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Bewick's swanAdopt a Bewick's swan
Bewick's swan

Bewick’s are the rarest swan species found in the British Isles during the winter. Sadly, the number of Bewick’s wintering in the UK is falling.

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mallardAdopt a mallard
mallard

Due to a dramatic decline, the mallard is now on the amber list in the recent ‘birds of conservation concern’ report.

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Eurasian craneAdopt a Eurasian crane
Eurasian crane

Over 400 years ago these magnificent giants were hunted to extinction in the UK.

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Adopt a nene
nene

The nene is the rarest goose in the world. In 1951, the population fell to only 30 birds.

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lesser flamingoAdopt a lesser flamingo
lesser flamingo

Despite being the world’s most numerous flamingo, these birds are classified as ‘near threatened’.

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Breadcrumbs

Osprey diary

We first saw a pair of ospreys at Caerlaverock in the summer of 2006 and they have returned every spring since then. They regularly fish for flounders and mullet in the Solway and perch on driftwood off our Saltcot merse to feed. They have built a nest inland and in 2009 they successfully reared one chick to fledge, the first for Dumfriesshire.

In 2010 the pair reared three chicks and all three fledged. We had our last sighting of one of the juvenilles on 16 September and hope that all three made it to Africa for the winter.

Our female is unringed but the male has a green leg-ring with white AW so we know that he hatched out in 2004 from further west in Galloway at Wigtown Bay. We now have live CCTV images and sound beamed from the nest to the visitor building at Caerlaverock. Hopefully 2011 will be another successful year for the Caerlaverock ospreys - we'll bring you regular updates here.

NEW! - Watch the osprey nest live on our web cam every day between the hours of 10am and 8pm

The Caerlaverock Osprey Project is a joint project with WWT, FCS and SNH.

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