Good afternoon all,

Events from the nest today:

Events began at 06:31am with our male seeing off an intruding osprey from the vicinity of the nest. He then proceeded to make several deliveries of sticks and moss to the nest throughout the day. This is done in order to maintain the nest bowl and lining while incubation is in progress.

At 10.23am, another interloper was spotted flying close to the nest. The bird hung around for a few minutes and then proceeded to leave the area. Then at 12:17pm, the male was seen catching a large pike. After consuming the head of the fish, he then delivered the rest to the nest, prompting our female to take it elsewhere to eat.

A question we received via ospreys@swt.org.uk asked us what type of fish our ospreys usually catch. The answer is a variety of species, but the three most common are trout, perch and pike. If we can identify a fish using our High Definition camera, we will usually mention it’s species in the blog post for that day.

For the benefit of those of you watching the webcam online during the hours of darkness, we are aware that there is a large branch obscuring your view of the nest. There is however nothing we can do to remedy this, as the camera is fixed in place and cannot be repositioned. We also cannot enter the nest tree to remove said branch as this would mean unlawful disturbance of the birds.

Other wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

We have had some drama at the viewing window today in the form of five male pheasants fighting over a female. These flamboyant birds will vie for the right to mate with a certain female, often quite savagely.

The melee at the feeders today was a mix of chaffinches, great tits, blue tit, siskins and coal tits. Two dunnocks were spotted hoping around the base of the feeders picking up the odd seed that the chaffinches drop. A jay made an appearance, as well as a treecreeper that was seen on a nearby tree trunk.

Out on the loch a total of five great crested grebes were seen, along with several tufted duck and mallard. Seven mute swans were also counted at various points around the loch. Last but not least, a cormorant could be seen diving for fish over to the southern side of the loch.

Simon

SITA Species Protection Officer