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Check the Osprey Diary

We first saw a pair of ospreys at Caerlaverock in the summer of 2006 and they have returned every spring since then.

They regularly fish for flounders and mullet in the Solway and perch on driftwood off our Saltcot merse to feed. They have built a nest inland and in 2009 they successfully reared one chick to fledge, the first for Dumfriesshire.

In 2010 the pair reared three chicks and all three fledged. We had our last sighting of one of the juvenilles on 16 September and hope that all three made it to Africa for the winter.

Our female is unringed but the male has a green leg-ring with white AW so we know that he hatched out in 2004 from further west in Galloway at Wigtown Bay. We now have live CCTV images and sound beamed from the nest to the visitor building at Caerlaverock. Hopefully 2011 will be another successful year for the Caerlaverock ospreys - we'll bring you regular updates here.

The Caerlaverock Osprey Project is a joint project with WWT, FCS and SNH.