Good afternoon all,

Events from the nest today:

We must begin by mentioning a bit of drama which happened after the previous blog entry yesterday evening. At 17:24; an interloper was seen landing on the nest with our female osprey. It did not appear to have a ring and our female did not behave as she would with her mate, mantling over the eggs and calling agitatedly. She then appeared to take a swipe at it with her wing, causing it to fly away. Although our female continued to be alert tense for some minutes, the interloper did not return. For the remainder of the day and into the night our female looked very settled on the nest after 7Y had brought her a final delivery of a perch at 18:48.

Today began with a few interlopers and bothersome crows and a grey heron causing the female to alarm call and mantle.  7Y has delivered two fish to our female today. The first was a whole perch at 13:19. Then he flew in with a large, headless trout at 16:55. Having been well fed today, our female should all being well have a comfortable night ahead of her.

A question we received via ospreys@swt.org.uk asked us how we tell the male and female ospreys apart. The female is around 20% larger than the male bird and looks bulkier when sitting on the nest. The male, 7Y, is most easily identified by his green leg ring. Also, we will from time to time zoom in on the birds in order to take a closer look at them. When this happens you may be able to see a lightning bolt-shaped defect on the female’s right iris. This mark is unique to her like our fingerprint is unique to us. 

Other wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

The weather has been glorious here at the reserve today and new life is busting into being wherever you turn. The usual feeding frenzy at the viewing window was in full swing with chaffinches, great tits, coal tits, blue tits, greenfinches, siskins and three yellowhammers recorded. The usual band of pheasant and mallard were in attendance also.

A robin, a blackbird, a song thrush and three great spotted woodpeckers were seen in the surrounding woodland. The red squirrel made an appearance again, tucking in to the peanuts in the box feeders. A bank vole was also spotted.

Out on the millpond-like waters of the loch, several mallard were seen as well as a pair of great crested grebes, a black headed gull, a pair of goldeneye, three mute swans and sixteen tufted ducks.

Simon

SITA Species Protection Officer