in the spring from Fochabers Forest District, this was the first sighting of him with his black leg ring 07, 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.

Children’s Event

Birdy Environmental Games in Glentress Forest. 10.00am - 12.00pm

Come and discover the wonderful world of birds, take part in role play games and find out what it is like to be a bird undergoing the trials of nesting, foraging for food and avoiding predators. Have loads of fun in the woods at Glentress Forest and visit the osprey centre afterwards to see how our ospreys and others are doing live on camera.
Suitable for children 7 - 12 yrs.
All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Meet at the Red Squirrel Car Park, Glentress Forest, Peebles.
Booking is essential by phone: 07850 411122.
Or email to Diane@tweedforum.com

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 21 June

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.

View the Tweed Valley Osprey cam here.

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 17 June

The weather over the past couple of days has been torrential and very cold. Prolonged weather like this is a serious threat at this vulnerable stage of the chicks lives. They have not developed their full feathers yet and rely very much on their mum to keep them warm. She is such a good parent and has shielded the youngsters and has successfully got them through this trying time. The male has managed to bring fish to the family despite the weather and although the frequency of his offerings dropped due to poor fishing conditions it has been enough to sustain the brood. Let’s hope that the weather improves and a few warm days with plenty of good fishing and full stomachs should make for a happy family.

Back Up Nest

Recent footage revealed the three charming chicks in this nest at family feeding times.

The male became a little too nest proud and began a stick tidy in the nest much to his wife’s disapproval. At one point he had one end of a stick and was trying to push it one way and she had the other end pushing it back. Domestic bliss being interrupted with a bit of a feng shui disagreement but the female got her own way in the end and he went off to do the male thing and catch a fish.

This footage is now on show at the centres in the new Back Up Nest Highlights DVD. We have ongoing highlights from all of our nests from the windows on wildlife and the ospreys. Please ask the volunteer on duty if you wish to see any specific highlights when you visit.

Windows on Wildlife

Sad news.

Our swallow family, which were doing so well at Kailzie Gardens have been attacked and killed. Yesterday when the cameras were switched on the nest was empty and it was far too early for the birds to have fledged. Sadly, Emma, the RSPB Information Assistant discovered the grim reason. Little decapitated swallow chick heads were lying around the courtyard. It must have been one of the crow species that perpetrated the crime as the birds had nested on top of the security light and nothing other than another bird would be able to reach them. We will try and move the camera on to another family as soon as possible and in the mean time, keep an eye on the original parents as they will probably try again with better luck next time, hopefully.

The barn owl chicks from the Tweed Valley Nest are almost ready to be ringed and we will film this and show it in the centres. We are concerned that the fourth chick, which is underdeveloped, may have succumbed during this bad weather. We have experienced more technical difficulties with the camera and will have to wait to find out how this family is doing.

A second barn owl family, which had a dead chick in the box, has now got two new chicks. This footage will be shown once the first family have fledged. So far we have new recordings coming in to the centre every few days and this will be put together as highlights to reveal how this family is getting on.

The spotted flycatchers are growing and they have three fine chicks. This can be seen live in Kailzie Gardens.

The underwater cameras in the stock ponds at the fishery in Kailzie are giving fantastic views of the rainbow trout.

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 12th June

Main Nest

The male has again been feeding the chicks this morning. Today has been very cold and misty and for most of the morning the female has been keeping the young chicks warm. Once the mist lifted superb views into the nest could be seen as the family were feeding.

As they were feeding we could clearly see the third egg in the middle of the two chicks. This is probably an infertile egg and unlikely to hatch out. It is probably the first egg, which was laid, as this was due to hatch around the 26th May. The chicks hatched out on the 1st and 2nd June, which suggest that, they were chicks from the last two eggs laid.

Windows on Wildlife

The spotted flycatcher chicks began to hatch yesterday. Today two tiny young can be seen in the nest and there are still some eggs in there. The parents have begun to work hard to bring juicy flies to feed the young chicks.

We have another camera in a barn owl nest with four young and this will shown in the centres very soon.

House sparrows have moved into one of the boxes at Glentress and we are hoping to record footage from this family once the eggs hatch.

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 9 June

Main Nest

Today began with the female sitting at the nest feeding the two small chicks. The high protein diet of raw fish has meant that the chicks have almost trebled in size in only a week.

The two youngsters seem to have a bit of an uneasy relationship and the larger chick has been seen frequently pecking at the neck of the smaller chick. The response to this has generally been a defensive one in a bid to stay out of the way of more raining blows. The male brought in a good-sized fish and the female fed her brood again.

Afterwards the chicks settled down for a nap while the female preened and then relaxed for a short while. After about an hour of relaxed behaviour the female began calling and then flew off. The chicks were left alone for five minutes and during this time the larger chick seized the opportunity to start another scrap with the little sibling. Luckily there seems to be no serious consequences and they were behaving themselves by the time their mum returned.

Later in the afternoon the family were joined by the male on the nest. He began finishing off the remains of a fish brought in earlier. The chicks soon became alert as food was available again and began begging from their Dad. He firstly began offering the morsels up to his mate and eventually leaned into the nest reaching down to give titbits to the chicks. We have never seen him feed the young at this early stage before. Usually the female feeds them and he only takes over when the chicks are virtually adults.

Back up nest

The three chicks in the back up nest appear strong and healthy. The recorded footage will be edited and shown in the centres shortly.

Windows on Wildlife

The great tits have flown the nest. The spotted flycatchers are now sitting on eggs.

The swallows at Kailzie now have six chicks in the nest. The parent birds do a fantastically fast swap over at the nest at feeding time.

The tawny owls have now all left the nest but highlights of their season can be seen on DVD in the centres.

The barn owls still have no youngsters but we will be bringing in footage from this nest, as there is hope that she may lay again.

We had a fantastic day watching the buzzard chicks from two nests in the Tweed Valley being ringed by Forestry Commission Ranger Tony Lightley. His brother Graham, climbed the trees where the birds are nesting and lowered the chicks to the forest floor. Tony ringed the chicks and demonstrated to the public who attended the event how the ringing was done and explained all about how to identify the young males from females. He showed us the birds, which had eaten that morning with a full crop and the difference in the little ones with an empty crop. The whole event was filmed and is now on DVD at the osprey watch centres. Later we are hoping to record some footage from the buzzard family at the nest before they fledge.

David Starkey To Help Traquair Celebrate 900 Years Of Royal Charter

Leading historians, writers and journalists will help Scotland’s oldest inhabited house celebrate its 900th anniversary as part of an exciting literary weekend set for the end of June.

Alexander I sealed a charter at Traquair House in the Scottish Borders in 1107 and to celebrate this anniversary in style, in addition to the annual events programme, the present Laird plans to host a special Birthday Weekend from the 29th June – 1st July. Dr David Starkey, Helena Kennedy, Jon Snow, William McIllvanney, and leading Jacobite historians Daniel Szechi and Dr Christopher Duffy will give a series of lectures and talks over the weekend loosely connected to the history of Traquair. There will also be a Children’s Book Day on Sunday 1st July with top children’s writers Frances Hendry, Vivien French, Debi Gliori and Mhairi Hedderwick will ensure that children are not left out of Traquair’s birthday celebrations.

Since the signing of the Royal Charter, Traquair has played host to 27 Scottish monarchs and it is also the longest continually inhabited house in Scotland. The present descendant and Laird, Catherine Maxwell Stuart commented;

“It is quite awe inspiring for a building to have reached such an age and still remain a family home. It has narrowly escaped being burnt down because of the family’s Catholic and Jacobite sympathies yet somehow always survived. A combination of superb craftsmanship, the care that each generation has put into its upkeep and a good dose of luck has ensured its survival. We feel that it’s something worth celebrating in this, our anniversary year.”

For additional information on the 900th Anniversary Events Programme log on to http://www.traquair.co.uk/events.html

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Catherine Maxwell-Stuart at Traquair House: catherine@traquair.co.uk tel: 01896 830323 or Sandra Grieve at Peagreen PR: sgrieve@peagreenpr.co.uk tel:07718 296707

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 20 May

Hamish McHaggis and the Tweed Valley Ospreys 20th May

Author, Linda Strachan and Illustrator, Sally J. Collins creators of the children’s books Hamish McHaggis and his various adventures, came to visit Kailzie Gardens Osprey Watch Centre on Sunday 20th May. Linda and Sally led children’s workshops throughout the day and read their latest Hamish McHaggis stories and introduced all of the characters to the children. They brought wonderful cuddly props of the characters, Jeannie the osprey, Rupert the very knowledgeable hedgehog and Angus the pine marten, not least Hamish himself with his very lovely tartan hat. These delightful creatures travel around the country in their whirrybang vehicle having excellent adventures. Sally led workshops for the children to learn how to draw their favourite Jeannie the osprey character and the drawings produced by the children were excellent. The room was so quiet with all the youngsters listening and concentrating as they drew their own versions of Jeannie and learnt the skills to bring their pictures alive from Sally.

A giant fuzzy felt board has also been created for children to play on and create Hamish pictures of their own. The Hamish books and fuzzy felt will be available at Kailzie all summer.

People were able to watch the live osprey at our main nest live on camera as she sat tight throughout the day incubating her eggs. With less than a week to go before the chicks hatch there is a sense of anticipation at the centres in Kailzie Gardens and Glentress Forest. Will all three eggs hatch?

Windows on Wildlife

Spotted Flycatchers have arrived! The open fronted nest box was put up close to the Osprey Watch Centre at Kailzie Gardens early in spring this year and a camera fixed in position hoping that we would be lucky enough to attract these delightful birds, which were known to nest at the gardens. As we are well into the spring now, we had begun to think that we had been unsuccessful. However, yesterday two spotted flycatchers arrived and were going in and out of the new box for the whole afternoon, investigating what will hopefully become their new home to raise their family. This was so exciting and we will be able to watch their summer spent in the nest box live on camera. Come and visit Osprey Watch and see these wonderful migrants newly arrived from Africa.

Great tits in their box have six chicks, and at only a week old they are beginning to grow feathers. The parents are working furiously hard to deliver big juicy caterpillars to feed the ever, hungry brood.

At Glentress Forest our owl chicks continue to thrive in the box created for them by the Green Team with Forestry Commission Rangers.

Sadly the peregrines have abandoned their eggs due to a rock fall near to their nest, which smashed two eggs leaving two remaining. Hopefully the parents will move to a more suitable nest location and try again.

Osprey chicks are due to hatch this weekend, (26th May). Any time from Saturday onwards we are expecting the chicks to hatch at the main nest. This will be live on camera. Come and see this happen at either Kailzie Gardens or Glentress Osprey Watch Centres.

CAMRA's South East Scotland and Edinburgh branch winner for 2007

Congratulations again to the Gordon Arms in West Linton who have been voted South East Scotland and Edinburgh branch winner for 2007 by CAMRA. Director Nigel Reynolds said: "The Borders title we won earlier pitted us against the Edinburgh and the Lothians winners respectively so we are justly proud to receive this award."