Scottish Osprey

[Bobbie Ireland]

In view of the success of M&K, I thought you might be interested in this most amazing osprey... the link is from the BBC website - Earth News... always something there, whether sad or exciting...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8586275.stm

[valhalla]

She is an amazing bird and I love the osprey!   

[Lou]

Cool. Check out the raptor pictures in the Earth News section of the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8585000/8585931.stm

Lou

[Joyce]

Talk about a watch group... "A team of about 70 volunteers watch the nest 24 hours a day to safeguard any eggs from thieves and poachers."

[valhalla]

Talk about a watch group... "A team of about 70 volunteers watch the nest 24 hours a day to safeguard any eggs from thieves and poachers."

Sadly, egg thieves are still popular there   Osprey are fun to watch and they sing to you as a bonus

[Donna]

The female arrived almost a week after her mate

A pair of breeding ospreys, who last year parented the first chicks born in Northumberland for more than 200 years, have been reunited in the county.

The female arrived at a specially-created tree-top nesting site in Kielder Forest almost a week after her partner returned.

Three chicks were raised at the site last year and ornithologists hope more could appear this time round.

Footage of the nest is being streamed to visitors at Kielder Castle.

'Grandstand view'

Elizabeth Rowark, director of the Kielder Partnership, said: "There are never any guarantees with wildlife, so the fact that the couple are back safely from sub-Saharan Africa and that they are using the same nest where we have installed cameras is tremendous news.

"The prospect of more chicks being born has got everyone very excited and the public will be able to enjoy a grandstand view."

Osprey courtship often involves the male attempting to woo his partner by providing a tasty fish. The bird stays faithful both to nest and mate.

Accounts from the 18th Century refer to "fish-eating hawks" in Northumberland, which were probably ospreys, but there have been no records of the bird breeding in the county for more than 200 years.

The Kielder pair were thought to originate from the expanding Scottish population.

Ospreys were once distributed widely, but persecution resulted in the species becoming extinct in England as a breeding bird in 1840 and in Scotland in 1916.

Some birds re-colonised Scotland in the 1950s and today there are about 200 pairs.

They have re-colonised the Lake District and have been re-introduced at Rutland Water in the East Midlands.

[Donna]

Ospreys have been nesting in the area for more than 15 years

Hopes for the arrival of a new osprey chick in Tweed Valley suffered a setback after the first egg to be laid went missing.

Experts found an egg, thought to be the first in the UK this year, had been laid by the ospreys on Monday.

It is believed high winds may have contributed to the egg falling from the nest.

However Diane Bennett, of the Tweed Valley Osprey Project, said there were signs the female had laid again.

She said the birds had built up loose nesting material which, combined with high winds, may have resulted in the egg ending up at the edge of the nest.

Stronger nest

"We think the parents then tried to roll the egg back into position but failed to do so," she added.

"The good news is of course that we think that the female has laid again and that ospreys have continued to build up the nest further and it looks much stronger."

The Tweed Valley Osprey Project is run in conjunction with RSPB Scotland and Forestry Commission Scotland.

Ospreys have been nesting in the area for more than 15 years.

So sad but hopefully more eggs.

[Bobbie Ireland]

The news from the Scottish Wildlife Trust on 11 August... Seems the Lady of Lowes might be gone. Safe migrations to this wonderful osprey.

Today our resident male osprey 7Y was seen on the nest at 11.40am, proving he is still in the area. Earlier an osprey was seen with a fish at 10.45 am though we cannot be sure whether this was in fact our resident male.  Last year, our male was last seen at the nest on  22nd August.   

Our female osprey hasn’t been seen since Sunday 7th August this year, while last year she only remained in the area until 4th August.

Scottish Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers are all still hopeful that our female will return to breed next year and make further contribution to her already astounding achievement of raising 48 chicks in her lifetime.

[MAK]

    Be safe mama! Please come back to us in good health so you can have 2 babies and retire at 50 offspring for your lifetime. Here's hoping we will see the Lady again! 

[Donna]

Oh, fare well my Lady!    Be safe. Funny how we talk as if they read these posts. 

[jeanne]

Be safe, dear Lady!!!   

[carly]

I hope she has a safe migration and comes back again next year, she's truly a magnificent lady 

[Bobbie Ireland]

Thanks to Donna for keeping me updated on this. That chick sure is getting big! Here's the latest from the Loch of Lowes. Every time I check, I am in awe of The Lady of the Loch!

"Another day and another set of completely different weather conditions. It’s been a windy day on the loch in comparison to the heavy rain of Thursday and bright sunshine of Wednesday but our Ospreys don’t seem fussed. Our chick is growing so rapidly, I’m just back from a couple of days off and I can’t believe the difference. It’s now got most of its feathers in with their distinctive blonde ‘highlights’ as you’d expect an immature bird to have and the white back stripe is disappearing. It is also is standing up and practicing taking its weight on its legs much more but not always successfully, I watched it fall over several times this afternoon as it tried to stand up. Our female continues to stuff it full of fish, even when sometimes it appears not to want food. We’ve not seen much of our male today; he’s brought a Brown Trout in this morning and has been on the nest a couple of times when there have been other Ospreys nearby. None of them have approached the nest and in one case neither parent seemed that bothered by a lone osprey flying past. We were watching the footage of the chick hatching today and it’s hard to believe that 32 days ago it was so small it and came out of something the size of a hen’s egg."