SEEING DOUBLE

For those of you who follow several osprey nests, you will know of Joanna Dailey from Kielder, who is an encyclopaedia of osprey knowledge and is brilliant at keeping track of all the Kielder nests and who is mating with whom there and who is intruding, how many eggs each nest has and when chicks are due to arrive etc etc. (I struggle with just the one and she has 10 to monitor!). However, to add to her many talents, we must now add Osprey Whisperer. An unattached 4 year old female osprey, hatched south of Inverness and ringed Blue 500, has been causing all sorts of trouble at Kielder, intruding at various nests and creating a great deal of angst for the resident birds, even landing in the cup of one nest that already had an egg. JW6 is, sadly, lost to us and so I asked Joanna to tell 500 that there was a situation vacant just north of Kielder, ie here at Border Ospreys. No sooner said than done and 500 arrived here this morning at 1049, much to the excitement of Samson. I missed all this because I was looking at another local osprey nest (!), but was delighted to see two birds on the nest when I finally arrived at Lanton at lunchtime.

500 has made herself very comfortable. She hasn’t left the nest for more than a few minutes all day and is clearly making her opinion known that yes, this nest will do nicely. Samson has been dashing backwards and forwards with sticks and various bits of nesting material, most of which were quite suitable but one particular branch he brought in, he landed with it across her back and then proceeded to almost put her eye out with one of the side shoots while manoeuvring it into position. Each time he brought a stick in, he attempted to mate with her but she was uncooperative and he eventually got the hint and went fishing. After he’d brought her about half the fish he’d caught, she was far more amenable and several successful matings have already taken place. He even waited until she finished eating before trying to mate, a restraint that he has only recently learnt as regular readers of this blog will know.

So things are looking promising. Kielder may have got rid of a problem and we may have acquired a new mate for Samson. Time will tell but things are certainly looking a lot more optimistic than 24 hours ago. I will keep you posted on developments.