WITH only a few weeks to go until the 2014 Kailzie Wildlife Festival final preparations are now underway.

The festival date may come as a surprise to some people as in previous years it has been held in summer. So apart from worrying that people will not be aware that it is on Sunday, May 4, I am also very interested to see how the seasonality has affected the festival and what we will have on offer.

Live pictures streaming into the osprey and nature centre will show very different pictures than the previous two years. Our osprey pair will hopefully either be at egg-incubating stage or we may even have some tiny chicks to see!

This all depends on when the osprey pair return to their nest (they should be there now if they are sticking to their usual schedule) and when the female lays her eggs. Either way it is always a very tense time in these early stages in spring, although the almost guarantee of a bird on the nest is pretty good for visitors coming in to see view them!

Spring also allows other lovely images to be viewed in the centre, such as blue tits and swallows nesting, young birds on the feeders, lambs in the meadow and the odd tadpole or frog on pond cam! So I can definitely recommend a visit to the osprey and nature centre when you are at the festival on May 4.

In previous years one of the highlights of the festival has been Rueben Singleton leading a moth trapping session. However we are a little bit too early in the year to be able to do this this year. The nights are still a little too cold for moths to be out and about so we will not be able to look at moth traps this year.

However, we will still have our ever popular mammal trapping morning session seeing voles and mice up close and learning how to tell the difference between the two!

We will also be dipping into the pond to see what beasties lurk within its depths and maybe even seeing tadpoles or a frog or two. We have had problems in the past with summer blooms covering the surface of the pond and making pond dipping s bit tricky, but being so early this year we should be able to avoid this problem and find lots of scary-looking fly and dragonfly larvae as well as cute waterboatmen and beetles.

The gardens will also look different to previous years with spring colours and smells bursting out of every flower bed and early butterflies and bees beginning to gather delicious nectar.

To truly appreciate the beauty of a place you need to see it in all weathers and all seasons, and I think Kailzie will be shown off in style at our spring Kailzie Wildlife Festival.

The festival will open at 11am on Sunday, May 4, at Kailzie Gardens, Peebles. For more information please check our website at www.kailziewildlife.org or email kailzieofficer@gmail.com.

Rachel McAleese KLAWED Project Officer Kailzie