Events from the nest:

Over the past few days our ospreys have continued incubating the three eggs that remain on the nest. During Sunday daytime, the male carried out most of the incubation after our female left at 10.15am. Our female visited the nest periodically throughout the day and incubated often only for a few minutes at a time. 7Y brought sticks to the nest at 10.56am and 1.41pm. Our male also delivered a fish to the nest at 3.06pm which our female then flew off with.

In contrast, on Monday our female incubated for the majority of the day. Her mate relieved her with a fish delivery, which appeared to be a trout at 4.19pm. At this point, both ospreys left the nest with the fish with the male returning at 4.40pm and continuing incubating.

Throughout the rain today our male again has carried out the majority of incubation duties. Our resident female returned briefly at 10.47am, but instantly left, with her mate still sitting on the eggs. A short while later, our male left the nest unattended at 10.58am. Our female then returned at 11.07am and proceeded to incubate with 7Y returning to visit the nest at 11.20am. 7y later made a fish delivery at 1.09pm, which our female left with while our male incubated.

Other Wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Over the past few days, we have had regular sightings of great crested grebes on the loch – peaking at 7 on Saturday. We have also had mute swans, Canada geese, greylag geese and mallards. Goosanders have been present too, with 5 young seen today. Sand martins, swallows and black headed gulls have been seen over the loch.

At the feeding station we have had visits from pheasants with their 5 chicks, great spotted woodpeckers (4 seen today), robins, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, chaffinches, greenfinches, siskins, yellowhammers, tree creepers On Friday and Sunday a jay was seen and on Sunday a wren was seen on the reserve. Wrens are one of Britain’s smallest birds and have a very impressively loud call for such a small size.

Red squirrels have also been seen daily, with numbers peaking at 4 seen together on Saturday.

Anna

Perthshire Ranger