Border Ospreys monitors an osprey nest located between Jedburgh and Hawick in the Scottish Borders and is based at a micro brewery and ginnery complex at Lanton Mill. Close to the banks of the beautiful River Teviot, a tributary of the River Tweed, it is an ideal spot for ospreys which are known to have bred here for well in excess of a decade. The present pair occupy a nest in a tall pine tree overlooking the river and also not far from a number of lochs so they have a variety of places to fish, irrespective of weather conditions and varying water levels.
Close monitoring of the nest and its occupants began in 2015 but, during the winter of 2015/16, the nest was virtually destroyed by a number of severe storms. It was decided that a man made nest would be built to replace the natural nest and a group of volunteers from a variety of places, including Forestry and Land Scotland and Scottish Power, worked to recreate the nest and provide a safer area in the immediate vicinity of the nest tree. At the same time, a camera was installed overlooking the nest and the picture was beamed onto a screen in the restaurant for customers to enjoy watching the family of ospreys. Chicks were reared and successfully fledged in 2016 and 2017 but the female from the nest was lost in 2018 and, although different females stayed in the summer of 2018 and in the subsequent seasons, they were all too young to breed. Finally, a female that was first attracted to the nest in 2021 (Darvic ringed JW6 and nicknamed Juno), returned the following year, bred with the resident male and they raised two chicks, although only one survived to fledging (a male, Darvic ringed 688 and nicknamed Sacha). In 2023, they both returned and bred again successfully raising two chicks, ringed 732 (female, and nicknamed Ursula) and 733(male, and nicknamed Jed)
Sadly, the female did not return in 2024 but a new female has arrived and looks to be settling. The present pair are the unringed male, nicknamed Samson, who has been at the nest every summer since close monitoring commenced, and the new female, ringed 500 and hatched in the Errogie area, south of Inverness, in 2020. She is not yet named.
The monitoring is done by Rosie Shields, a local birdwatcher who also writes this blog, and Brian Clark, who visits each summer and it is usually his wonderful photography of the flying birds which graces the blog pages.
We hope you enjoy the blog and, if you get the chance, please come and visit us. The restaurant sadly has closed due to the present economic situation and so the opportunity to view the nestcam picture is no longer available but you can still take a walk down by the river and one of us is usually on hand to give you the latest updates from our viewing position. I hope that I can still provide photographic evidence of action in the nest via this blog. The river also is home to kingfishers, sandpipers, dippers and the occasional otter, as well as a host of other wildlife, so bring your binoculars and your cameras and we look forward to welcoming you.
Border Ospreys 