It’s just gone 1am and as always there are dedicated staff and volunteers here on duty watching our ospreys sleep, to help protect them and deter would be egg thieves from disturbing them.

On a cold and wet night like this my heart goes out to our female bird sitting tight on the nest, looking really bedraggled- by comparison our hide seems luxurious.

I am waiting for our female to stand up again to confirm the sightings of a third egg- which would be fantastic news of course- our ‘ lady’s of the loch’s’ 58th egg no less!

Yes it’s definately a third egg!!! Seen arond 2am. Not bad for such a veteran osprey lady.

As dawn light breaks here around 5.30am, we’re begining to realise that is has been snowing on the hills around the loch, and our poor lady osprey once again has a dramatic white backdrop to her nest. What a cold and lonely night to lay a third egg- let’s hope her mate brings her a dawn fish!

7.05am: Our poor female osprey is really cold this morning- she has ice crystals on her back, and is actually shivering. The male has been unsucessfully trying to catch her breakfast since dawn, so she has just got him to take over incubation and gone to catch her own- let’s hope she has more luck. You may notice last nights third egg is  interestingly much whiter than the other two, we just hope it’s fertile.

7y came in with a very small fish at 09.39am, the female left with this insignificant tiddler.