Blue 500 (Augusta) wasted no time in completing her clutch of eggs when she laid her third, and hopefully final, egg of the season at precisely 1100 this morning. She has spent longer this morning on the nest perch than the last few days, allowing Samson the luxury of incubating, although he did go fishing and provided her with a hearty breakfast just after 0900. She still doesn’t have the confidence or the know-how to push him off the eggs when she wants to take over and she must have been getting a little worried when she could feel herself ready to lay and he would not give up the nest cup to her. He eventually gave way and she settled down and produced for us the wonderful sight of the moment of laying her egg. You can see it drop during this video as she stands up.

We now have the wait of just over 5 weeks from the first egg being laid until it is due to hatch, so around 9/10 June, and this should be something of a hiatus for the parents. He will continue to catch fish for both of them and she should do the majority of the incubating and will also be responsible for guarding the nest and precious eggs from predators of various kinds, and intruding ospreys.

In my last blog, I recounted the first incident that I wanted to bring to your notice and will now tell you of the second. Many of you regular osprey followers might have seen the normal process of the male bringing in a fish, having often eaten the very nutritious head beforehand, and handing it over to the female who usually flies off with it. If she has eaten her fill she often brings back the remainder and gives what’s left back to the male to finish off. Samson has always followed this, as have his previous mates. However, 500 hasn’t yet got to that chapter on her book of how to have a successful and fruitful osprey partnership and, on 1 May, she returned to the nest with the remains of the fish that Samson had previously caught and given to her. He naturally came forward and tried to remove the remains from her talons but she was in no way going to give up the portion she had left. A bit of a scramble then ensued, very like when adolescent osprey chicks try to grab food to feed themselves and end up grabbing their parent’s foot instead. In the end, she decided to fly off with the now rather tatty bit of fish but failed to warn Samson who was still trying to wrestle it from her grasp, with the result that he got dragged across the nest and she got airborne with him still hanging on! In the video, Samson is in the nest and 500 then comes in with the fish.

They did disentangle themselves and she made off with the prize. One of the things that struck me was the sheer power of 500 to drag Samson across the nest and then get airborne with him, initially at least, as a dead weight. The second thing I thought about was thank goodness there were no eggs in the nest at that stage!

I think they must have worked things out after that because, since then, she has given up remains if she’s come into the nest but has been left alone by Samson if she’s brought back fish onto the nest perch. it was an interesting part of them learning about each other and developing a bond.

I’m hoping that the birds have an uneventful incubation period; however, there is usually some drama or otherwise to disturb what should be a peaceful time before the mayhem of the chicks arriving and I will let you know if there anything to report.

Augusta (Blue 500) duly laid her second egg at 1421 yesterday, 6 May, realising that the laying of her first egg overnight when the camera was off was not going to endear her to her new fan club. She was attended by a pair of jackdaws but whether or not that speeded the process I’m not sure but they have been annoying her for several days now, even cheekily snatching bits of nesting material for themselves from almost under her beak.

She is a lot calmer now and is settling more readily and for longer than she did when the first egg arrived. Samson still loves to incubate but she is increasingly coming back quickly from her wing stretches and wanting to take that duty back over; I’m sure that a part of it is her reminding him to concentrate more on bringing in fish. He brought in a large rainbow trout a couple of days ago and I wonder whether he’s found a new food source as I cannot remember the last time he brought one in. That would be a welcome situation indeed.

I mentioned in my last blog about a couple of instances to bring to your attention. The first was about, despite being so careful normally about moving about on the nest, especially when there are eggs or youngsters about, this rule being ignored by both birds when bringing sticks in. Many of you will know of the Loch Arkaig pair, Louis and Dorcha, who are notorious for having to tackle really awkward sticks that the other has brought in. Well, Samson and Augusta have entered a couple of bids to wrest the title of The Most Awkward Stick award for this year from the Arkaig pair. The first was not so much awkward as potentially dangerous, with Samson polevaulting in with a stick that got caught up in his tail feathers, so that the end that went into the nest missed the egg by only a few millimetres.

The second occasion was Augusta arriving with a large and awkward stick, which the two of them took turns at wrestling around the nest, luckily before any eggs had arrived. I think it finally disappeared over the side after both birds admitted defeat with trying to place it on the nest in an acceptable position. This was the first positioning attempt.

The second matter I wanted to tell you about I’ll leave for if and when a third egg is laid. I’d be quite happy for there to be only 2 eggs this year as I’ve mentioned before but, if a third egg is laid, it will be probably be on Friday and I will let you know either way.

It’s been great seeing some of you down viewing the birds and having a chance to chat and update you. As the weather improves, I hope to be around for longer, although I may be on site but in my little den, reviewing footage on the big screen. Please let me know beforehand if you’re travelling from some distance and I will make every effort to be available.

Oh, I can see that this one is going to be trouble!

Blue 500 has kept me dangling on a bit of string all this week about when she would lay her first egg. First of all, she started rejecting Samson’s advances for a day, so I thought perhaps there’s an egg on its way. Then she underlined that with being very fidgety as if she could feel something going on inside her. Then she reverted to normal. A day or so later, she suddenly got all keen on tidying up the nest and getting more material and even nest cupping, so I thought “here we go”…and then nothing. Even Samson seemed to be looking down into the nest thinking that something should be happening. Finally, she sat on the nest perch just before the camera went off at 6pm yesterday looking for all the world like there was nothing going on.

When the camera came on at 5am this morning, it revealed her innocently lying in the nest on a very murky morning; a switchover between her and Samson about 5 minutes later revealed her first egg, laid sometime when the camera was off! Anyway, we have two proud parents, both of whom want to incubate although the poor little embryo will be scrambled if 500 turns the egg over many more times. Like any new parent, she is super-conscious of her duties and gets up every minute or so to shuffle around, roll the egg and settle down again. Samson is of course far more experienced and quietly goes about his business as he has seen it all before. She has even forgotten to fish beg for most of this morning, although he did eventually go fishing without her normal encouragement.

As I did with JW6, I decided against naming 500 until the first egg was laid and the commitment to the nest was physically established. Blue 500 will be named Augusta, in memory of a very dear friend and neighbour who sadly passed away 3 days before Blue 500 arrived at the nest. I have to say that any character similarities between bird and human are strictly coincidental and had nothing to do with the naming decision, although feistiness does seem to be a characteristic common to both!

We’ve seen some amusing incidents between the birds this week but I think I’ll leave relating them until we’re sitting twiddling our thumbs waiting for the incubation period to pass. The next egg is due in a few days, possibly Monday, and Samson has already been eager to start making it, although I wish he’d wait until she was off the egg before he clambers onto her. Incubation will last for 37-42 days so Augusta is going to have to learn a bit of patience, not something that has been much in evidence so far.

As we wait to see whether/when Blue 500 decides to lay an egg, I just wanted to write a few words about JW6, nicknamed Juno, our previous female who failed to return from migration this Spring.

JW6 burst onto the scene at Border Ospreys on 20 Apr 2021, the fourth year that we hadn’t had a settled female, or a brood. She was one of 11 females we had visiting the nest that year, some ringed and some not; some eager to breed and others not. She definitely fell into the latter category and actually was a complete nuisance that first year. She chased off any other females about but refused Samson’s advances (but never his gift of fish) and then would disappear for days at a stretch, before returning and ousting any other female who had attempted to settle in the meantime. I expect she was checking out any other options but kept returning to Samson.

When she arrived on 2 April 2022, I thought that we were in for another frustrating season but I couldn’t have been more wrong. She became the ideal mate for Samson and produced two fine chicks, although one sadly was injured in a nest accident whereby it lost an eye and has to be euthanised. In 2023, she went one better and produced 3 chicks.

Despite losing one as a result of poor fish stocks, she did so well again, and even helped Samson out with fishing for the family. She looked set for a long reign as the Border Ospreys matriarch but something happened between her leaving on 15 Aug 2023 and her due back time this year and she failed to return. We have no idea what was the cause of her death but there are so many dangers for even the most experienced ospreys, both on migration and in their winter homes.

She was a strong, confident and very large presence on the nest. I sometimes worried about the survivability of the camera lens when her fish begging reached full volume but she was impressive in how quickly she learned to overcome the many difficulties in bringing up a family. One of my enduring memories of her was watching entranced via the camera as she worked out how to feed her first day old chick a meal of fish without trampling on it or stuffing pieces far too large for it down its throat.

She was very dominant and Samson was not allowed to incubate very much or brood, or even feed the chicks, something he had enjoyed with his first mate. However, she was a dedicated parent and a fierce protector of the nest and she was wise enough to take the risk of leaving the nest in 2023 to catch fish to supplement Samson’s efforts and ensure that the two remaining chicks survived.

I hope that her demise was quick and as painless as possible and I have my fingers firmly crossed that her genes will have survived in the shape of 688 (Sacha) who is due back this year and/or 733 (Jed) and 732 (Ursula), the last being a real chip off the old block. She left indelible memories during her time here and I am grateful for her deciding to make Lanton her summer home for those few years. I will never forget her. Fly high Juno.

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.

Well, it took 48 hours from writing the blog expressing my concern about the non-arrival of the birds, but the ploy worked and Samson duly arrived this morning, in torrential rain and pursued by the local jackdaws. He was soaked, and I struggled to see him properly (see the picture below) but eventually he dried out sufficiently to make out the head feather pattern. His behaviour was certainly that of the laird returning to his castle, ignoring the jackdaws and sitting proudly and confidently on the nest perch.

His first gardening job was to tackle a self seeded rape plant which was several inches high on the nest and about to flower. Using his beak like a pair of secateurs, that was quickly snipped off and then he used the egg cupping technique of lying on his keel and scuffing with his feet to get rid of some of the other vegetation on the nest. Well, I think that’s what he was doing behind the big blob of rain on the camera lens. All I could see of that activity was an occasional wing, or a head with his chin on the ground, or a foot!

He flew off after being on the nest for about 90 minutes and didn’t return while I was there, so I imagine he’s gone fishing. He’ll have to find a loch because the river is almost bursting its banks, is fast flowing and very muddy, so he’ll have no luck there today.

Now, the question is, has JW6 been in the area, lurking like she did last year, but not on camera? I rather doubt it but the next few days will show us. Once he has recovered from his flight and has done more to the nest to make it presentable, Samson will be skydancing to attract a mate. If JW6 arrives, he will settle with her, but if she doesn’t, then hopefully another female will be attracted by him and come calling.

Several of you have been in contact asking whether our birds have returned yet but I’m afraid that there is no news yet. I am particularly concerned about JW6 (Juno) who is 16 days’ late from her 2023 arrival date and 6 days’ late from her 2022 arrival. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that she will still arrive but the vast majority of monitored birds have arrived on time or early this year, so her arrival this late would be unusual. I’d like to think that she’s taking her time because she had to wait over 3 weeks for Samson to arrive last year but, sadly, ospreys don’t operate like that. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that she does eventually arrive.

Samson is right in the middle of his arrival window. The earliest he arrived was 30 March and the latest was 15 April so I’m not too concerned about him yet. However, it’s in his interests to arrive as soon as possible if JW6 hasn’t survived as he’ll need to find another mate quickly if he is to breed this year. It’s sounds a bit heartless but it is the harsh reality for ospreys when they have such a short bracket of opportunity in which to breed.

The nest is looking very good although a lawnmower might be needed soon and it has survived the pummelling of the wind and rain over the last few days. Returning ospreys could be forgiven for thinking that the tree is located in the middle of a lake if they had arrived this week.

You know what they’ve been like in the past. I hope that merely writing about their non-arrival will cause Samson and Juno to both be sitting on the nest when I go down tomorrow morning. I will never have been more pleased to be wrong if that was to be the case.

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.

I DON’T KNOW WHY I BOTHER; I really don’t! Yesterday evening I wrote that JW6 had definitely maybe left on migration. Not been seen, longer absence than normal…blah…blah. I downloaded yesterday’s recordings as I do each following morning, came home to review the footage…and guess what? JW6 brought a tatty tail end of a fish onto the nest at 1410 yesterday, in the middle of a heavy downpour of rain!

Now, in my defence, I have to say that I never said anything absolute but I was pretty convinced that she’d gone, especially when the day before yesterday, Samson was struggling badly to fish and I saw no deliveries to the nest for the whole of the 13 hours that the camera was on. I thought she’d have come and helped if she was around. Furthermore, the chicks seemed as surprised as I was when she landed and were actually mantling in a very defensive posture as she approached, far from their normal food begging behaviour. Yet, despite all that, there she was and it was noticeable that she was treated with more respect than Samson has been by them. A delivery yesterday morning, which Ursula got, meant that Samson had to endure Jed’s disappointment as Jed really was quite vicious in tugging at Samson’s foot and also had a beak full of Samson’s head feathers which he refused to release.

JW6 disappeared off very quickly and went straight across the field and out of sight. Samson might not have even realised that she was about. She wasn’t seen again on camera later yesterday and I didn’t see her today when I was down there. So who knows? I apologise to all those people that keep data on such things but JW6 had definitely NOT migrated by yesterday afternoon but she definitely might have done as I write this.

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 gets the offering. Often, an over enthusiastic juvenile grabs his leg by mistake and tries to drag what they think is the fish off to the side of the nest.

On one occasion, Samson brought one in and his mate Juno (JW6), who was also on the nest at the time, decided that she quite fancied the trout he’d caught and there was a complete melee for a while with JW6 battling and losing to 732 who then had a tussle with her sibling 733 and he eventually won, all the while poor old Samson was just trying to extricate himself from the chaos and fly off with all his limbs still attached!

Talking of JW6, I think I can say with all confidence that she definitely maybe has left on migration. She hasn’t been seen on camera or in the feather since mid morning on the 10th. That last visit was to bring fish to the two juveniles which would suggest that she was still in her raising a family mode rather than feeding herself in preparation for migration mode and she certainly did take a break before migration last year. Nevertheless, the absence has been longer than normal and she hasn’t been seen on camera down in Kielder where she often goes during her breaks, so maybe she is well away and looking down at the French or even Spanish countryside as I write.

I expect the juveniles to leave within the next 10 days or so. 733 will probably go first. That would be expected as the older of the two anyway, but he is an extremely competent flier and has been much more confident in exploring and refining all the skills he will need. He has been seen practising fishing and seems to really enjoy flying in all sorts of conditions testing out his capabilities. On one occasion, he was twisting and turning in gusty winds and doing aerobatics that the Red Arrows would find difficult to emulate; he really seems a natural.

732 has stayed much closer to home and, as a result, has managed to obtain far more than her fair share of fish. She clearly keeps a good look out for Samson returning and is very adept, even when her brother and she are on the nest together, at nipping in and grabbing a fish from Samson before 733 can get to it. Interestingly, despite being much larger than him, she will usually defer to him if he challenges her for a fish; that 2 days difference in age still is a factor. They both will defend the nest from intruders and, in this matter, she is the far more aggressive of the two, perhaps already seeing the guarding of the nest as being her responsibility. She’s quite a scary sight, mantling and screaming defiance.

We’re not usually bothered that much by intruders but, for several days, Samson appeared to be being followed back to the nest when he was bringing a catch home. We were getting glimpses of this intruding female but nothing definite until she very graciously hovered above the nest, watching the normal battle for possession of the fish, legs lowered so we could read her ring. We were able to identify her as Blue 561, a 2020 chick from a nest near Dumfries. We were confused at first because the ring number looked like 195 but some investigation revealed that the ring had been put on upside down but, of course, the numbers could be read either way. We were also able to find out that she had intruded at Kielder and another nest near here earlier in the year, so she knows the area well.

Our second confirmed intruder was seen on the same day and was, in this case, an unringed male. We got some nice footage of him being escorted (at high speed) from the nest area by Samson. What was particularly interesting was that this male was carrying a large lump of soft nesting material. So the question is, could 561 and this male, seen only an hour or so apart, perhaps be looking at setting up home in the area? Samson and Juno won’t let them get too close but there are plenty of other potential nesting sites around and that might be an exciting prospect for next year.

The last bit of news I have for you is that I was again invited to see progress at Samson’s 2017 chick, PY0’s, nest at Kielder and I was lucky enough to see the first chick fledge. In a situation spookily reminiscent of its parent’s attempt at fledging all those years ago, this chick found itself isolated from the nest on an adjoining tree branch. Wobbling precariously, it took the safest option of returning to its nest by flying a circuit and landing back on. PY0 didn’t do that in 2017 and remained frozen with nerves to his perch, only managing to sidle back to the relative safety of his nest some 3 or 4 hours later. He did fledge successfully a few days later when his confidence returned.

I think that’s all the news from here rounded up and I will let you know when the two youngsters take that massive leap of faith in their instincts and leave on migration. What an incredibly powerful urge that must be to leave all security behind and head off, literally, into the unknown. You may all start to cross your fingers now to build up a nice bit of credit for the two of them before they set off, alone, on that incredible journey.