It’s the nest with the best when it comes to views : Nest 7 at Northumberland’s osprey breeding colony offers a spectacular vista over Kielder Water – and this year it will be the focus of attention for visitors who arrive to see the fish-eating eagles.
The annual Osprey Watch facility at the Tower Knowe visitor centre at Kielder will provide a telescope view of the nest and also a live cam feed to a new cabin at the site. The first ospreys are due back from their African wintering grounds at the end of this month and it remains to be seen if Nest 7 is occupied by the same breeding pair who have bagged the site for the last two years.
The male KM18 and female KX7 have produced two chicks on each of the last two breeding seasons. Last year the colony of seven nests resulted in a record 16 youngsters fledging.
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A Kielder-hatched male spent a lengthy spell last year weighing up potential breeding sites so this year there could be more birds than nests. Five of the nests are on platforms provided by Forestry England and two are natural tree sites.
Damage from the recent storms has created more potential natural possibilities so any addition to the colony would be in this category. One of the colony’s birds which hatched last year, named Elsin, was spotted by Kielder osprey observer Joanna Dailly, who this winter visited Senegal, a popular wintering area for the birds.
“It was a mllion-to-one chance that he flew past where I was staying,“ said Joanna.
A French opsrey spotter who lives in Senegal also sighted another Kielder-hatched bird from last year, called Eshells. In 2021, all the chicks were named after Northumbrian locations with the initial E. The names of this year’s chicks will begin with F.
Osprey Watch will operate each weekend from April 17 to August 14 between 10.30am and 4pm. Osprey Watch is delivered almost entirely by volunteers and Northumberland Wildlife Trust is appealing for call volunteers to help run the facility. A training day will be held at Kielder Waterside on April 7.
The Kielder Osprey Project is a partnership between Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust, Forestry England, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Northumbrian Water and Calvert Trust Kielder. More details are available at www.nwt.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer.
