RINGING DAY

I don’t do “early“ on Sundays but I just about managed to get to meet up with the ringing team and a few observers by the arranged 1000 yesterday. It wasn’t ideal weather with the rain coming and going to tease us but, luckily the wind had dropped sufficiently for Björn to make his way up the tree safely and then carefully lower the chicks down.

First to be ringed was Titch who weighed in at a whopping 1620g, despite being the youngest. Its stuffed crop made up a fair proportion of that weight and showed that all our concerns about it not getting its fair share of food were completely misplaced. She’s probably female but we’re not 100% sure as she’s still quite young to assess her various wing and foot measurements accurately. Her two siblings are also both girls but neither weighed as much as she did, despite being 4 or 5 days older! They have been ringed as 9J6 (chick 3), 9J7 (chick 2) and 9J8 (chick 1). They were weighed (all 3 had target practice during this period and narrowly avoided splatting several of us!) and various measurements were taken before a quick ride back up to the nest, accompanied by a fish I had brought (Morrison’s tilapia) them to atone for the interruption to their day.

Augusta was overhead the whole time, watching what was going on and Samson arrived mid way through with a fish. That mysteriously disappeared by the time the chicks were back in the nest and I rather think that Samson took the opportunity for a quick snack whilst his family was otherwise engaged. Being an old hand at this he’s very calm about the whole ringing process but it was the first time for Augusta since she herself was ringed back in 2020 so was the more agitated of the 2 by it all. By the time I got home and switched on the live camera feed, the tilapia had disappeared so I assume no one turned their beaks up at the foreign fish but they gobbled it down while recounting the story of their day to their mother.

The next bit of drama is that the chicks will be increasingly exercising their wings to strengthen muscles and eventually to lift off the nest. The latter is known as helicoptering and always makes me nervous when you feel that a sudden gust of wind could so easily whip them off the nest. Augusta in particular has been bringing in small sticks and soft material to build up the nest into a more suitable, flat take off and landing pad. This is all in preparation for fledging which will probably happen in the next fortnight, weather depending, and then them becoming less reliant on the nest. You may also have noticed the chicks making some attempts to feed themselves. Augusta will see this and the fledging efforts as signs that her role is coming to an end. Once the chicks can feed themselves and can leave the nest, albeit temporarily at this stage, her job is done. Some of you may have noticed that she has been moulting and new feathers are coming through on her tail and wings. This is normal for females who take the opportunity of the breeding season to spruce up their feathers in readiness for the migration south. Males don’t have that option as they are busy flying all the way through the breeding season. They therefore moult over a much longer period so that they never lose their flying effectiveness.

The niggling between chicks will peter out now but, as they start to feed themselves, the fights to grab the fish when they arrive can become quite aggressive. Samson will bear the brunt of this and you will see that the chicks will dive in to snatch what they can and he often ends up with his feet and feathers getting grabbed by over-eager chicks, which will now weigh as much as him! In past years, he has been known to hover over the nest and drop fish onto it without landing for his self-preservation.

I hope you will continue to watch the chicks on the live feed (search for border ospreys webcam on YouTube) gaining confidence and starting their journey towards independence. It’s incredible to think that they are just over a month old and have already come so far. I’ll be in touch again at fledging; drop any name suggestions for the 3 chicks in the comments.