A NEW SEASON AND A NEW NEST

I’m hoping that both Samson and JW6 (Juno) are well on their way now back to their nest site. Juno arrived first last year, on 2 April and Samson on 11 April. The previous year he’d arrived on 30 March, which was the earliest we’d seen him and him not coming until nearly a fortnight later last year had me having sleepless nights and no fingernails.

Since the family disappeared on migration last year, we had the sad news that the Born in Scotland restaurant and shop were to close and they remain closed. So there will be no opportunity to refresh yourself with coffee and cake or something more substantial while watching the view from the nest camera on the monitor in the restaurant. I am looking at various options at providing that view to the public, via a 4g router for example, but the costs of that and an internet link are prohibitive at present. Nevertheless, people can still walk down by the river and we will be in our normal position to provide information and allow people to view the nest with binoculars and scope.

We have made significant changes to the nest and camera equipment, including a new camera and supporting software which will hopefully allow us to record nest activity this year, the lack of which capability caused a great deal of angst last year. We have also renewed all the cabling and wifi links and everything is working beautifully now, although I’m sure there will be a few last minute panics as there are every year. The biggest change you, the readers of the blog, will notice is that the nest has been completely rebuilt. The base of the nest that was constructed by us in 2016 needed replacing and the nest was almost teetering by the end of last year. We were very grateful to Tony Lightley of Forestry and Land Scotland for his skilful rebuilding of the nest, which looks much smarter and neater but will no doubt be completely redecorated by the birds within a couple of days of their return. You will notice that the structure of the nest is based around a bread basket which hopefully will keep the centre vaguely where it is meant to be; Samson was great at piling sticks on one side or another and gradually moving the central part of his previous nest away from the manmade base. Every winter, we therefore had to move it all back, so it was again properly supported and not overhanging the 100ft void to the ground! The breadbasket idea is one that has been used on a number of manmade nests around the country and has proved to be successful. No trade names are visible but if any bread companies want to sponsor the nest………..

So, there we have it. We’re on our starting blocks for the new season, ready for all the excitement and traumas that we have each year. I read that the Tweed and its tributaries (of which the Teviot is one) had seen an upturn in the number of salmon last year, so I’m hoping that the increase is reflected in all the fish species that Samson catches either in the river or in local lochans. I worried last year that the size and frequency of his catches were down since the last time he’d had a family to support (2017). Let’s hope he has good luck and good hunting this year. See you down at Lanton if you’re visiting (please drop me a note beforehand so I can make sure I’m around) or I’ll be in touch on the blog to let you know of arrivals.

Let the 2023 season commence!