What a Wonderful First Week!
Our two wonderful osprey chicks are a week old and doing incredibly well. They have already doubled in size-compare them to the still unhatched third egg in the nest for size. Those of you who are new watchers of ospreys will not believe just how fast these wee chicks grow, and even I who have watched for years and know what to expect, am amazed all over again each year.
The fast growth is fuelled by the high protein diet of raw fish in amazing quantities- watch how the wee ones crops ( food storage area in their gullet) are stuffed so full they almost become top heavy and fall over!
The chicks need to grow fast in order to make full adult size by about 7 weeks of age- hard to imagine now isn’t it. They need to be fledged, and fit in time for autumn migration, and it is almost impossible to image these tiny wee chicks flying to Africa in just three months or so.
Emma Rawling
Perthshire Ranger