Events from the nest:

We are all waiting with baited breath at the moment hoping that we’ll see an osprey chick hatching here at Loch of the Lowes soon.  So far today we have no cracks on any of the eggs and events on the nest have been much the same as usual.  Most of the morning passed away quietly with the male and female swapping over egg duties regularly.  At 12.43 this afternoon the male arrived at the nest with a fish (possibly a small pike) which the female took to eat elsewhere.  At 13.15, while the male was still sitting on the eggs, two ospreys flew past the nest.  7Y alarm called but did not leave the eggs.

A question we received via ospreys@swt.org.uk asked us why the female calls so persistently.  Ospreys call for two main reasons to communicate with their mates and to warn intruders away from the nest.  Our resident female does occasionally alarm call when intruder ospreys or other large bird stray to close to the nest.  However, the persistent calling heard so often from our resident female at present is a begging call.  When hungry incubating females will persistently call to their mates to encourage them to hunt or bring fish that they have already caught to the nest.

Other wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Today on the loch we have seen 2 great crested grebes, 2 mute swans, a Canada goose, 10 mallards and many, many sand martins.  We now have 3 families of ducklings of varying sizes.

Around the feeders today we have seen 3 great spotted woodpeckers, a robin, a blackbird, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, a tree creeper, an abundance of chaffinches, 6 green finches, 3 siskins and 2 yellowhammers.  The feeders were also visited today by a field vole, 2 red squirrels and at 3.10 this morning one of our osprey watch team saw a roe deer passing through the bird feeders.

Lindsay

SITA Species Protection Officer