This year the Tweed Valley Osprey Project has had a total of 11 nest sites with pairs of ospreys in residence.

Of these nests, nine were successful – with osprey parents raising young, writes Diane Bennett, Tweed Valley Osprey Project Officer.

A total of 18 young ospreys have fledged, there were two broods with three chicks, five broods with two chicks and two broods of single chicks.

All of them were fitted with identity rings apart from the one that flew off last week and another that was too small at the time and so was just fitted with a BTO ring. 

This is the highest number of chicks fledged since the 20 that did so in 2011.

So, in all, it has been a really productive season for breeding ospreys in the Scottish Borders, despite the disappointing result for the main nest on ‘live’ camera where our most well-known osprey, SS and his latest partner Mrs O have failed to breed.

The Darvic rings used for the Tweed Valley birds this year were all blue with white lettering of PX6 and PX9, PY0, PY1, PY2, PY3, PY4, PY8, PY9, LK0, LK1, LK2, LK3, LK4, LK5 and LK6. 

The Tweed Valley Osprey Project area – which stretches from the source of the Tweed in upper Tweeddale to its mouth in Berwick, with the main concentration of ospreys in the upper Tweed Valley – has produced at least 207 osprey chicks to date.

And there could well be more birds fledged from the area from undiscovered sites. 

The satellite tagged birds from the back-up nest 2, have successfully fledged and data from their trackers has revealed that they have not ventured very far from their nest site yet.  

The first to fledge was the female bird PY1 (Pinky) on July 13. She took a few flights of between 50m to 200m each around the nest site and found a good spot to the south of the nest on higher ground where she was presumably watching for her parents bringing fish in. 

Each morning on July 13, 14, 17 and 18 she headed across to the same spot and sat in a tree waiting. 

She became more adventurous and flew in a triangle around the site 200m south of the nest, perched for a while, then flew 220m across the valley from the nest where she stayed for an hour before flying 350m directly in a straight line back to the nest site.

Checking the time of recorded film footage at the site we can see that her flight to the nest corresponded with dad (8C) bringing a fish in as we filmed the whole family feeding together at that time.

The volunteer on duty noted that the female adult concentrated more on feeding the young male bird, PY2 (Perky).

But this didn’t cause concern at this stage in their development as Pinky is more advanced and later footage revealed that she was feeding herself quite proficiently. 

Perky fledged a couple of days later than his sister, he has made flights of varying lengths from 400m, 500m and his most adventurous 800m from the nest site and each journey’s end coincides with a flight back to the nest and presumably to receive fish from a parent. 

On July 25, Pinky (PY1) was sitting in the nest feeding herself, she had half a trout that she was tucking into when the camera shook, indicating that a bird was sitting on it.

She looked up towards the camera and let go of the fish and moved to the side as her mum dropped into the nest and took the remaining fish and she began to feed.

After a few minutes cleaning her beak in the nesting material, Pinky ruffled her feathers and took off, leaving mum to finish her meal in peace.  

Dad (8C) and brother Perky (PY2) were nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, FK8 is still further north and is regularly visiting the Dornoch Estuary and then travelling north to the Forsinard Flows and she seems to be splitting her time between the two areas on a regular basis.

PX1, is still in Southern Mali at the Morila gold mines near Sanso, fishing in lagoons there and not venturing far from the location much at all.