It is hard to believe that it could be as little as ten days until our first osprey chick might hatch! Things have progressed so fast, and there has been so much drama this season- we can only hope that it’s smooth sailing from here on.

In the last couple of days we’ve had some interesting observations: The female osprey has a damaged talon on her left foot ( second toe) which isn’t a big problem right now, but hopefully will regrow by the time she has to feed herself again; The male has brought in a sizable rock to the nest along with his talons full of moss; the male has a distinct dislike of canada geese near his nest, on Sunday morning divebombing one in the water no less than nineteen times!

Elsewhere on the reserve, our blue tit female has started incubating at least six eggs- you may have glimpsed the male starting to bring her food in the nest box. There are more new mallard ducklings on the loch and the grebes are nesting. The woods around are carpeted with white flowers of wood anemone and sorrell, and the meadow is brightening with primroses and cowslips. The willows and alders around the loch are in full leaf, the hawthorn and gean in blossom, and even the sleepy old oaks are budding. The wonder of spring is upon us.

Emma Rawling

Perthshire Ranger