(All photos courtesy of P Sumerling)

I think the Border Ospreys musical chairs game is over for 2026. KX7 lost interest in us when her regular partner arrived back at Kielder yesterday, although she was casting covetous eyes at another, at present, unattached male at Kielder but I’m sure she’ll now settle down.

I had a report of 3 ospreys flying in the area of the nest on Saturday evening but when I went down there on the Sunday there was only one bird, hunkered well down in the nest, and the conditions were so bad that I never could see any identifying features. The head feathers looked a bit like Augusta’s but the poor bird was soaking wet and she was not happy when Samson brought in a fish and then proceeded to eat most of it in front of her. I couldn’t keep the scope still in the blustery conditions to get any idea of even whether she was ringed or not and we had a typical Scottish Spring day with sun, rain, hail and snow all accompanied by a penetrating icy wind. Before you get too impressed by your heroic reporter, battling the conditions to bring you the latest news, I have to admit that I stood right by my car with the scope and took shelter whenever I needed to do so!

Monday couldn’t have been much more different with the wind having dropped away to nothing and mostly dry. I don’t think it was the same bird as I’d seen the previous day but the morning found a striking looking female accompanying Samson in the nest. When she got onto the perch I could see that she was unringed. She did some stick moving in the nest but little else because she spent a lot of the day defending herself from a persistent female intruder. We had some visitors yesterday and I have to thank Paul for the photos in this blog. They got a great view of the two females battling on the nest and also flying around in the area, trying to manoeuvre into the best positions. It was quite a dramatic afternoon and it ended with the unringed female still in possession of the nest. The intruder never came close enough for me to have a good look at her.

This morning saw yet another occupier of the nest. There was no sign of the unringed female but a very familiar figure was sitting on the nest perch and was identifiable even without the scope as Augusta, ring number 500, our resident female. My best guess would be that she was the “intruder” yesterday but needed to recover from her journey and give herself a good feed before really taking on the unringed bird. I think it’s certain that there had been more battles because, although I didn’t see any other intruders today, Augusta looked like she was super glued to the nest and only left it to feed when Samson brought her a very welcome fish. Even then, she stayed very close to the nest rather than moving further away as she normally does.

Samson has wasted no time and has already mated with her on several occasions today, even once when she had hardly got her talons on the nest after eating. His manners do leave a little to be desired at times! There have been some half hearted attempts at collecting sticks but I think tomorrow will see the couple re-energised and doing some serious nest building and restoring.

It’s a great relief to have them both back and both earlier than last year. Hopefully, it will be a sign of things to come but we’ll have to wait and see. I continue to threaten, cajole and plead with the camera set up…and throw more money at it… in the hope that I can get some semblance of a working system. I’ll keep you posted on all that’s going on to the best of my ability.

Lots of excitement yesterday evening when it was reported that there were 2 ospreys flying around the nest. I shot back but by the time I got there, there was only one and in the gathering gloom of an incoming heavy rainstorm I couldn’t make out enough details to positively identify who it was. What I could see was that it was a female, with a blue ring on her left leg and she seemed quite familiar with the nest. Was it 500/Augusta back?

I left after the rain started and with no further idea who it was we had up there on the nest but was back again this morning, and was encouraged to see a familiar sight as I drove in of an osprey sitting on the nest perch. By the time I got around to where I sit, there were 2 birds on the nest. Samson was doing his normal mantling/subservient act in between moving a few sticks around and the female joined him and did a bit of stick renovation as well. When she hopped back onto the nest perch I could see her ring clearly…but it was not 500! We were being visited by KX7, the star of Kielder’s nest 7 cam, and the reason she was familiar with the nest and Samson is that she was our non-breeding female from 2019 and has been on a visit several times in the years since. She started gently food begging (such a difference to 500’s raving) and Samson obediently flew off after a fumbled mating attempt during which she seemed receptive but Samson got his angles all wrong!

She disappeared from sight shortly after Samson thermalled away to fish downstream and wasn’t seen again, even when he brought back a nice looking grayling. He proceeded to eat it while keeping an eye open for her but, when she didn’t arrive, he took the opportunity to finish it off. I am advised that she appeared back on her own nest at about 1615, looking totally innocent, but we know better!

I’ll let you know of any further developments of this or other goings on at the nest when they occur. In the meantime, I’m grateful to K Ramsay for these photos of Samson flying around yesterday and then bringing in some decorations for the nest.

A very quick note as it’s late and I’m not long back home but I had to share the good news that Samson arrived back today, some 2 weeks earlier than last year. He’s already brought sticks to the nest and has engaged in some crow bashing. I don’t have any photos as yet because the camera is throwing a small temper tantrum but, if I throw enough money at the system I’m sure it will work eventually!!

Luckily, we had just finished doing some repairs to the nest following the severe battering it and the tree got during the various winter storms but Samson will no doubt not be satisfied and will furnish it himself in his own inimitable style.

I’m delighted and relieved that he’s back. All eyes to the skies for Augusta now.

At long last, it looks as if the whole family has finally decided to migrate, at least 2 weeks later than the normal. C1 was last seen on Sat 13 Sep and C2 was last seen (and heard!) on Mon 15 Sep. I’d imagine that Samson probably migrated hot on the tail feathers of C2 just to ensure he didn’t change his mind and come back. There was a time when Samson thought he’d never leave, I’m sure. If anyone has seen them since these dates, please let me know because, as you can appreciate, getting the departure dates accurate is not an exact science.

In the last weeks, as well as exploring the area, they have been spending a lot of time over and in the river, flying, watching, learning and practising. We all appreciate that they spend a lot of time refinishing their fishing techniques but what is sometimes overlooked is that, even when not fishing or attempting to fish, they will also be learning (and strengthening their wing muscles) to do the other critical thing and that is working out how to get airborne from the water. It is a totally different technique from being able to “push off” from something solid, as watching a video of any osprey doing so would show. It’s vital that they learn how to master this skill, even before they catch their first fish, because failure to get airborne from water could be fatal. We have seen plenty of evidence of our juveniles returning to the nest soggy and scraggy. We haven’t seen them come back with anything but empty talons, but we can assume that the lesson of emerging from water straight into flight has been well learned.

So that’s about it for this year unless something untoward happens. Sadly, we won’t receive any more news about the chicks as we weren’t able to get them ringed this year and by the time they come back in 2 years’ time, assuming they survive, they will look completely different. The good thing is that any unringed bird we see over the nest from 2027 could be C2, as males tend to return to their natal areas, or any new unringed female at any of the monitored nests in the country could be C1. We will never know but we can certainly be optimistic. They have a long and difficult migration before them but have been well prepared for it and are stuffed full of the River Teviot’s best fish. They will also have to battle for a good fishing spot when they reach their winter grounds. However, if they manage to cope with that, come Spring next year, life will get considerably easier for them as all the adult birds will fly north and they will only have to compete with other year old and some 2 year old birds. Hopefully, they will thrive and Spring 2027 will see them winging their way north to find their own breeding territories. Fingers crossed that they make it.

In the meantime, I have a long list of jobs that I should have been doing over the Summer and Spring will be here again before we know it. The skies at present are full of incoming pink footed geese but, come March and April, I will be looking forward to and listening for a familiar silhouette and the piercing cry of a returning osprey. Thank you for your company, either in person or digitally; I will see you all next year. Just as a reminder, here are some photos of the family of 2025.

I’ve been waiting and waiting so I could tell you that the birds had all departed, Samson having done the last security check on the nest (you know the routine – stuff unplugged, water turned off, windows secured, external doors locked etc) but it was getting later and later, so the normal blog for this time of year has been replaced by yet another “how-goes -it” blog.

Augusta left the area several weeks ago. She hasn’t been seen on any other nests, unlike last year, but I’m just assuming she is now well on her way to, if not arrived at, her wintering grounds. However, the rest of the family are still around. I saw all 3 birds yesterday and C2 seems to have caught up with getting his share of the food being provided. This is a mixed bit of news. It’s great that he’s now well fed but he’s managing to do that by staying close to the nest so he can see Samson coming and can grab the fish before C1 gets there. That means that he is not flying around and familiarising himself with the area or practising his fishing technique as much as perhaps he should. C1, on the other hand, is often not seen for several hours but is usually back for the mid afternoon fish delivery/deliveries.

Poor old Samson, in the meantime, is patiently continuing to feed the youngsters but must be secretly hoping that they’ll hurry up and go. This is certainly the latest we’ve had our resident ospreys still here and he must be ready to start his own journey. I’ve never seen him leave before his chicks but I know this can happen on other nests to force the chicks to depart but I just can’t imagine him doing it. So we’ve reached a bit of an impasse. I think C1 could go first as the more independent of the 2. Once she’s gone, C2 will be able to move around more freely and should gain confidence and set off himself fairly soon. Samson usually leaves as soon as the last chick has departed. I imagine he won’t break that habit this year.

I’m a little limited in coverage of the nest at the moment as my trusty camera system, having worked well all season, has thrown a few wiggly amps problems at me which haven’t been easy to solve. Nevertheless, we have had observers on the ground and I must thank Kirsteen Ramsay for her photos which adorn this blog.

I expect my next blog will be when the 3 have left but goodness knows when that will be; we’re on new ground here. However, I’m on holiday at the beginning of next month so they need to get their skates on. Perhaps they’re waiting for me to give them a lift but they’ll be unlucky. I’m going beyond the wintering grounds of most UK ospreys and it’s a non-stop flight, so they’ll have to rely on their own wings to get them there.

I’ll let you know when Samson succeeds in packing them off on their migration. Now, where did he put his passport…?

After a fair amount of wing flapping, hopping, stepping and jumping, and generally faffing, C2 finally fledged today at 0946 and did a very competent circuit, even leading C1 onto the nest and making a smooth landing despite her bearing down behind him. As tends to happen, he then almost immediately took off again, and again, and again. You can only imagine what thoughts are going through a fledgling’s mind when they first take to the skies and experience the freedom that flight gives them.

C1 in the meantime has quickly gained lots of confidence on the wing and we were amazed to see her, when she was being mobbed by swallows, actually doing a barrel roll to chase them off. All it needed was the Battle of Britain theme music and we would have been set! She is quite happy to jump in and grab a fish from Samson, and even from Augusta’s talons, and she doesn’t give C2 a look in. He is going to have to push himself forward a bit more or he will lose out as Augusta steps back from her feeding duties and leaves the chicks to manage on their own.

If you’re in the area, it’s a good time to come and see the spectacular sight of 4 ospreys wheeling about the sky. However, you shouldn’t delay because it won’t last for long, as Augusta will be feeding herself up prior to migrating and will probably be gone by the middle of the month.

Before we get onto the main news of this blog I just wanted to mention an amusing incident from a few days ago. Fish were a little harder to come by last week and we had a bit more attempted bullying by C1 on C2 but he has now discovered a marvellous way of keeping his sister at bay. When she tried to get to the back of his head, he turned and pushed his bottom up into her face. The net result was a beak full of tail feathers and a mystified looking bully. Well done, C2!

After much wing flapping, hovering and a fair bit of peering over the edge of the nest, C1 fledged today at 1348. Yesterday, she’d hovered straight up out of sight and onto the branch to which the camera is secured. That clearly took all of her courage and it was a good 90 minutes before she had enough confidence to lower herself back down onto the nest. For the rest of yesterday, her hovers were much more reserved but it was only a matter of timing for her today. It was virtually windless, so she was able to control her movements a lot better than yesterday and she spent the morning eating and building up her courage. A couple of lovely ladies from Hawick, who didn’t know about the ospreys here and had just come for a walk, came up to watch the screen and so were able to witness the magical moment of C1’s maiden flight. All 3 of us were on the edge of our chairs as she did a big jump across the nest, had a peer over the edge, a nice rouse of her feathers and then finally launched from the nest, to a cheer from us. She did a couple of circuits and I was touched to see that Samson, who was hiding away in one of his man sheds, immediately got airborne to monitor her flight and make sure she was safe. She came in a bit fast and with all talons extended, ready to grab whatever bit of nest she could, and landed right on Augusta’s back! There followed a bit of a scrabble as Augusta tried to get her off and C1 was determined not to unhook her claws from the safety of something solid. After getting her breath back, there was no stopping her and she spent the next hour or so doing circuits and practising a variety of landing techniques, before withdrawing, exhausted by the excitement, to the bottom of the nest for a snooze.

C2 in the meantime was totally unimpressed by her efforts but was keen to try it for himself, wing beating enthusiastically and even managing to get airborne, just, a couple of times. It won’t be long before he joins his sister and then the final stage will commence.

Samson will continue to bring food in but the big change will be that Augusta will start to disengage herself from her nest duties and will start fishing for herself to build up strength for her migration. She will probably only have a couple more weeks here before setting off to begin her journey south. I imagine she will go directly this time, unlike last year where she spent about a month loitering around the Tweed area before being seen at Foulshaw Moss nest in Cumbria on 2 Sep where she was hoping (but failed) to persuade the male there to feed her. In the meantime, the youngsters will build up their strength and flying skills and will get to know the area as well as hone their instinctive abilities to fish. Now is a great time to look for ospreys as the fledgling birds will all be doing the same thing and so there will be far more ospreys than usual on the wing and around stretches of water. So if you are lucky enough to live around an area where ospreys are known to be, keep your eyes to the skies and your ears open for their characteristic calling.

I’ll report in when C2 fledges.

Hello everyone. Thank you for your patience. I hadn’t realised that it was quite so long since I’d updated you on the progress at the nest. As you will, I hope, have realised that no news has definitely been good news and the chicks have been thriving with a good supply of fish and attentive parents. They have exploded in size and one of the advantages of still having the infertile egg in the nest is that you can easily compare how they have grown. Chick no 1 (let’s call it C1)’s foot is now the same size as the egg. It seems incredible to think that the whole chick fitted inside a similar one only a few weeks ago. The development of the wings has been the most impressive to me. From little stubs they have grown into long, graceful wings that, in a couple of weeks, will bear them up into the sky with powerful strokes as a precursor to their long migration; it’s almost unbelievable. Food has been mostly plentiful and both chicks spent a lot of the first few weeks either eating or in a food coma/sleeping it off. They have grown far more active in the last couple of weeks and are now fully into the wing exercising phase. Seeing the chaos that 2 chicks can have on a nest when they are both flapping at the same time, I hate to think how they coped on nests with 4 chicks! There has been very little sibling rivalry although 2 days of bad weather when Samson was unable to bring as much food as normal did result in a few nasty sessions where C1 gave its sibling a bit of a battering. It looks brutal when they grab the nape of the other’s neck and shake them backwards and forwards but, thankfully, it only lasted a couple of days and C2 quickly learned how to shield itself from the worst of the bullying.

The chicks have also started to feed themselves and have attempted to steal from 500’s talons as soon as she has relieved Samson of his catch. She has started to delay taking the fish from Samson, encouraging the chicks to come forward but that can be risky, as Samson will see any delay in exchanging the fish as a sign that he can keep it and will fly off with it. There’s an amusing scene when he arrives and the other 3 are looking at each other, working out who’s going to make the first move, while he’s alert for an opportunity to escape with the prize. He no doubt has memories of previous chicks fighting over fish and grabbing his legs in a frenzy to be first and is trying to prevent a reoccurrence.

When not feeding the chicks, 500 has spent time bringing in sticks (she is still an amateur in comparison with the pair at Loch Arkaig for those of you who follow that nest, but she’s bringing in some very weird shapes and sizes of branch) and also talons full of grass to provide a good landing and take off surface on the nest for when the chicks finally fledge.

We have an intruding osprey on most days but they stay well away and out of view of the camera so I can’t tell how many intrusions are by different birds. Augusta caught a fish, a grayling, on one day when Samson had been struggling with the weather. The chicks were slow to realise that she had brought something in but then C1 pounced and grabbed the fish for itself. I was a little concerned that C2 had had very little up to that stage in the day but Samson redeemed himself only a few minutes later by bringing in a sizeable trout which Augusta, C2 and then he enjoyed while C1 was struggling with its grayling. The rest of her time is spent on the nest perch or close to the nest but not always in sight of the camera. Samson is spending virtually no time in the nest, only what time he needs to deliver fish but when the family are temporarily all satisfied, he sometimes takes time to sit on the nest perch and look proudly out on his domain.

The only downside is that it looks like that we will be unable to get the chicks ringed this year. Our ringer is unable to climb at present and can’t find another climber to do this aspect of the work in the timescale required. As I’m sure you’ll appreciate, as with so many aspects of osprey life, the window of opportunity for ringing the chicks is very small. They have to be large enough to be able to fit the rings snugly around their ankles without them slipping off or pinching too tightly but young enough to not try and prematurely fledge when the nest is approached; the nest is about 130 ft up from the field. We have now just about reached the latter stage and so ringing will become impractical and dangerous for the chicks. If it doesn’t happen and we aren’t able to confirm all the data we take at the same time, we will also have difficulty in deciding the sex of the birds. Weight and dimensions are the most accurate way we have but I’m going to hazard a guess that C1 is female. She is much bigger than C2, even more so than can be expected with the 4 days’ difference in age, and has the thicker ankles and legs that are normally associated with the females. C2 is more difficult to judge but could be a smaller female or a male towards the top end of the range; for the purposes of distinguishing them on here, I will refer to C2 as a male. No doubt, those assumptions are entirely wrong and the birds will have fooled me once again, but I’ll stick with it, regardless.

So, the next thing is going to be the fledge of the two chicks. It’s always a heart in mouth time. Some launch off, very confident, and others are far more wary. Those of you who have been with me for a while will recall that, 2 years ago, our male did a graceful launch, flight and landing when he fledged. The female, on the other hand, crashed through branches on take off and only just managed to pull away to avoid coming down in the field. She then ‘arrived’ (I can’t call it a landing) on the nest perch with her talons out desperately trying to grip onto anything firm while at the same time dislodging her brother! We have a very benign surrounding area with large fields and no dense plantations of fir trees where chicks can get lost. Nevertheless, it is a worrying time. It’s now 10 years since we had to rescue a chick that had come down in a field of tall crops and couldn’t see out or get any lift to fly out. Luckily, we saw it and were able to rescue it and it flew back safely to the nest but the danger was clear.

I’ll let you know how fledging goes and chat about how the nest and family dynamics change once both birds fledge. See you then. In the meantime, I’ll remind you of that crazy first landing by the 2023 female chick.

I’m delighted to report that everything is going well, so far, on our nest, with Samson supplying fish on a very regular basis and 500 (Augusta) quickly becoming proficient at feeding the bottomless pits that are their 2 chicks.

The 4 days’ difference in age is very apparent, especially as chick #1 has now lost its fluff and is well into the ‘dinosaur’ stage, which is when growth seems to be particularly fast. Chick #2 is starting to follow suit and will continue to do its best to catch its sibling up. They are very well behaved at mealtimes, due to the abundance of food provided, and I’ve only seen the very occasional tiff, often started by chick #2! It hasn’t worked out that pecking its sibling is not a clever idea, especially when one is not yet very fast across the nest. Another bit of progress is that Augusta has now started to allow Samson to feed the chicks, something he has been desperate to do.

The third egg is still on the nest and can occasionally get in the way of feeding. I’d like to see the back of it but 500 still collects it under her when she broods the chicks and doesn’t seem to realise it’s unviable. She was very quick to stop incubating the eggs last year when the clutch failed, so I’m hoping she will soon push it out to the side of the nest and be done with it.

We’ve had good weather for most of the time but the 14th saw torrential rain with poor old 500 doing her best to keep the chicks warm and dry.

We’ve had a couple more intrusions over the last couple of weeks but only a very persistent 724, a bird hatched on a local nest in 2022, has been identified.

So, a positive report from our nest in all respects. Our hatchings were later than on many of the nests that have cameras installed, so even though several are getting to the ringing stage, we are still some way off that. We will let you know of any news as the chicks continue to grow.

Before I go, I’d like you to indulge me while I tell you about something that I was involved in yesterday that’s nothing to do with ospreys. I was sitting at home and suddenly saw something clinging to an outside wall of my house. I went to have a look and discovered a bat. Luckily, we have a wildlife rehabber in the next village who is particularly knowledgeable about bats. He advised that it being out in the day meant it probably needed rescuing, so I got a ladder out and, wearing gloves (a sensible move when you look at its teeth in the second photo!) and handling it with a cloth, I managed to get it into a box and down to the rehabber. He told me that it was a whiskered bat, one of the rarest species in Scotland, and he will keep it to rehydrate it and get it back to a healthy weight, before releasing it back here. I was really pleased to do my little bit to help this tiny creature. Fingers crossed it makes a full recovery and can be released quickly.

For those of you counting days, you will have noticed that there has been an ominous silence since chick #1 hatched overnight on 5/6 Jun and I’m sad to report that egg 2 did not hatch. It could have been infertile or could have been damaged at some stage; I doubt we’ll ever know but, the good news is that the chick from the third egg hatched this morning and was fully free of the egg shell at 0745.

It didn’t take much part in the feeds earlier in the day but had successfully fed by noon. Augusta seemed at first to be a little nonplussed at the arrival of this second mouth and she kept looking over at it when she was feeding #1 wondering how it had got there. Samson was also very interested in it and, as in the last few days, made some effort (albeit unsuccessful) to feed the older one. He has also been allowed to brood for the first time since hatching started and was alone on the nest when the camera came on this morning at 0430.

So it will be a 2 chick family and, although sad that the second egg did not hatch, I’m not unhappy that Augusta as a first time mum has only 2 chicks to rear. They both look strong and healthy and have a very experienced parent in Samson but there is little leeway for error in the life of a young osprey and we must hope that fortune favours them. In doing so, I would like to extend my condolences to my colleagues at Tweed Valley Osprey Project who sadly lost that incredible clutch which was incubated and would have been raised by the two females and possibly the absentee male. The combination of the male disappearing and the weather conditions making fishing so difficult was just too much for the family to survive. The margins are so small between success and failure. Fingers crossed our little family do well. The weather seems benign for the next few days, which is so important when they are so tiny and the fishing looks good. I will certainly keep you informed.