Events from the nest today:

Incubation continues on the nest, now 9 days after the first egg was laid by our female.

Her mate, 7Y, has been doing a fantastic job bringing a continual supply of fish for our female. Since the blog post yesterday, 3 fish have been brought by 7Y. The first of the evening came at 6.37pm, followed by a small fish at 8.30pm.  This afternoon at 1.35pm another fish was brought which we suspect may have been a perch.

The male also continues to bring nesting material, building the nest even higher around his mate. This behaviour is similar to last year where staff here at Loch of the Lowes grew increasingly amazed and rather amused by the sheer volume of material that 7Y brought to the eyrie at this stage.

Other wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Elsewhere on the loch today, there have been sightings of 10 tufted duck, 7 goldeneye, mallards and mute swans.

The feeders have been visited by a dunnock, robin, great spotted woodpecker, siskins, greenfinches, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, a treecreeper, a jay, around 20 chaffinches and two yellowhammers. Appearing on the red list of UK birds of conservation concern,     yellowhammers are considered very rare. This bird is so called because of its distinctive yellow head, with the male’s markings being a more vibrant yellow while the females are duller and juveniles have just a yellow head with the rest of their body being brown. Yellowhammers have become a rare sight now throughout the UK and can most commonly be found in hedgerows. The rapid decline in yellowhammer population began in the mid 1980s with the red listing of the species occurring in 2002.  It is widely believed that the population has suffered due to a reduction in winter seed food as a result of agricultural intensification.

 Anna

Perthshire Reserves Seasonal Ranger