We have a chick

The first of this year’s osprey chicks in Kielder Water & Forest Park was born this afternoon on Nest 1.  Forestry Commission staff at Kielder Castle spied the little one just after 3pm after mum shuffled around to a reveal the seemingly healthy chick; it was able to hold itself up, which means it was born an hour of two earlier.  This is the fourth year of successful hatching for this nest, though we are all mindful of the poor weather last year that meant that the pair only got one chick to fledging.

Nest 2 is about two weeks behind, but all seems well here too.  The female has been turning eggs and male has been paying regular calls.

View of Nest 1

Today on nest 1 on the screen at Leaplish

The live feed of Nest 1 (the original nest) is up and running at Leaplish, a handy comparison for when the volunteer staffed watch point opens, as this is the nest that is visible from the watch point.  The Mounces viewpoint is also open for those wanting to take their own telescopes, it’s a little closer than Leaplish so the views can be a little better.  The quality of the camera on Nest 2 is certainly better than that on the original nest, but the images are still providing a great insight into nest activity:  that said, not much was going on today!

 

Incubating male

Last week’s gusty and cold weather has now been replaced by warm sunshine.  Last week the staff at Kielder Castle were monitoring the high definition pictures from Nest 2 where the male osprey is proving himself a ‘New Man’ by regularly sitting on the three eggs and letting the female go off for a fly.  We are looking forward to the first eggs hatching by the end of the month.

At present there’s no more news on the identity of the male on Nest 2 – We are still confident we’ll get to the bottom of his origins but it is taking some time, sorry for the delay!

Public feedback on the clarity of the video footage from Nest 2 has been excellent and we now have the live footage of the ospreys at Leaplish Waterside Park up and running after all the technical challenges;  this is in addition to the live feeds from both nests up at Kielder Castle.

It’s not all about ospreys, visitors calling in at Kielder Castle have also seen a record five squirrels at a feeding station on live CCTV!

Sea-sick ospreys

The staff at Kielder castle were hoping the ospreys don’t get sea sick today.  The gusty winds have meant the ospreys were hunkering down on their nests; especially on Nest 2 which seems more prone to being rocked by the wind. The male on this nest has been bringing back more twigs over recent days to build up the nest; home improvements osprey style.

We need some better weather over the next few weeks in time for the eggs hatching – a repeat of the wet, windy, cold weather of last year would not be good for the birds.

Buzzed by Buzzards

Joanna has been back to Kielder today and has sent in the following report:

I saw some interesting activity around nest 1 between about 12:45 and 13:15. I was looking through my scope from the south shore and could see a pair of buzzards hunting over the fell below Monkside summit. The incubating osprey’s head was bobbing around, and I thought the male would have seen them off had he been near, but he was nowhere in sight. The buzzards moved further east, but about 20 minutes later one was right over the nest. An osprey came at it, and there were some acrobatics before the buzzard went off. I thought I saw another osprey to the west as the buzzard flew east, but couldn’t be sure. The chasing osprey went back to the nest and took up pole position (i.e. he perched on top of the camera pole!) and everything settled down.

I then went to the Castle, where the staff had been watching just before the scrap; apparently an osprey landed and the incubator flew off. So it seems likely to me that the male was incubating initially and the female was either eating or fishing, so he was stuck until she got back, then he was off to defend his patch.

Nest building from the Video (c)Joanna Dailey

Also of some interest (to this osprey anorak!), on nest 2 the female was off the nest and the male was incubating when the staff turned onto that channel. Whilst I was watching, the female flew in and they swapped. Over the next 10 minutes the male flew in with some large twigs and started building up the nest on the opposite side to the camera position. It looked more substantial than last week even before that, so the cold winds must be getting to them!

A pair and some eggs

The pair of ospreys on nest 2
with their eggs yesterday.

Joanna, an Osprey Watch volunteer, was at Kielder yesterday and was watching the live video footage at the Castle from nest 2. The male had come in at about 13:05 apparently, and took over incubating whilst the female flew off.  Joanna started watching at about 13:40 and one of the ospreys flew onto the nest and for a short period at approx 13:52 both of them were there. They actually stood side by side, looking at their eggs which were very visible.  Then the male flew off.

Kielder Osprey Ferry July 2011 (c) Sally Hutt

Joanna also took a trip on the Osprey ferry and saw 2 ospreys fishing, mainly up at the dam end. They were very close to each other at one point but didn’t seem territorial, although one did fly off fairly quickly.  The crew said they’d seen them fishing twice earlier in the day.

Video from Nest 2

Click here for a Forestry Commission video from nest 2 showing a brief glimpse of the eggs.