I said in my last blog that I would chat a little about what the future might hold for this little family. While some of the points may be of interest to those of you who are experienced followers of ospreys nests, they are primarily aimed at those following this nest, or any nest, for the first time and to manage expectations or warn you that it can be a tough, as well as rewarding, experience.

A serious obstacle has already been overcome in that the pair have succeeded in hatching out a complete family. In 2024, in Augusta’s first year with us, they were forced to abandon the clutch, with eggs only a few days from hatching, because extended bad weather had made fishing conditions atrocious. Samson was unable to provide food for both of them on his own and Augusta was literally in danger of starving before she decided to fly off and try to catch a fish for herself. The eggs were exposed for over 30 hours and so never hatched, even though the parents returned and heartbreakingly continued to try to incubate them. So getting to where we are now is already an achievement.

The next potential problem is along the same lines in that Samson now has to provide for the 2 adult birds and 3 chicks; not such a difficulty at this stage, where appetites are easily appeased with only a few mouthfuls of food, but it will become increasingly challenging to keep up with their rapidly growing bodies and associated feeding needs. That is why chicks hatch at different times. The sad reality is that, when food is scarce, what gets delivered is fed to the chick(s) that are able to force themselves to their mother’s attention best. That tends to be in age order as the eldest will be stronger and larger than its siblings and so on down the line. The youngest is the insurance policy and will always be in danger of missing out. It seems harsh but survival of the fittest is as true in the nest as it is on the savannah or in the mountains. What makes it particularly difficult in our nest this year is that the 3rd chick is so much younger than the other two. Normally there’s a gap of one or 2 days but, in this case, it’s 4 days and you can all see the distinct difference in size, so it is already at a significant disadvantage in its ability to compete with its siblings. So, keep your fingers tightly crossed that Samson can keep everyone satisfied. However, I’ve noticed in the past that the youngest chicks tend to develop good coping strategies and often use their brains rather than their brawn and it’s certainly the case with our 2026 brood. As soon as Samson arrives with a fish, Titch (as we’ve nicknamed chick no 3) is on the move, and while its older siblings take prime position, Titch is busy coming up between them or sneaking around the sides, and you watch where it ends up – often right in front! So that is a great sign that it will use skills at its disposal to ensure it gets a decent share of the food.

As the chicks continue to grow, they will start bickering and that can be tough to watch on occasions. However, you must remember that they are apex predators and they will need to build up strength and skill to fight for their rights as adults, be it for fishing grounds or, ultimately, for nests and territories, so it’s hardly surprising that they will be discovering aggression and will fight, usually by trying to grab each other on the back of the neck. It’s less noticeable when there’s plenty of food but, if food is short, the third chick can be bullied and attacked to the extent that it is unable to feed and can starve to death or be killed by its siblings. Our nature is to feel for the weakest but that is a luxury not available to ospreys and, again, with a chick much smaller than its siblings, Titch is vulnerable. Chick no 3 was killed this way in 2023. It’s can be very harsh to see but it is a necessary part of them growing up and, thankfully, the behaviour only tends to last for a few weeks until they seem to grow out of it.

I don’t mean to depress you all but osprey watching can be like a roller coaster with a constantly changing scenario and no one knows what is waiting around the corner. We seem to have had more than our fair share of dramas on this nest over the years and each year I hope for a text book season. Perhaps the advent of the live stream will tilt the scales and we will have only good news; if nothing else, it spreads the tension, increased heart rate and bitten nails around a bit more as it’s a monopoly I am more than willing to share! I don’t like to speculate and I will never tempt fate with forecasts but I am hopeful about this pair of adults; they seem to have a good working relationship when there are chicks around. I look forward to watching how they get on.

Just a final note. You will see chick 1 has already lost its fluff and has entered the dinosaur phase and chick 2 is close behind. Titch has a few days of fluffiness left. The two older chicks will now rapidly start developing their proper feathers and growing exponentially. It’s interesting to take a screenshot either every day or every other day and just see how quickly they grow. They are already too big for Samson to brood effectively and you will already be able to see bits of chicks where they haven’t been able to fit completely under Augusta, despite her much larger size. Let’s hope for decent weather to keep them all fit and healthy as they grow.

As several of you have already noticed, the third chick hatched overnight. Just as we were beginning to wonder whether it would hatch at all, the chick decided to make a grand entrance. To celebrate, Samson brought in what, for him, was a small whale so the two chicks got well fed. The third chick doesn’t need feeding yet as it can survive on the yolk sac within it but we should see him stretching up and begging once it gets over the trauma of hatching.

I’ll write about what that means for the family and the next stages in a little more depth later but, in the meantime enjoy watching Augusta with her first brood of 3 chicks.

Can I also quickly apologise to those who wrote comments on the last 2 posts. For some reason, WordPress hung onto them and didn’t send me emails telling me they were there and then just sent them all yesterday. I do like reading them, so please keep them coming.

Well, no 2 chick didn’t hang around. The weather has been cooler and wetter today but that didn’t stop chick no 2 from arriving this afternoon. I wasn’t actually expecting it until tomorrow but it decided that it couldn’t wait a moment longer. The picture was a screenshot from 1730 when Augusta went for a quick circuit to stretch her wings. Samson is in for a nice surprise when he brings in the teatime fish.

It’s clear that Samson is passing on his sneaky genes. Having spent the morning watching the nest for but not seeing any signs of activity, I noticed that the farm vehicles were coming in to set up the watering system for the potatoes in the field below the nest. So, since then, Augusta has been sitting tight on the nest and not letting me have a look underneath her.

So it was very exciting when, at 1730, Samson arrived with a nice headless fish and she stood up to reveal…their first chick of 2026! Just like his sneaky dad, he (it has to be a “he” with the same mentality) had hidden away until he could make an entrance when his first meal arrived. Unlike last year, when Augusta was very tentative about feeding her very first youngster, she was straight in and successfully fed the chick with her first couple of attempts. As normal, Samson is fussing around, showing a great interest in his offspring.

Please take the time to check out this family on my YouTube channel (link below). Every year, it comes as a surprise to me how tiny the chicks are and how quickly they grow. Blink and they’re strutting around the nest as if they’re ready to take over the world, so enjoy them at the cuddly stage and I’ll let you know how the rest of the hatching window goes.

https://www.youtube.com/live/tku99L-hsm8?si=LoL333VE_WCELdZ_

Hi everyone. I hope you’ve all been enjoying the live views of the nest that are now available on YouTube (link at the bottom of this blog). The pair have been extremely lucky with the weather and you haven’t yet seen Augusta’s best “drowned rat” impersonation that we often get during incubation.

We have had one or two intrusions since the last blog. 724 was persistent for a couple of days but hasn’t been seen recently. It’s always nice to see other birds but they do endanger eggs and chicks with the agitated incubator trying to see it off without leaving the nest, potentially damaging both. 731 was seen earlier in the season and we await details of both intruders from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, although we do know that 731 is from the Tweed area.

At long last, we are approaching the opening of the possible hatching period and, after taking my shoes and socks off so that I can use my toes as well as my fingers to count, I reckon we’re looking at about 28th for the first egg to be due to hatch. As those of you who have followed me for a while know, things are often not as straight forward as we would wish, and last year no 2 egg did not hatch and we were unable to work out why. So your fingers need to be tightly crossed that everything works out in the birds’ favour this year.

I’m going to be playing around with the camera a bit, seeing how far I can zoom it without losing too much clarity so please bear with me if you tune in and it looks a little wild on the screen. If we can get a decent picture where you can see what’s going on with the eggs, it might be that I leave it on zoomed during the hatching time but we’ll see how it goes. The other thing to work out is to see if I can use the zoom facility from home, or whether I have to be on site. If I can’t, much though I appreciate your support, I won’t be taking a sleeping bag down there and you may have to be a little patient before you get your first close-up look at eggs/chicks in the morning. I will also be expanding the coverage to start at 0500 local time, as long as the battery and solar panel can cope.

So, exciting times are close at hand. If you see a hatching, please make a note of the time (chick fully out of shell) and then post it as a comment at the end of this blog which I will then pick up; that will be a great help. A time for a first feed would be useful too.

YouTube feed:

https://www.youtube.com/live/qMthaNwbUd4?si=0ZbfeqMilhlWpsj2

We are now up and running live on YouTube, so please head on over there where you can see, at the moment, beautiful Augusta sitting patiently on the nest in the sunshine (so saying, Samson has just taken over and Augusta is going “sticking”). Thank you for your patience as I jumped the gun a little last week for which I received a deserved smack on the head from Jain, my techie lady.

For identification purposes, as well as Augusta being ringed 500, she also has the darker head feathers with almost a complete line from the top down the back of her head, with a small dot on either side at the top. From the front, she has far heavier forehead markings with distinct “frown” lines. Samson has an altogether whiter head, with a distinct break in the line at the back and far lighter forehead markings. He loves to incubate and is always more than ready when he can persuade Augusta to get up from the nest!

I hope you enjoy watching. I have disabled the chat for the present.

As broadband has finally reached the particular depths of this part of the Scottish Borders, I am excited to be able to tell you that we have set up a live feed so you can watch the day to day “goings-on” at Samson and Augusta’s nest. It’s very much at the experimental phase and you know how much fun and games we’ve already had this year with the non-osprey side of operations. However, if you will bear with us when the feed doesn’t work or the sun refuses to shine and the battery goes on strike, plus all the other glitches that might happen, you can enjoy as much as I do the truly awesome sight of our osprey family raising their 2026 family.

If there is sufficient interest, I can hopefully refine the system over the winter, although I’ll not be able to match some of the other wonderful live cams that are available. In the meantime, YouTube will not let us livestream unless we have at least 50 subscribers, so if you would be kind enough to subscribe (it’s free) on the link below, we will be able to go “live“ very soon.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCIk8ptg7n-jTMhi36pkTmrA

I was actually watching the live feed this morning when, at 1012, Augusta laid her third egg to complete her 2026 clutch (a fourth egg is technically possible but most unlikely). I haven’t got a clear picture to show you yet but, on handover of incubating duties, it was noticeable that Samson had his normal difficulty in manoeuvring the eggs for the first time to get all 3 underneath him!

So now we settle down for the incubation period and we will be looking for, fingers crossed, hatching at the end of May. Let’s hope we have a peaceful, drama-free month of May.

Augusta laid her second egg yesterday, so I think it’s probable that the first egg was laid on Wednesday, for those of you keeping count on such things. Things have been going quite smoothly for our pair so far with decent fish availability and nice weather. There have been a couple of ringed intruders but both have been seen off before landing on the nest. One cheekily followed Samson in when he arrived with a fish and the other took advantage of Samson’s absence to hover over the nest before being sent on his way by an irate Augusta. I was rather pleased to have been up watching the screen when the first intruder came and so was able to obtain a screenshot not only of the 2 eggs, but also of Samson with the fish AND of the intruder flying off in the background! I will let you know details of the birds when we receive information about their rings.

I have however been very remiss in not thanking the people helping to get everything ready for this season, bearing in mind the difficulties we have had. I’d like to thank Gen and Louise at Solwise, a super company based in Hull, who were fantastic in helping me sort through the various options when last year’s WiFi units died on us. Setting up a new system, virtually from scratch, necessitated my learning a lot of new information and they were incredible at supporting me and investigating options, even when it didn’t fall within their field of expertise. I’d also like to thank David Loveluck, a friend of a friend who helped with another stage of the electrics, even making special connectors for me. Then there was Björn who climbed the tree to replace the camera and suddenly found himself carrying out emergency repairs on the nest, which had lurched to a dangerous angle when some of its support branches had been snapped during an earlier storm. He was ably assisted by Malcolm and Kate at ground level, sending up equipment and a steady supply of appropriate wood to strengthen the nest foundations. It was pitch dark when Björn had finished, having been up there for over 6 hours. He descended with the illumination being provided by our car headlights! We couldn’t have got where we are without all these people, mostly volunteers, but all going above and beyond to achieve the goal of us being able to watch the ospreys safely working on raising a family in 2026. Thank you to them all.

The third and probably last egg will arrive Mon/Tue and then we have the long wait of incubation, usually of between 37-42 days. I’ll let you know when we have the full clutch and also any information we have about the intruders.

I have some good news and an apology. The news is that, after 16 days together, Samson and Augusta (Blue 500) have their first egg of 2026. It was laid either late yesterday or today (23rd) and Samson has been his normal enthusiastic self about taking as much of the incubation and guarding duties as he can. He has spent much of the time standing over the egg, rather than incubating it, which is common practice with the first and second eggs; concerted incubating doesn’t start in most cases until the clutch is complete. Augusta, on the other hand, has spent most of her time lying down in the nest, apart from when Samson does his naughty thing of teasing her with a fish by overflying the nest and then going off to eat part of it elsewhere.

She got quite ratty today and he realised that he probably had pushed her a little too far and he hurriedly handed over the majority of the fish, which she took to eat in peace. We might be able to narrow down the time frame a little if we can ascertain when the second egg is laid but the reason we can’t be more precise is explained in the next paragraph.

The apology is that, sadly, the camera is refusing to recognise the sd card that would hold the recordings of the activity on the nest. As the card is in the camera itself, it is inaccessible and it means that we will be unable to get recordings at all until we next go to the nest. Unless we have an emergency that requires us to climb the tree, and let’s be honest, we’ve had emergencies of one sort of another every year so far and it would be nice to omit the drama for 2026, we won’t be able to resolve the problem until any chicks we have are ringed. So we are left with screenshots when one of us is watching the action ”live” and distance shots from either ourselves or people visiting the site and kindly allowing us to use their photographs, like Bruce Carrington whose shots appear in this post.

I know this lack of coverage is unfortunate and means that reporting will be limited to when one of us is actually on site; we have had an incredibly frustrating start to the season but, thankfully, the most important part is that the birds are safely back and are on course to have a new family. Fish supplies are looking good so far this year and human repairs to the nest (followed by re-repairs by the ospreys!) should hopefully ensure a safe haven for that family. Anything else is a bonus and I will do my best to provide as much coverage as I can. If any of you are visiting and take pictures that you think we could use, the easiest way to contact me if I’m not there is to drop a note on the most recent blog and I’ll get in touch direct.