Sad news today the  Blue Tits  chicks in our second nest box have died. It looks like something happened to the male last night as he didn’t return and, as it was cold, the female sat on the chicks keeping them warm for as long as possible. Eventually she had to go out and get some food for them all and the wee chicks just couldn’t stay warm. Unfortunately this is one of the things that happens in nature as raising chicks is a two bird job and without the male she just couldn’t do it on her own.

Our young Osprey chick is thriving, it’s a month old tomorrow and is growing at an enormous rate. The feathers are really coming through now and it’s looking more and more like its parents. Today it’s been joining in with the nest tidying and enjoying the fish dad has brought in. There was an intruder Osprey near the nest today which our male saw off, could it have been Rothiemurchus the radio tagged bird that’s been living nearby? We couldn’t get a good look but it will be interesting to see if he was in the area at the time.

On the Loch there was a female Gooseander and her two chicks that are now too big to fit on her back. Our Grebe Crested Grebe nest is still there but much smaller as the wind has taken it toll, they are industriously adding to the nest all the time and they’ll both taking turns to sit tight on the eggs. We’ve still got a while to go before they hatch and further still until they fledge so we hope the nest will hold together.

At our feeding stations we’re regularly seeing the young Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Red Squirrels as well as the more recent Goldfinch visitors.

I’m looking forward to hearing all about the Rutland Osprey’s West Africa Wildlife Education Project at their talk here tomorrow night. They’ve tracked some of their fledglings to the Gambia and now creating education projects about Ospreys for schools in those areas. It will be interesting to hear about the other part of the Ospreys’ lives when they’re not in the UK.

Lindsey