THE END OF THE SEASON

Well, that’s that, then. The nest is redundant; the almost constant noise from food begging female and chicks has ceased; the final fish catch of the season has been delivered. The area seems weirdly quiet and empty, despite other birds and animals being around and doing their thing. None of them has the same impact on the surroundings as the osprey family and they’ve all now departed.

JW6 (Juno) was the first to go. After embarrassing me by reappearing on 15 August, she has not been seen since. So she could be virtually through her migration or hiding somewhere to sneak out again…or anywhere in between! So I refuse to play her game and I make no further comment on her whereabouts. However, what I would say is that she has turned out to be a very good breeding female. Considering this is only her second brood, she has developed remarkably since last year. I feel a little sorry that Samson was virtually banished from the nest once the chicks were hatched. With the exception of landing with a fish, she made it very clear that he was to remove himself as soon as the transfer was complete. He was never allowed to feed them or brood them and that lack of connection with his chicks was a new experience for him. However, when things got tough, she made the difficult decision to help out with the fishing, even though that meant potentially exposing the chicks to danger when they were left alone. Nevertheless, her decision made the difference between the brood’s survival and not and was excellent parenting by her.

733 (Jed) was last seen on 22 Aug in the late afternoon and I think he probably departed first thing the following day as conditions looked perfect and he’d eaten a huge fish the afternoon before. He was confident, a good flyer and had spent his days well since fledging, strengthening his flight muscles, exploring the area and practising his fishing skills, although if he succeeded in catching anything, I didn’t see him do so. I would hope he has given himself a good chance on migration.

732 (Ursula) was next. She was content to sit around after fledging and wait for the food supplies to arrive (she rarely missed a fish delivery, was enthusiastic to say the least in grabbing for it but didn’t always win the fish) and did little to explore until 733 disappeared and she had no competition for food. She was then absent from the nest for a lot longer and I saw several attempts to fish. She also was a little gentler on Samson when he brought a fish in and didn’t try to rip his leg off as looked to be the danger earlier last month. The last time we saw her on the nest was first thing in the morning of 28 Aug. She spent a couple of minutes sitting still, before giving herself a good rouse (shaking her feathers out to settle them in the right place) and then flew off and out of sight. I also have high hopes for her. While I was very saddened about her behaviour towards the third chick which led directly to its perishing, she is a bold, aggressive female, taking after JW6. Her landings need a little bit of work still (as you will see later) but she eventually was as confident a flyer as her sibling and was decidedly plump when she left, giving her good reserves whilst she perfects her fishing skills en route. I pity a future mate as she will no doubt keep him well in order if she continues to follow JW6’s example but I hope we haven’t heard the last of her.

By the time Samson came in with a fish on 28 Aug, she was well away, I expect. I’ve commented before about the poignancy of the male bringing back a fish when there’s no one left to receive it and it was no different on this occasion. After moving from the nest to sitting on the dead tree, Samson spent a couple of hours looking around to see if anyone was coming in. He then took off and flew, with the fish still clutched in his talons, up and down the river to see whether 732 was there and then returned to the nest area to skydance, in an effort to attract his chick’s attention if she was slightly further afield. He returned to his vigil in the dead tree and only started to eat the fish after he was convinced that she had left.

Regular readers will know that last year he got caught out by the arrival of 3AF, who was our 2020 female and who had raised a brood successfully in a nest not that far away. She had left her nest as normal to start her migration and dropped in and managed to persuade Samson to feed her for a further week! Luckily, when she was ready to leave this year, Samson still had the chicks around so he would have chased her off and we now know that she was seen down in Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast on 2 Sep. Nevertheless, he wasn’t about to chance falling for that again and, having eventually consumed the rather dry fish, he followed his family away either later that day or first thing the following morning. We don’t know how old he is, as he is unringed, but based on how long he has been here I would suggest he is in his mid teens. The struggles he had with fishing this year were symptomatic of a shortage of fish rather than any failings of his prowess so I hope we will see him next year and wish Bon voyage to all the family.

Each season is so different from any other and this year was no exception. The most serious factor was the low supply of fish which became more obvious as the chicks grew. Samson was struggling and it needed JW6 to add her contribution, which she did when required right up to and post-fledge. I’ve never witnessed that before at this nest. Even that was not sufficient to save the third chick and that was, without a doubt, the lowest part of the season for me. The little one was such a character and so good at sneaking in front of its siblings to grab mouthfuls of food but, eventually, it was not enough. The biggest non-osprey factor was, of course, the lack of footfall following the sad decision to close the Born in Scotland facility. We had just purchased the best camera we’ve had to display the action on the nest but the closure meant that we were the only ones who were able to see it. Beaming the pictures onto the web is not feasible at present but I continue to look at options. Until then, you’ll have to rely on what I can show you on the blog. I’ve missed chatting to the visitors to the site, although the presence of the regular dog walkers and others who come down has been great and the nest still excites a lot of interest in the area. On the plus side, the pair have succeeded in raising two strong, healthy chicks in difficult circumstances to fledge and beyond and everyone seemed to disappear on migration in the best possible condition. Next year, we have the possibility of seeing our first chick for 5 years return as a 2 year old and I hope that 688 (Sacha) will show us he’s back…until he’s chased off by his dad!

I am grateful for the continued support of John Henderson, the owner of the Born in Scotland facility, in allowing me to continue monitoring the nest activity from the screen in the restaurant building and from his field. I would also like to thank the usual suspects on the osprey expert front. First there is ringer, raptor expert, environmentalist and purveyor of endless banter (not necessarily in that order), Tony Lightley from Forestry and Land Scotland. Second is Joanna Dailey from Kielder, who not only has provided me with nuggets of her incredible knowledge and memory but has also allowed me to visit N10 at Kielder to watch the progress of PY0, one of Samson’s 2017 chicks, and his first brood of chicks. Finally, I would like to thank the other 2 members of Border Ospreys. We are only a team of 3, one who juggles two jobs as well as doing techie support for me, and the other who lives nearly 400 miles away but comes up each year to do monitoring stints and provide excellent photographic support. Without them, I would not be able to do what I do and I am very grateful to Jain and Brian. I haven’t forgotten also that I owe thanks to all of you out there who read the blog, comment and visit me, sitting in splendid isolation in the field. I do appreciate any feedback I get and I’m glad that you all seem to like the slightly tongue in cheek but still informative approach that this blog takes. There are long hours involved in monitoring and so many periods of highs/lows/anxieties/celebrations/boredom/excitement but it is also a time to feel really close and get to know a dynasty of exceptional creatures. If I can communicate some of my enthusiasm and admiration for this family and the incredible things they do, then the blog and my chatting to visitors has succeeded.

I am not aware of any plans for the site so I assume we’ll be back in the Spring with, hopefully, the same pair of leading actors plus some exciting debutants. In the meantime, I will leave you with a couple of clips that, I think, underlines what I was saying earlier about Ursula being enthusiastic in her methods of obtaining her fair share, and more, of the fish.

See you in 2024.