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Since fledging, Jed (733) and Ursula (732) have fallen into a steady routine of eating, flying circuits, preening, exploring and eating, with more eating thrown in wherever possible. Handover of fish has become a nerve wracking and often painful experience for Samson as the two of them come racing in and fight over who getsContinue reading “TIME IS TICKING ON…”

It’s a strange old feeling when you see the nest empty for the first time since breeding commenced and that’s what I was met with this morning when I arrived and, although I expected it, there is a deal of emotion I always experience each year it happens. 732 (Ursula) has been almost ready toContinue reading “732 (URSULA) FLEDGES”

I was intending writing a blog about the changing dynamics in the nest but it got overtaken by the exciting news that 733 (Jed) fledged at 1600 this afternoon after umming and aahing (spelling??) for several hours. The chicks’ helicoptering had, to be frank, been quite conservative up until today. We had certainly seen airContinue reading “FLEDGING TIME ALREADY”

I promised you I’d let you know the names we’d picked for the two chicks now that we know we have a male and a female. The older chick, which is male and Darvic ringed 733, will be called Jed after the local town, Jedburgh. The younger chick, the female who is Darvic ringed 732,Continue reading “NAMES”

Thankfully, it was a little cooler and not so muggy as last year when we gathered to do the ringing of the 2 chicks. Our normal ringer, Tony, decided to supervise at ground level this year and so Bjorn was dispatched up the tree to collect the chicks. As usual, JW6 flew around the nestContinue reading “RINGING DAY – 2023”

Despite all our positive vibes and its best efforts, I’m sorry to announce that chick 3 died this morning at about 1030. It was very weak and wobbly first thing and made no effort to try for food although chick 2 could still not resist giving it a couple of pecks as it passed. TheContinue reading “SAD NEWS”

I promised you an update on the sibling rivalry between chick 2 and 3 and the fish deliveries. Fishing continues to be challenging for Samson in poor weather and he has struggled to bring in decent sized fish. As a result, chick 2 has continued to attack chick 3, preventing it from having access toContinue reading “FAMINE AND FEAST”

A mixed bag of news today: some good, some not so good, some interesting and then a grumble. Probably the best news came, not from our nest but from Nest 10 at Kielder, just across the border from us. Brian and I were very privileged last week to be invited to view (from a safeContinue reading “NEWS AND VIEWS”

Chick #1 is now 2 weeks old, so I thought I’d better update you on how things are going. The short answer is that things are going very well at present, but I hope that I am not tempting fate by saying that. Samson is doing a magnificent job of providing for his rapidly growingContinue reading “PROGRESS REPORT”

When the camera switched on at 0500, 2 things were immediately apparent. First was that there had already been a fish delivery and JW6 was busy tearing it apart to feed her family and second, that we now had 3 chicks, the youngest of which had hatched sometime in the previous 11 hours when theContinue reading “THREE CHICKS AND A BIT OF DRAMA”