Good afternoon all,

Events from the nest today:

Fantastic News!!

We are delighted to report that at 13.34 our resident female laid her first egg of the season!! After spending a few moments hunkering down into the nest, our female osprey revealed she had laid a reddish-brown mottled egg. Ospreys usually lay between 2 and 4 eggs. Last year our resident female produced three eggs, two of which hatched in due course. This is quite typical. We may expect more eggs in the days to follow, but only time will tell if they are fertile and will hatch. The nest is monitored 24 hours a day to protect the eggs from thieves and any non-intentional disturbance that may affect the success of any chicks hatching.

If you are interested in reading our press release on the excitement of our female osprey’s 59^th egg, why not follow the link: http://www.swt.org.uk/news/oldest-osprey-lays-its-59th-egg/

A question we received via ospreys@swt.org.uk asked us whether we track our ospreys while they are wintering in West Africa. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly where our resident male and female spend their time, but according to Roy Dennis, ospreys generally migrate to the regions of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia in late September. We hope to raise enough money to place at least one satellite tracker on a chick this year. For more information on our satellite tracking programme, please visit our dedicated webpage: http://www.swt.org.uk/wildlife/ospreys-at-lowes/osprey-tracking/

Other Wildlife at Lock of the Lowes:

Thanks to the rather moist and gloomy weather, small insects have been in abundance over the surface of the loch. This has once again brought out the sand martins in their hundreds. The loch has been a busy this morning, with many species including tufted ducks, great crested grebes and goldeneye making an appearance.

The usual array of small birds were spotted around the feeders today including chaffinches, a robin, blue tits, green finches and great tits. 

Anna

Perthshire Reserves Seasonal Ranger