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Recent Events

Day of High Drama

After a largely calm and uneventful week, today was a very worrying day for the Ospreys are back in Galloway project as our Osprey chick had a near-death experience! Over the past week our chick has continued to grow at incredible speed and is showing not only some new feathers but the beginnings of a tail as well. But nothing could have prepared us for this morning’s drama.

When Grace, our caretaker, opened the Wigtown Bay Visitor Centre this morning our single chick on the nest was tangled in black plastic. The chick was wrapped in the plastic like a cloak, then a sleeping bag, then it had one piece around wrapped round its leg and another round its neck. We were really worried the chick was going to strangle itself as it struggled to stand up. Our visitors were all extremely worried and there was a great sigh of relief when the chick finally freed itself with mum H/D looking on.

Today was also a momentous day as our male EP fed the chick for what we believe was the first time ever. Certainly it was the first we have captured on film as H/D has assumed full control of feeding the chick since hatching.

Our Ospreys bring in all kinds of nesting material; there is a big bag of fishing netting and rope in the Visitor Centre collected from the Ospreys are back in Galloway nest. They also bring in a lot of plastic, even the skip of a cap and blocks of wood as well as the traditional nesting material of sticks have been seen. Ospreys are particularly keen on fishing net though, as they find it when they are hunting. Recently along the coast at Port William a World Oceans Day beach clean collected half a ton of plastic and rubbish in 2 hours.

We are extremely lucky and privileged to be able to watch the life on the nest, however we have to take the good with the bad and today we had both! It really hits home how our careless actions and litter can affect wildlife.

Stephen Ross - Seasonal Wildlife Attendant