A magnificent return – ospreys back for the summer

Exciting news at Kielder Water and Forest Park – all the usual nests are occupied with ospreys having safely returned from Africa to spend the breeding season with us. YA and Mrs YA landed on their nest (1A) within a few minutes of each other just before 13:00 on 31 March. The cameras on nest 2 showed that both ‘37’ and ‘EB’ are back; nests 3 and 4 had ospreys return on 8April. They are all busy catching fish and nest-building in preparation to lay their eggs.  The new pair of ospreys on nest 6 last year are expected back soon, all being well.

Prior to the return of ospreys, Forestry England has been working hard in the forest to enable live streaming from the osprey nest cameras and successful nesting. A new communications mast has been installed as the trees around the infrastructure had grown too tall for a robust connection. Nests 1A and 6 will have live streaming, whilst nests 2, 3 and 4 will have recordings uploaded to the blog for you to view.

To support the growing population of ospreys in the UK, Forestry England also installed a new nesting platform to encourage another pair to stop in the area.  The current nest sites have been tidied and stabilised by Forestry England tree climbers, with some old material removed to reduce the weight and new material added to make them even more appealing!

You can watch the live feed of the osprey nests in Kielder Castle café whilst enjoying a hot drink and homemade food (forestryengland.uk/kielder-castle). Pair this with a visit to enjoy the Zog activity trail for children or mountain bike trails near Kielder Castle visitor centre. You can also view the live streaming at Northumbrian Water's Landal Kielder Waterside.

To post osprey sightings visit: facebook.com/kielder or twitter.com/visitkielder

You can also keep up to date with the ospreys at kielderospreys.wordpress.com

The Kielder Osprey Project is a partnership between Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust, Forestry England, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Northumbrian Water and Calvert Kielder.