Balgavies’ juvenile Osprey, christened The Bairn, follow his rescue last week is thriving. My understanding of the back story is that a week ago the tree on the island that was holding the nest collapsed and the nest ended up, mostly, in the loch. What initially happened to The Bairn is not clear, but he ended up hundred of metres away on the mainland on the path that runs around the loch, but in a very narrow section with trees either side. Found at 7am by dog walkers apparently.
Rescuers were locals, from the SWT and Tayside and Fife Raptor Study Group who collected The Bairn, caged him for a while, ringed him (Blue/white 640), constructed a temporary nest platform in a different area. All the stuff had to be taken up to the tree top; that looked like it would have been a serious climb. The Bairn was taken up to the new platform and left alone at 1030 pm.
Next day the Bairn had fledged and was with his parents on a dead tree on the island. He must have been so near fledging when he was ejected from the tree on collapse that one of the rescuers said that he thought he probably had somehow got to the mainland by flying/gliding!
Since then the three of them use both the temp platform which the parents have build up with lots of sticks already, and the dead tree. The temp platform will not take the weight of future nests so will have to be removed.
Anyway, the Bairn is being fed by his parents, doing short flights in the loch area and doing well.
This is the first chick to have been ringed at the loch since 2011 I was told as no subsequent chicks to that year till now we’re ringed due to the difficulties involved in getting to the nest and the climb it involved.
Post edited at 19:39