Wonderful news here at Loch of the Lowes, with the long awaiting arrival of our resident female osprey. She has made the long and hazardous migration from Africa sucessfully for another year, which is miraculous given her age- she is well into her twenties we beleive. If she goes on to breed this season, it will be her 20th breeding year here at Lowes- a UK record for an osprey.

She arrived about 2pm on Tuesday and immediately settled back into her nest- she began renovations and bringing in extra nesting material straight away as we expected. She is also in very good physical condition , which is vital for the breeding season.

No sign of her regular mate yet- and we know there is bad weather ( desert dust storms) on the migration route which may have slowed some birds down. However, we have had another visit from a stray male osprey yesterday, who flew over the loch calling and tried to land on the nest a couple of times- he was seen off by our female in no uncertain terms.

So will our veteran osprey couple be reunited in the next few days? We hope so!