Nest camera captures rare osprey love triangle

A rare osprey love triangle has been captured on a live camera feed in the Scottish Borders.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) monitors the nest where two female birds and one male have been breeding in an unusual but apparently amicable arrangement.

Cameras were set up as part of the Tweed Valley Osprey Project (TVOP) at Glentress near Peebles, which has run for many years.

Project co-ordinator Diane Bennett said the relationship of the birds seemed "tolerant" so far and they had laid a total of four eggs.

One of the birds involved - which the project has named Mrs O - has previously nested at the site but she has been ed by a new female, designated "F2", and young male.

Ms Bennett said that up to this point the relationship between the three was "looking good".

"The only tension witnessed so far has been on the arrival of a fish delivery from the male as the two females both make a grab for it," she said.

"Mrs O usually wins the fish and flies off to feed but has been seen to return with a portion remaining and letting the other female have it.

"This nest behaviour with all the birds in the same nest is very rare and as far as we know it is the first time this has ever been on a livestream camera with most other research involving such a set-up previously conducted through distant observation.

"Getting to watch this saga close up as the season unfolds is exciting both for the drama but also for the important research insights it will allow."

The TVOP posts regular updates on its social media pages of how the birds are progressing.

It said that co-operation between the group of three ospreys at the nest seemed to be "working well".

Another video clip of "family life" showed the birds working together to incubate the eggs in the nest.

The group said it had also witnessed a "touching moment" between the two female birds.

"Mrs O was sitting on the eggs when F2 flew onto the nest beside her," it said.

"Mrs O was quite vocal and hungry and F2 appeared to lean down to her to offer her food from her beak.

"She did this a couple of times until Mrs O gently moved forward and took the tiny morsel of fish from under her right foot and she ate it at the nest and then flew off."

FLS said the background and identity of the new arrivals were unclear.

While they both have British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) rings they do not have the coloured, alphanumeric Darvic rings that allow researchers to identify individual birds.

Mrs O is also only fitted with a BTO ring but because she has been returning to the site for several years, she can be identified from her head markings.

Ospreys have been coming to the Tweed Valley to breed since the 1990s and the project - funded and manage by FLS and backed by volunteers - aims to protect and provide safe places for them to settle and nest.

FLS said the eggs were expected to hatch in the coming weeks which would only bring "further excitement and intrigue".