First osprey eggs laid at Caerlaverock

The Caerlaverock Ospreys have laid their first eggs of the season. Visitors watching the live CCTV images on the big screen at Caerlaverock on Friday 23 April couldn’t believe their eyes when the female osprey sat down deep in the nest for a few minutes then stood up to reveal an egg!

This will hopefully be the first of a clutch of three laid at two day intervals. Incubation is about 5 weeks so if all goes well we expect the first chick to hatch at the very end of May, first week of June.

The female bird does most of the incubation duties but the male takes over when he brings her a fish and she flies off to her favourite tree nearby to eat it. Last year our male was so keen on incubating that the female had to pull him off the eggs with her beak on quite a few occasions!

This pair bred successfully last year raising one chick to fledge, the first for Dumfriesshire since records began. Hopefully this will mean that if all goes well, they will raise another brood this year. Our new CCTV system beams live pictures and sound to the Caerlaverock Wetland Centre visitor building so we can see and hear the birds at the nest.

The Caerlaverock Osprey Project is a joint project between FCS, SNH & WWT.

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