Good afternoon all,

Events from the nest today:

Today has been a largely quiet day on the nest with our female osprey continuing with the job of incubation as usual. With only a few more days to go before we discover if she is indeed still fertile or not, our female is sitting tight on her clutch and giving them as much warmth as possible in these strong winds.

As for deliveries of fish, the male was seen at 15:50 today with a fish in his talons. However, he did not bring the fish in to the nest as he was being mobbed by a crow at the time. He is dedicated to the task of providing for the female however, and will undoubtedly bring one in for her at some point this evening.

UPDATE – Our male brought in a very large, headless trout at 18:59 this evening. The female then took it from him and began eating it on the edge of the nest. She then took off with it around a minute later.

A question we received via ospreys@swt.org.uk asked us whether our female could hear the sounds of the chicks turning inside the eggs. According to Roy Dennis, the female will recognise the subtle signs of the chicks preparing to hatch. This includes hearing their calls and feeling them turn inside the eggs. This may cause the female to look down as if searching for the source of the sound. However, it is also possible that she is hearing the sounds of other animals or birds from the branches beneath the nest, causing her to act this way.

Another question asked us if the nest was crawling with ants. From what we have seen using our high definition camera, we have noticed many small flies which land on the sticks of the nest and crawl around on them, but we have not observed any ants. As far as we can tell, these small flies cause little discomfort too the birds.

Other Wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Out on the loch today, a total of seven tufted duck were recorded, as well as four great crested grebes, a mute swan, an oystercatcher and fifteen mallard.

At the feeders, four pheasant were seen, along with great spotted woodpeckers, three greenfinch, four siskin, a reed bunting, a yellowhammer, a robin, a blackbird, blue tits, great tits, coal tits and a tree creeper. A cuckoo could also be heard calling from the direction of the golf course.

Two red squirrels were seen chasing each other around the trunk of a tree at the viewing window. This has been an occasional, but welcome sight in recent days and is always a joy to watch.

Simon

SITA Species Protection Officer