The ospreys begin breeding in the autumn and I have the pleasure of monitoring their nest. It is a busy time. Between courting displays, nest building, egg laying and incubation, raising the chicks and then teaching them to fly makes very busy lives for both parents. I enjoy observing the activities around the nest, particularly as the chicks get older and can be seen from ground level.
It is a bit of an accident of fate that I am monitoring this nest at all. A while back we were moving over to the coast and offloading a piece of furniture at a friend’s house. A member of the Tweed Osprey Group was visiting my friend and when she heard where I was moving she asked whether I would be interested in monitoring an Osprey nest. Having never lived near the coast I knew next to nothing about Ospreys. But on that day I thought – “hell why not?” Little did I know that a decision made on the fly would lead to a love for this particular bird species.
It is heartwarming watching the parents up close with their chicks. Both parents tend to move carefully about the chicks when on the nest. The fish are torn into shreds and fed to the young ones. And, if all goes well, one or more chicks eventually take flight into their lives. Of course I am not trying to paint this as an idyllic Eden. Smaller weaker chicks can miss out on food and die. That’s life in the wild, and well actually, life itself.
I was surprised by how much ospreys call at the nest. Some days the chatter is constant. I know many people would see this as just noise – a random or simple instinctual behaviour. But it is too easy to pass such judgements. And with such ways of thinking this fascinating world loses some of its colour. For me this constant whistling and calling at the nest is expressive and meaningful. It certainly seems so to the Ospreys who are, in the end, just being themselves. But also to me as I stand there with binoculars in hand getting tiny glimpses into their rich and complex lives. I look on at wonder at these birds who subsist solely on fish.
Last year something happened at the nest. Everything appeared to be going along as expected with the usual busy comings and goings. Incubation of the eggs had begun. And then one day I came and it was quiet at the nest. This is not necessarily unusual as there are quiet times and you can arrive to monitor the nest at such times. But something felt different. In the following two weeks I went back to the nest every couple of days. Sometimes there was an Osprey at the cradle which gave me some hope. But eventually I had to accept that the nest had been abandoned.
Who knows why the nest was abandoned? I cannot be there 24/7 to keep an eye on the nest. Maybe one of the parents died? Maybe the nest was disturbed (e.g. a drone)? These things happen in Osprey world. The good news is that there is a breeding season each year and hopefully there will be a brood raised at the nest soon.