While we’ve been busy here at Lowes responding to interest from media across the UK in the story that our resident female osprey has returned, the action taking place outside in the osprey nest and above in the Perthshire skies has also been ramping up.

Late this morning, we watched as two new ospreys were spotted circling around ‘Lady’s’ nest.  Our resident female responded by getting a bit flighty, also taking to the skies and for a good few minutes all birds could be seen in flight from right outside the visitor centre

At the moment, we think that there could be two possible explanations for this visit from these unidentified birds.  It is possible that one of these birds could be our female’s old mate, who was known last year as ‘7Y’.  If it is him, he should be wearing a green leg ring, but the visit was so brief that we couldn’t see anything to indicate for sure that it was him.  The other bird could then be a new female interloper, or ‘love rival’, who is trying to take ownership of our nesting site. 

Another possibility is that the birds could already be pair bonded, and were looking to take over our female’s nest as a couple.  Our old osprey held her ground however, and shortly after all three were seen flying closely in the skies, the two other birds retreated to the other end of the loch. 

Earlier this afternoon, a bird was again seen on the nest with ‘Lady.’  She didn’t make alarm calls, but she wasn’t acting particularly welcoming either.  Again we couldn’t see a leg ring, so we are unable to confirm just yet as to whether this is the male mate or indeed another male.    

Recent images of the osprey today can be viewed at www.swt.org.uk/news.  Please respect the copyright restrictions on these images as they have been provided to us as a courtesy. 

As always, we will keep you posted with news from the nest.