Threave Osprey Update:

The chicks were successfully ringed on Wednesday evening with the following rings: Blue CU8 (BTO ring 1408283) and Blue CU9 (BTO 1401851) and both thought to be female.

The blue Darvic rings were placed on the left leg, the BTO silver rings on the right. CU8 weighed 1.74kg and CU9 was 1.89kg. They were both pretty lively on the ground and one had to be held to prevent her making a run for it. Karl Munday (Head Ranger) was nipped a few times on the hand by one of the feisty chicks.

The nest is getting quite crowded with the growing chicks and the adults. Both adults have been bringing in sticks to make the nest bigger. Come down to Threave Estate and see these amazing birds for yourself.

CU9 - Weighing 1.89 kg.



Osprey Ranger Tom Hall holding one of the female chicks.



Ciril replacing the female chicks back into the nest.



Young female osprey chick being ringed. 

Threave Osprey Photos:

Photo taken from the viewing platform on Saturday 13 July.
One of the chicks tries out it's wings while a parent looks on.
Photo by Colin Smith.

Photo taken on Saturday 13 July from the Castle Hide -
One parent arrives with a fish while the other looks on.
Photo by Colin Smith.

Threave Osprey Update

The Osprey chicks are growing fast. With this warm spell at the moment the female (Olivia) is shading the chicks under her wings from the intense heat. You can also see her panting on the nest.

Two days ago she went down into the water and came back to the nest and sprayed the water off her wings and body onto the chicks to cool them down. I bet that was a quick refreshing shower for the chicks....

Next week the chicks are getting ringed. They will be ringed with two rings. A standard metal BTO ring and a Darvic ring with a unique three digit code to identify the bird from a distance through a telescope. The chicks will also be sexed, weighed and measured.

Come down to Threave Estate and Gardens this weekend and enjoy the good weather and go for a lovley walk in beautiful surroundings. Plenty to see and do! We have a childrens adventure playground, a restaurant, a castle, Threave house and themed gardens.

 

Osprey Ranger

Magical Meadows

The meadows on NTS properties at Threave Estate and garden, Rockcliffe, and Venniehill near Gatehouse are looking particularly splendid at his time of year. We have a real wealth of attractive plant species for wildlife including - Ox-eye daisy, buttercups, birds-foot trefoil, plantains, ragged robin and northern marsh orchid, to name but a few of the common species. Meadows are wonderful at this time of year with all their colour and variety. Careful management of bracken in some cases, and conservation grazing with Highland cattle help us to achieve these diverse plant communities, to benefit an abundance of insects and mammals as well as fungi making meadows attractive to host and variety of wildlife throughout the year. 

Threave Osprey Update:

I can confirm that we have two chicks. Yesterday at lunchtime, a fish was brought in and a volunteer, myself and a member of the public saw 2 tiny heads poking up. Olivia (female osprey) then ripped up the fish and tenderly fed the small pieces to both chicks. It is amazing how she feeds them. Such a privilege to watch.

As the chicks grow bigger and stronger Olivia is leaving the nest a little bit more, she doesn't stray far, just the black poplar perch a few metres away, ready to scare off any intruders such as a Red Kite we had on Sunday.

Ozzie (Black80) is hunting for more fish now as the chicks get bigger. He is feeding the whole family. Later on Olivia will start to hunt too, but not quite yet.

Other exciting news on the reserve: Pam and Paul (two long serving volunteers) saw a dog otter swim past the osprey platform. He was fishing. The lucky guys watched him for about 4 minutes.

The first of our swallows in the toilet block has fledged. It fledged yesterday as I came back from the osprey platform. The other four are still in the nest. See the photo below. We also have a noisy pair of jackdaws in the farm buildings and it is great to listen to them feeding the young. Jackdaws are such characters.

 

The first swallow from Threave Estate toilet block fledged yesterday.

 

 

Osprey Ranger

Threave Osprey Update:

Good morning folks. I was at the viewing platform yesterday and got some great views of Ozzie (Black 80) bringing in a large fish and giving it to Olivia. She then fed down into the nest but I unfortunately didn't see a chick. One volunteer Sue was lucky enough on Friday to see a chick 5 times and a kingfisher flying past the platform. It must of just been her lucky day.

Over the last few days Ozzie has been building up the nest to further protect the chicks. He is making it bigger as they are growing fast on their high energy diet of fish.

If the weather is bad today we will relocate to castle hide so just walk a further 100 metres and we will be inside with a telescope and on hand to talk about ospreys. I also saw two great crested grebe there flirting and doing their courtship dance last night.

Enjoy your weekend and get out and about and see Scotland's wonderful nature. Remember it is the Year of Natural Scotland.

http://www.snh.gov.uk/enjoying-the-outdoors/year-of-natural-scotland-2013/scotlands-big-5-celebrations/

What animal would you choose as your favourite out of the "Big 5" in Scotland? They are a red squirrel, a red deer, an otter, a seal and a golden eagle. We would love to hear from you.

Mine would have to be a Golden Eagle, such majestic birds with a real awe about them. Plus I am a bird of prey geek. Haha.

 

The view across Threave Estate. The creeping buttercups look amazing this time of year.

Osprey Ranger

Threave Osprey Update

Exciting times at the Threave Osprey nest. Yesterday we had a third osprey around the nest site for about one hour. Ozzie (Black 80) chased it off numerous times but it kept coming back in to the vicinity of the nest site.

Finally after numerous attempts, Ozzie chased the intruder off completely out of site. He then flew back and perched on the nest next to Olivia (Female blue?) as if to say "Its alright love, its gone now!"

Osprey flying in to nest site with fish. Image by Graham Johnstone.

Today the volunteers had some excellent views of Olivia feeding the chick. It could be a possibility we have two chicks, but we have only see one at a time and it is so hard to tell from 350 metres away. Plus the fact, Ozzie has been building up the nest. Hopefully we will be able to tell for sure in the next few days to a week. It just shows how valuable a nest camera would be. We will have to try and get donations for next year.

A kingfisher flew past the osprey platform today and someone saw it perched near the river. Also a female mallard with 4 ducklings floated past the platform. Great to see!

Come see the swallows nesting in the barn toilets, they are soon to fledge. It is great to watch the chicks beeing fed regularly.

Have a good weekend.

Over and out - Osprey Ranger

Osprey Update:

It is now almost a week since the real confirmation that the chick or chicks have hatched. Ozzie (Black 80) has been bringing in quite a few more fish and with that high energy diet the chick/chicks will really start to grow.

I hope we will see a few heads poking up in the next few days but from 350 metres it is quite hard to see! I will be naming the chick/chicks after the ringing with Gelston Primary school. Hopefully it will be as good fun and a great experience like Castle Douglas Primary. They really enjoyed it and did some great artwork on the male and female osprey. Ozzie and Olivia would be impressed!

The reserve is still looking great with wildflowers, the bluebells are now dying down but the red campion and pink purslane look amazing. The hawthorn blossom smells and looks fantastic by the Opsrey Platform.

Come down to the Threave Estate and see these amazing birds and just enjoy this spectacular reserve.

Osprey Ranger.

Osprey feeding at nearby coast. Could it be Ozzie (Black 80)!?

Osprey Update:

Hi there Osprey enthusiasts. Update from the Threave Nest. We may even have two osprey chicks now, but it is very hard to tell from 350 metres away.

We will know a lot more in the next week or so, when the chicks are that much bigger. Joyce (a long term volunteer) spotted the female feeding into the nest on Tuesday (11/06/2013) and since then the male has been bringing in more fish than usual. He has also been bringing in more sticks to build the nest up. This protects the chicks from the bad weather and predators such as heron or buzzard.

I have just been into Castle Douglas Primary School and I am pleased to announce new names for both the female and the male. A game of pin the fish (blind-folded) on the osprey talons was played to determine the name. The fish had the chosen name of the osprey and a target was at the talons. Each child in class 5 and 6 had a go at pinning their chosen name at the osprey target. The closest to the bull's eye won.

So without further delay.............. The new name for the female is OLIVIA and the male is OZZIE.

 

Come see the new osprey chicks in the next few days, it is an exciting time now at Threave Estate.

World Oceans Weekend 2013 Rockcliffe

 Rockcliffe, World Oceans Weekend 2013

Here is a selection of images from the weekend, World Oceans Weekend held down at Rockcliffe. On the Saturday we held a beach clean and four volunteers turned up to assist us, with one couple travelling down from Kilmarnock, we are very grateful to everyone for the assistance over the weekend. The NTS theme on our stand this year was whales and dolphins and other sea mammals, We had lots of interesting things to show visitors. These included baleen plates from Blue, Humpback and Minke whales, the skulls of harbour porpoise, common dolphin and a Grey seal skull. The event is a great opportunity of raising everyone's awareness of how wonderful and important our marine heritage is in our lives, and having some fun at the same time.

Osprey Update

Good morning osprey enthusiasts,

News from the nest is the ospreys are still incubating and the chicks are due to hatch from the10th June onwards.

We had a third Osprey fly into the nest on Sunday and there was actually three osprey at the nest for about five seconds. The male (Black 80) then chased off the intruder all the way to Threave Castle. He was really diving at it and going for it. Great sight to see. Awesome! I was just worried about the eggs with three birds on the nest. It has be known for them to break when an intruder flies in suddenly.

Other wildlife sightings at Threave include a young roe deer kid seen on the island, a pair of Great Crested Grebe, Grass-hopper warbler, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Sedge warbler and Reed bunting.

We have also had some great views of up to eleven red kite with the silage being cut on the fields and the kite coming down for mice, rodents and other such prey.

Finally, the reserve is looking stunning with all the wild flowers out late this spring. The red campion, bluebell, pink purslane, greater stitchwort and wood sorrell look BEAUTIFUL in the wooded part of the reserve. There are lots of butterfly out too, enjoying the good weather. Green veined white, orange tip, peacock, small tortoiseshell, large white, small white and plenty of bumble bee also.

Osprey Ranger

NTS Cruise 2013 St Kilda

 The Gap Hirta

 Levenish from Oiseabhal Hirta

 Quest for Adventure in village bay Dun in the background

 Fulmars riding the wind at the top of the Gap Hirta

Cleits on Oiseabhal Hirta

St Kilda was one of the destinations on this years one week cruise, St Kilda is a unique ecosystem consisting of the islands of Hirta, Dun, Levenish, Soay and Boreray with Stac an Armin and stac Lee these sea stacks supporting around 60 + thousand pairs of gannets. St Kilda hosts the oldest and largest colony of Fulmars 68,000 pairs. Also 140,000 pairs of Puffins nest on the islands, mainly Dun. This makes St Kilda the most important seabird breeding station in north-west Europe. Other unique species like Leach'e petrel nest here in small numbers. The huge numbers of seabirds found on St Kilda were vital to the survival of the islanders at the time, eggs provided fresh food in the summer, with Gannets and Fulmars being harvested each season. Feathers and oil were kept to export and helped to pay the islanders rent.

Swallow - keen to do my office work !

 Swallow offering to do some paper work............ I wish !

This swallow was in my office like a flash yesterday, after I popped out for all of two minutes leaving the door slightly open to talk to some visitors. We have a number of  nesting pairs around the reserve and wider estate, hard to imagine these beautiful birds flying from south Africa and skimming over the Sahara desert, at a water hole, hawking insects among camels. Here's hoping for some sunshine. More updates to follow soon. Karl.

Wetland wonders

We have finished all our wildlife scrapes now, and await to see what wildlife uses them, otter pug marks were evident in the soft excavated mud around some of the pools. We do ask visitors to keep to all our main paths, to minimise any disturbance to all wildlife.  Keep an eye out as bat activity is increasing, its well worth coming and walking our self guided trails, bat detectors can be hired from the visitor centre.We are finishing off some footpath work around the wider estate to improve access and drainage, and created a small picnic area and built picnic tables to go down near the nature reserve information point.

Threave wetland improvements Wildlife scrapes

It has been great to finally progress our work further with the creation of a number of scrapes on the nature reserve near the public viewing osprey platform. The weather and contractor time has allowed us to work on these over the last couple of weeks. The scrapes are shallow depressions which will seasonally hold water, creating features attractive to a whole host of wildlife, including wading birds.They encourage a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. So when you are down to see the ospreys or wildlife watching look over the scrapes, and see what they attract as they settle and establish.