Traquair Hots Up For Latin Fair

This year’s Traquair Fair will take place on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th August at Traquair House. Promising to be more colourful than ever, the Latin American theme will include dance, music and acrobatics from Cuba to Brazil.

Hot rhythms, wonderful costumes, masks, puppets and fantastic stilt walkers will transform the tranquil grounds of this ancient Scottish castle now celebrating its 900th anniversary.

Highlights of the weekend will include Salsa Celtica, one of the UK’s leading Latin American big dance bands with a Scottish Accent. Then there is the fiery Macumba an Edinburgh based band fusing traditional sounds of Scottish bagpipes with infectious rhythms of Brazilian percussion. Superb funky Latin Jazz with the Dias Quartet and marvellous Chilean vocals from Voces del Sur.

On the wineglass lawn the amazing Brazilian acrobats, De Ramos will be performing a variety of extraordinary acrobatic feats, knife throwing and capoeira. Also, one of the best street theatre acts in the country, and more recently with several TV appearances, Bruce Airhead will be performing the metarmorphis of a man into a six foot balloon!

Around the Fair the Latin theme continues with Legendary Lynn a spectacular stilt act based on Carmen Miranda and Two Left Feet - a ballroom dancing couple sequinned to the hilt and ready to rumba!

For children there is a great programme of things to see and workshops to take part in. The Mora Brothers from Cuba will be running papier mache workshops making masks and animals. There are puppet shows from Ailie Paley and Over the Top as well as the inimitable Mr Boom and slapstick from Maynard Flipflap. There will be storytelling in the Green Shee yurt and show boats, inflatables and face painting.

For those who like to participate there will be a chance to take part in salsa and merengue, capoeira and acrobatics. But for those who prefer to relax there will be the usual array of complementry therapies, crafts and delicious foods. Drinks including South American cocktails and Fair Ale brewed exclusively for the weekend in the Traquair Brewery. For full details of all the acts appearing at this year’s Fair, see the Traquair website www.traquair.co.uk/fair

For photos and further information contact: Catherine Maxwell Stuart, Traquair House, Innerleithen, Peeblesshire EH44 6PW Tel; 01896 830323 enquiries@traquair.co.uk

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 29th July

"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, which gives 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 whilst 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 bother 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.

The Backup Nest

Our two monitored nests this year are almost synchronised and all the chicks took their first flight around about the same time. On the backup 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.

Tweed Valley Osprey Diary 24th July

Main Nest

The first flight for one of the chicks took place today. When the centres opened this morning only 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 tomorrow he will make a serious attempt.

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 goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, blue tits and great tits 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.�

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.