Osprey chicks at Tweed Valley nest successfully fledged

All three chicks on the main osprey nest successfully fledged during the past week and with each displaying varying degrees of confidence and skill.

The first witnessed flight was on July 20, we couldn’t see the ring number but the young osprey was wing flapping and restless, hopping about the nest and then up on to the perch on the right-hand side of the nest, trying to gain some height and then even higher as he edged up the branch, until with outstretched wings he was away.

That was the start of progressively more and more wing flapping and short hops and jumps across the nest from the other two chicks and over the next few days all three were missing from the nest at different times when they had taken little flights from home.

Chick 708 alone at the Tweed Valley nest. Photo: Tweed Valley Osprey Project

Feeding takes place at the nest and so it is good to see how the youngsters are doing when they return and wait for a delivery of fish for a family meal together. All of the young birds are practicing strengthening their muscles with vigorous wing flapping when they return.

On Friday 22nd all three juveniles were at the nest with Mrs O and they were vocal and waiting for fish to be brought in, much to their disappointment when PW3 arrived with a stick for the nest. After some pretty continuous loud squawking from Mrs O, he didn’t stop long and flew off again.

Soon after, Mrs O left the nest and so did chick 708, leaving the two other chicks alone in the nest. Finally, Mrs O returned and 708 also returned in timely fashion for PW3 to return with a fish. Mrs O pounced upon it and began to feed herself before sharing it with her now adult sized brood. PW3 didn’t stop and left the family to feed. After feeding Mrs O left the nest and 708 immediately followed her.

708 seemed to be the most adventurous of the brood and most confident to fly to and from the nest. They are regularly left by themselves at the nest now and this is most likely to encourage them to fly themselves.

707 and 708 alone at the nest after 706 had fledged. Photo: Tweed Valley Osprey Project

On July 23, the day started with only two chicks at the nest with Mrs O. PW3 arrived without a fish. The two remaining chicks were wing flapping and it was quite a windy day. The absence of chick 706 was noticeable, Mrs O and PW3 took off leaving the two behind at the nest alone and not long after, 707 also left the nest leaving 708 alone. 708 moved around and flew onto the right-hand perch but seemed reluctant to fly off.

The family returned to the nest but 706 remained missing from the group with only 707 and 708 present for the rest of the day. On July 24 there was still no sign of 706 and by July 25 real concerns were beginning to be raised as he was still not seen at the nest when the camera was on. We checked the tracker data and satellite map and could see the mass of data around the nest and then a few clear spikes showing that 706 had travelled away from the site.

The data showed movement, so we were at least not worried that he had crash landed somewhere and was in danger. He had crossed the valley below the nest into trees on the other side, about 100m from the nest.

Then later on July 24, he had gone right over the top of the hill and was overlooking the River Tweed from there. Had he perhaps tried to follow his dad as he is frequently seen fishing the river along that stretch?

The Tweed Valley nest family - PW3, Mrs 0 and their three chicks - before chick 706 disappeared. Photo: Tweed Valley Osprey Project

Somehow though he had not managed to return home and was away from the nest overnight. The next day on July 25, the data showed that he had come back over the hill and had almost headed towards the nest but instead headed to the north of it and came to the end of a forest ride and stopped there. Another night away from the nest without feeding was beginning to cause more concern.

We had to wait until the morning of July 26 to check the data again which showed on the map that his position was in the same area of the forest but the data showed a flight had taken place at 6am travelling at 32 kmph but this had not updated onto the satellite map yet. A nail-biting morning then to wait for the main camera to come on to see if he had made that flight back to the nest site.

Thankfully, when we finally got access to the camera we saw all three youngsters back at the nest, lined up waiting for parents to return.

All three chicks safely back at the nest. Photo: Tweed Valley Osprey Project

Lack of experience and a knock to his confidence perhaps had prevented him from returning for two days but surely hunger drove his courage to try to fly again and successfully return for breakfast. Every day from now on they will hone their flying skills and gain in strength but it is always tricky after the initial fledging and those wobbly first flights.

Those huge wings can lift them further than they intend until they have learnt how to master their control of flight.

We will pick names for them next week from the suggestions that we have received.