In case you haven’t heard the squeals of excitement coming from Loch of the Lowes, we have our first osprey chick, hatched at 10.32am! This was an amazingly fast hatching, chicks sometimes taking a full 24hours to emerge, so if you saw the whole thing, lucky you! There is possibly a crack in the 2nd egg so will keep a close eye on this, although it’s not due to hatch for another 2 days! We are all so happy here at Lowes and incredibly proud of our Lady for being successful once again. Lets hope the Laird can fill the shoes of the previous male and keep the family well fed.
Thanks to all our dedicated staff and volunteers for keeping those eggs safe and to our bloggers for helping with observations and keeping us entertained with your superb commentary!
Fiona

Update: Dad has stepped up his game and brought a nice fish for mum and chick. There was no chick last time he was on the nest but didn’t seem to shocked to see it on his return. Maybe he does know what he is doing after all! We haven’t got a clear view of lunchtime but the chick is already holding his head up asking for food with open eyes so here’s hoping he gets a bit of fish to recoup some energy. Chick really is doing amazingly well very quickly. Good sign of a very healthy osprey!

7pm: What a day! Our first osprey chick, over four hundred blog comments and so much joy and excitement! Hi folks, Emma here, and yes you guessed it, I missed the hatching! I came in this morning about 7am (after 6 hrs sleep) to see the first tiny egg tooth hole, but then had to go on a training course day. I managed to phone in every couple of hours for an update and have just had the pleasure of watching the footage recorded of the hatching.
I just wanted to say a HUGE thankyou to Fiona and Rinchen who are responsible for the amazing camera work and blog replies today- they’ve been awesome I’m sure you agree. Also thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences of this amazing day- I only wish we’d had webcams on all of you to capture the cheers, tears and fun of your reactions.