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.

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 to go for a couple of days and she was helicoptering nicely on 22 Jul. I think she would have gone yesterday had the weather been better and I could have shown you her helicoptering in the morning, despite the rain, apart from the fact that all you’d have seen would have been her emerging from and disappearing back into a large blob of rainwater on the camera lens that was obscuring most of the nest. So here’s her on 22nd instead.

Suffice it to say, that the 23rd was a complete washout until late in the afternoon and the wind that sprang up from mid morning made helicoptering, and certainly fledging, something to be avoided.

The camera came on a little later today than it should have done which was hardly surprising considering that, for the last couple of days, the solar panels had been working hard to suck any tiny bit of light they could from the gloomy skies to power the kit. Today was different though and the sun was shining and the wind had dropped. 732 was on the tip of the nest perch and looked ready to go. I wondered if she might have already fledged but I’m fairly sure she hadn’t when I subsequently saw her take off. Her brother in the meantime was doing zoomies round and round the field, clearly enjoying the nice weather and his rapidly developing flying skills. He returned to encourage his sister to follow. She didn’t manage to match his effortless looking launch of 4 days ago, taking off from the cot rails at 0720 and catching some foliage as she did a bit of a lurching first few wing beats. On the video you can see her recover, fly off across the field and then return to circle round against the blue sky.

The landing was even less impressive. To misquote from Casablanca and in his best Humphrey Bogart voice, you could forgive 733 for saying “on all the perches, in all the trees, in all this field, you had to land on my one” as she crash landed onto him, and clung on until she was able to hop back onto the nest, forcing him to do an impromptu circuit. Her later efforts were slightly more effective.

So the centre of attention will now start to move to the surrounding area from the nest, although fish will continue to be brought there for the chicks. In most years, the male would continue to supply the chicks but the female would normally start to fish for herself and would share very little of the future parenting duties with the male; her job of guarding the nest while the chicks were there would have been completed. However, this has not been a normal year and JW6 has been supplementing fish supplies brought in by Samson for quite a period of time. So what will happen next is unclear. Will she carry on as she would do in other years and concentrate on feeding herself up prior to setting off on migration, or will she continue to help feed the chicks and delay her own preparations for migration in view of the difficulties Samson has faced in providing sufficient supplies? Can we expect another visit from 3AF once she has left her nest and what will happen if JW6 or either of the chicks are still present? There’s still plenty to interest us as we move onto the next phase of the chicks getting more confident and spending more time flying around, learning about their surroundings and maybe having a go at putting those fishing instincts into practice. One thing is for sure: August will be an interesting month.

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 air under his talons but he never seemed to sustain lift off for more than a couple of seconds and 732 (Ursula) hadn’t actually been seen to lift off the nest completely at all. So I thought it would be a couple of days at least before we saw a fledge but, today, everything seemed to just slot into place.

A couple of smallish fish were delivered by JW6 (Juno) by midmorning and she then disappeared off and so missed all the excitement. The first was consumed by 733 and the second by 732 and then the flapping in earnest started. I was very glad that they hadn’t tried helicoptering in the high winds we’d had in the previous days but today there was a light breeze at tree top height, which I think encouraged them. He was the more enthusiastic and was doing wing assisted hops to the branches we call the cot rails (because they are almost parallel to the ground and form the front edge of the nest area) and the nest perch.

He developed an interesting sidle to manoeuvre himself up and down the nest perch and seemed fascinated to see how far away the ground was (it’s about 100ft down). She also put far more effort into wing exercising than we’d seen before and several times lifted herself into the air but never strayed outside the confines of the nest.

The first time he looked like he was really going to go, he was disturbed by Samson bringing in a fish. That was quickly grabbed by 732 and, although 733 came back into the nest and showed some interest, he didn’t attempt to take it from her. He then went back up onto the cot rails and from there onto the nest perch and even Samson’s arrival with another fish couldn’t distract him; he was a chick driven. 732 couldn’t believe her luck and started to feed again and didn’t actually see her brother finally summon up the courage and launch into the air.

He flew high and around in several circles, clearly gaining confidence, and then frightened the life out of us watching as he went into a steep dive down towards the nest, replicating how JW6 sometimes arrives with a flourish. Luckily, he came out of the dive in time to avoid crashing headlong but seemed to really be enjoying himself. He then decided to land in the dead tree, next to Samson, but whether he knocked Samson out of the tree or Samson just took avoiding action, that has to be written off as a failed landing attempt, but he was nevertheless confident enough to recover and do another circuit.

He was airborne for 3 mins in total and when he decided to land, he came in and touched down as sweet as you like on the nest perch. It certainly didn’t look like the first time he had ever landed.

Since then, he has done another couple of short flights, landing once in the dead tree to have a man-to-man chat with Samson and the second time to have a fly around and show off to his sibling.

Coincidentally, as I mentioned, 732 didn’t notice him getting airborne as she was too busy eating so, the first time she looked up, it was to see a flying osprey very close to the nest and she didn’t know it was her older sibling. She therefore did the time honoured “face plant” to play dead but it was noticeable that she lay on top of the fish. That stranger was going to have to go through her before it attempted to steal her fish. She knows her priorities. She didn’t relax until he returned to the nest at the end of his maiden flight and I swear she looked a bit sheepish as she regained her feet.

So, the focus now shifts to 732 and when she decides to make the big move. As you will recall from the ringing blog, she is a lot heavier than 733, despite being younger, so it may not happen tomorrow as she builds up muscle and courage. Nevertheless, she won’t be content to let 733 have all the excitement and I’m sure that, all things considered, it won’t be long before we have the possibility of 4 ospreys in the sky together over the nest site. I can’t wait!

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, will be called Ursula after the Disney witch, which seemed appropriate bearing in mind her behaviour so far.

They are relatively easy to spot the difference as Ursula has a distinctly darker head and Johnny Depp eyebrows whereas Jed just has the one thick dark mark on his head and the rest is much lighter.

Fishing continues to be difficult and JW6 has had to help out on a couple of occasions now. The river is still high and very murky and several of the lochs he would use as standbys are going to have an increase in human activity as the holiday season gets underway. A difficult period for the family but this was certainly a success yesterday when Samson brought in a lovely but lively pike.

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 nest alarm calling to tell the chicks to “play dead“ but Samson was away, possibly fishing, so she was left to protect the nest as best she could. With the minimum amount of fuss, the chicks were collected and carefully lowered to the ground for Tony to do the ringing and measuring.

It was no surprise to me that chick 2 turned out to be female (being aggressive, incredibly greedy and as large to look at as chick 1, although 2 days’ younger) and weighed in at a sturdy 1720g. She was given the Darvic ring 732 and will be named shortly. Following her behaviour with chick 3, I’m tempted to name her Fiona, as in the green ogress, but I may think of something slightly kinder before I announce the final choice.

The older chick is male and is also a nice weight at 1480g and has been given the Darvic ring 733. After all the measurements were taken and numerous photos of the handsome pair of birds were taken, they were returned to their transport bag and hoisted aloft again. They both resumed their flattened “I’m not here; I’m actually a bit of nest material” pose until the team left from under the tree, and JW6 made sure that we’d departed from where the cars had been left before she returned to the nest perch. She was attentive throughout and made her displeasure of us disturbing her chicks quite plain.

A second bird was seen, briefly, during the ringing process but I didn’t see it and so we don’t know if it was Samson or not. It would have been nice to see him come in with a juicy fish to feed the chicks as they explained to their parents what had happened to them “down there” and to show off their bling which now matches their mum’s. However, it was not to be and he still had not returned when I came away some 4 hours later. The river is full and muddy due to the high rainfall, so fishing will be difficult, but I’ve got this feeling that JW6 is going to take out all her frustrations of the day on him when he finally does return. I hope for his sake it’s a big fish!!

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. The appetites of both larger chicks, but particularly no 2, are enormous at present and it is doubtful whether it would have succeeded in getting any food even if it could have made the effort. It burrowed in between its siblings between fish deliveries but you could tell that it was running out of strength and the siblings seemed to sense it too, making little effort to avoid standing on it and treating it like a piece of nesting material.

It was always likely to be quite an ask in view of the fluctuating fish supplies to raise all 3 chicks but I just loved this little one’s attitude and nerve. I’m trying to be dispassionate about this but I feel so sad that it didn’t survive (it was 4 weeks old today); at least there should be enough food now available for the other two siblings.

I’ll hopefully bring more cheerful news in my next blog.

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 to what supplies have been delivered. Usually, the two larger chicks are sufficiently full by the late afternoon so that chick 2 then is less inclined to bully chick 3 and the latter usually manages to have a good feed at that stage. One good feed every 24 hours is not ideal but chick 3 is continuing to develop and I am hopeful will survive the present onslaught by its older sibling. It is learning how to position itself so as to minimise the attacks and to be ready to take advantage of any opportunities to feed, but it is nevertheless hard to watch when it food begs from its mother when the fish has already been consumed.

Today, however has been different. Samson brought in the remnants of a fish shortly after 0500 and, when he hadn’t reappeared within the next 2 hours, JW6 (Juno) clearly decided that she was going to have take matters into her own talons and disappeared off camera, appearing 12 minutes later with a fish. This is most unusual for a female to a) fish before the chicks fledge and b) leave the chicks, probably out of her sight, for any length of time. The brood didn’t notice at first when she landed that she had a fish and, as usual, it was 3 who reacted quickest and had several mouthfuls before its siblings cottoned on to what had happened. Within 30 minutes of bringing that one in, she disappeared again and, 20 minutes later, brought a second fish, no 3 managing a good dozen mouthfuls before greedy no 2 pushed it aside.

Samson brought in the next fish and throughout the afternoon proceeded to bring in several more, all fairly small, trout and the family fed well before JW6 brought in the eighth fish of the day. The two eldest chicks finally bulked out after that and the ninth fish (Samson) was eaten solely by no 3. I wasn’t able to download the last couple of hours of camera footage today but JW6 was spotted bringing in at least the tenth fish, the largest seen of the day, at about 2015.

So, tomorrow will be interesting. I don’t know whether JW6 will continue to supplement Samson’s efforts (I noticed the female at Loch of the Lowes also went fishing for her family today) or whether she will leave it all to him. I don’t know where the sudden supply of fish came from (Samson was fishing downstream and JW6 concentrated on upstream) and whether there will be a similar glut tomorrow. No 3 will no doubt hope that the generous supply will continue. Thankfully, the weather will be better tomorrow so monitoring will be a more pleasant experience than today in almost constant rain and I’ll keep you informed of developments.

As a complete aside, I was sitting watching the nest yesterday from my car and had the car door open. It has been encouraging to see far more swallows and both types of martin darting around the field, picking up insects, than we’ve seen for a couple of years and the sky seems full of youngsters. One obviously tried a low flypast by the car and then ran out of steam and landed on the rubber sill at the base of the door. He hung there for a couple of minutes, not entirely sure of what he’d got himself onto, so I gently picked him up (there was nothing wrong with his lungs!) and released him in the open and he flew away, glad to escape from this monster who was obviously going to eat him. I have to say that they are remarkably cute at close quarters. You never know what’s going to happen when you’re down there minding your ospreys’ business.

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 safe distance) our 2017 chick, PY0 (nicknamed Walter), his mate, 330, and at least two chicks on their nest. These are the first confirmed grandchicks of Samson’s and, although much younger than the chicks on our nest, they looked strong and healthy and I reckoned handsome PY0 looked a lot like his dad (but I was accused of being biased). It was lovely to see him for the first time since he set off on migration back in August 2017 and our thanks go to Joanna and the powers that be who allowed us to go and see him with his family.

Back at our nest site, Samson has continued to work hard bringing fish in all the daylight hours he can. The family have often already had their first fish by the time the camera comes on at 0500 and he’s still working when it goes off at 1800. The bonanza he had when he discovered what I assume was a group of trout caught by low water levels in the river lasted almost a week but then it was back to hard graft. This last week, fishing conditions have been much harder with heavy outbursts of rain upstream causing river levels to rise dramatically with the accompanying transportation of mud which have often made river fishing impossible. Lake fishing has also been made more difficult with gusty winds and local downpours causing very poor levels of visibility into the water. Despite this, he has been bringing in some decent sized sea and brown trout and the pike population has also taken a slight dip. Last week, he brought in 3 good sized Jack pike in one afternoon.

Nevertheless, gaps in fish deliveries have been extensive on some occasions and tetchiness between the chicks has been noticeable. In the last few days chick #2 has been picking increasingly on chick #3 and has actively prevented it from getting close to JW6 when she’s feeding the chicks, even to the extent of leaving off being fed to attack #3 and force it to cower away. It’s natural behaviour, particularly if competition is keen for food, but that doesn’t make for easy watching. #2 only desists when either the fish is finished or it is so full it has to stagger off to lie in a food coma. Yesterday, #3’s first feed of the day didn’t come until 1730! The cocky little #3 that I was describing in the last blog has had an implosion of confidence and now only approaches for feeding with great trepidation. I’m hoping that food supplies will satisfy #2 and still be sufficient for #3 to feed, or that #2 quickly grows out of this phase; with a 3 day gap in age there will only be one winner if this deprivation of regular food continues.

We’ve had a couple of intruders this last week. A left leg ringed female came quite close to the nest but, inevitably, not close enough to catch the ring number. Yesterday, an unringed male had the effrontery to land on the nest (well, technically, on top of the chicks) very briefly before being invited to leave by a furious JW6. Samson was away fishing and so missed the drama but JW6 managed extremely well on her own although she wasn’t able to chase the intruder far from the nest as she wasn’t prepared to leave the chicks unguarded. If there’s any doubt about an adult’s commitment to its family, it would be dispelled by the second photo, showing JW6 standing astride her family, looking like an avenging Fury. I wouldn’t want to cross her when she’s in that mood!!

Lastly, I have been extremely disappointed to see on camera several instances of individuals walking under the nest, disregarding the notices asking people to stay away and clearly disturbing the birds in the nest. What was particularly annoying is that some of these intruders were obviously birdwatchers or nature lovers and knew exactly what was there. On one occasion a couple stood about 40 feet from the base of the nest tree, looking up, as JW6 flew round and round alarm calling and there they stood for several minutes. Unfortunately, their faces were unrecognisable from the video but their actions were in clear contravention of the Countryside and Wildlife Act which precludes disturbing Schedule 1 birds at their nest site. I don’t expect people to know the provisions of the Act, and I’m fully aware of their rights under the Rules of Access in Scotland, but the notice they chose to ignore makes it clear they were breaking the law and the sight of an adult bird, circling round in distress should have warned the most ignorant of “nature lovers” that they should not be there. Luckily for them, the chicks were old enough to survive their parent bird’s absence from brooding duties while she attempted to chase away these intruders, but these people were not to know that. The birds are very tolerant of people, dogs, noisy children etc who keep to the river path. Why are there always people who are not content but have to get closer to see, photograph or otherwise experience these magnificent birds, irrespective of the needs of the birds themselves?

With that off my chest I’ll dismount from my hobby horse to say that I will let you know in a few days about the situation with the sibling rivalry. Thankfully, it only occurs when there’s a fish delivery and during feeding. The rest of the time, there’s peace and tranquillity and the chicks don’t bother each other and for that I’m grateful. I know some nests experience major problems, irrespective of the food situation, and the bullied chicks have died. I hope this won’t happen here as I’ve a real soft spot for the little one and, before you ask, human intervention would be inappropriate. Fingers crossed for a peaceful and beneficial resolution for all concerned. Keep those fish coming, Samson.

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 growing family bringing in a variety of trout, grayling and the ever popular pike. Unlike some of the other males on nest cams, he does not have access to stocked reservoirs on his doorstep, so he has to work a lot harder to find adequate supplies and so does particularly well. Personally, I could wish that he made sure the pike were dead before he brought them onto the nest as sight of those teeth make me fear for the chicks but, touch wood, there have been no accidents yet and JW6 (Juno) quickly brings the most wriggly of fish under control. Samson even managed to bring two fish in at one stage, both in one foot, and I think he was as surprised as anyone when, half way through JW6 feeding the first one to the chicks, the second one flipped over the edge of the breadbasket frame and into the nest!

As a result of this bountiful supply, the chicks have been growing rapidly and the first two have already turned dark as the fluff disappears and the feathers start appearing through the follicles. Chick #3 still retains its fluff but is due to undergo the metamorphosis in the next couple of days. The change in size is noticeable on a day to day basis and I’ve never noticed before how quickly the wings go from useless little stubs to mobility aids to sizeable appendages. You can see on the photograph that the chicks have started to do that weird sprawl with one leg stuck out to the side that they all do as their body shape (and size of feet!) develops.

You will recall in my last blog that I was worried about the difference in age between the first two and the third chicks and whether the little one would have enough to eat or whether it would be picked on by either or both of the others. I needn’t have worried. I’d be interested to know if other observers have noticed but what the third chick lacks in size, it often makes up for in cunning and it’s certainly the case with this brood. As soon as the little one was mobile, (about 4 days old), it was working out how to be in the best position to get early feeding by JW6. It would stay low and come up between its two siblings, nip around the side, or just push its way through while they were still waking up. It happens far too often to be a coincidence, with the result that Chick #3 is now strong and healthy, although still obviously smaller than the other two. It does get pecked occasionally by Chick #1 but just tucks its head down and weathers the brief storm.

So all is proceeding nicely at present with good weather and good food to aid the family’s development. Exploring around the nest is now the preferred entertainment when not eating or sleeping and, when viewed from the river path, the chicks’ heads are starting to be visible poking over the edge of the nest. Let’s hope that this positive start can be maintained as they continue to grow and develop.

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 the camera had been switched off. It’s a lot smaller than its 2 siblings, having hatched 3 days after chick 2 but still managed to get a few mouthfuls of fish in the first two feeds of the day, which was more than enough for it on day one.

The rest of today was taken with an ongoing battle between JW6 who wanted to brood the chicks or at least keep them under her wings and the 2 larger chicks who were determined to squirm out from underneath her to see what was going on outside. I think a score draw was finally declared.

Saturday saw some different action in that I received a call at home in the morning from a local rescue saying that one of the ospreys at Born in Scotland had got itself trapped 3/4 of the way up at telegraph pole! Grabbing my falconry glove and with my heart in my mouth, I raced to the car and did my level best to set a new land speed record down to the site (only joking, officer!). When I got there, I discovered the member of public who reported it to the rescue. Luckily, the bird was far more accessible than the rescue had suggested to me, being only about 7ft up, and it was, in fact, one of the local buzzards and not an osprey. It was a reasonable mistake to make as it was in a right tangle with having caught its wing in a barbed wire frame on the pole, designed to stop people climbing up. There was no way it could get itself free as its entire weight was forcing it further onto the barbed wire. We got a ladder and I was able to take the bird’s weight and release its wing. We took the very peeved buzzard to be checked over by a vet and, after she sprayed it with bright blue disinfectant where the barbed wire had caught the flesh of the wing, she said the wing looked fine and there were no breaks. A couple of feathers were permanently damaged but I could see that the rest would be sorted by a good preen. We returned to the site and released the bird, which flew away strongly. It’s a local bird and easily recognised by having a gap in its tail, so I’ll be keeping a look out for it and making sure it’s continuing to be able to look after its family.

Returning to the ospreys, it is to be hoped that the next few days see some large fish being delivered to the nest which will be enough to sate the larger chicks and leave enough for the little one to do a bit of catching up. It’s always tough to watch them having to wait in turn to be fed but Samson has experience of having 3 chicks, having successfully raised 3 in 2015, 2016 and 2017. He has been doing superbly so far at keeping the nest well supplied; fingers crossed his fishing skills will continue to be rewarded.