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Recent Events

Mixed Emotions

This morning presented us with both some good and some sad news to bring you from Wigtown.

Our first Osprey Chick of 2009 who had been getting on so well seemed really quiet yesterday and was only fed in the morning. When we observed EP starting to sit on the eggs and chick in the afternoon we realised that Chick 1 was not moving and when w

e looked closer it was not breathing. So we are having to give you all the dab news that Chick 1 from the "Ospreys are back in Galloway" nest died yesterday evening. RIP Chick 1 (2009).

On a positive note we are looking forward to our other eggs hatching and, for those of you who have visited recently, you will have seen the view on our wetland camera of the Oystercatcher nest on top of our Harbour Bird Hide at Wigtown Harbour. We are very pleased to report that 2 of the eggs hatched yesterday. The first chick was seen as one of the adults sat down and out popped a chick to run around. Oystercatcher chicks are so well camouflaged on the nest that we must have missed the hatching and the parents take the egg shell away from the nest so that bits cannot be seen. Even when we knew that we had an Oystercatcher chick we still had trouble seeing it on the nest until it got up and ran and fell around. Nice to see and quite a contrast to osprey chicks that have to be looked after and brought food until they can fly from the tree.

Fingers crossed for the other eggs, for both our Ospreys and Oystercatchers.