What a difference a week makes! The loch is now free of ice and there has been a big changeover in the kind of birds we are seeing, with lots of summer species arriving- we have even see our first swallow of the  year today near the hides.

There is also a lot of courtship behaviour going on. It is beautful to watch the grebes,  swans and goldeneyes displaying to each other- though sometimes it is more comical than elegant.

The big news is that we have seen our first osprey of the season here at Loch of the Lowes over the weekend, but it looks like a bird passing through rather than one of our regualr resident  birds. An unringed osprey was seen visiting the nest on Saturday and briefly on the loch on  Sunday, but it did not settle. It is most likely to be using our loch as a reststop on migration route further north.

So we still await the arrival of our usual breeding ospreys – will you be the first to spot it? Be sure to let us know if you do- there’s a prize of a pair of binolcuars to be won!