On this beautiful spring day here at Loch of the Lowes you could be forgiven for thinking it was June!  It is so unseasonably warm and dry that it certainly doesn’t feel like March at all and the birds arriving on spring migration from southern climes must be a bit confused  as last year they arrived to patchy snow cover!

Just one sighting of an Osprey on the Loch of the Lowes nest today, just after 10am, and this does appear to be the same unringed bird which landed yesterday. Probably a female, this bird is confident and comfortable on the nest and sat on the read perch for some minutes. Zooming in it was possible to clearly see her eyes to confirm it is not our regular breeding female “ Lady”, but she does have a distinctive mark:  in her right eye there is a dark  line at approximately 7.30 ( if the eye were a clock face) . From this we can confirm it was the same bird as Saturday and hopefully if she stays around, this can be used to continue to identify her.

There were a couple of other sightings of ospreys over the loch and nearby today, but none that could be identified clearly. It may well be that we have a small influx of ‘passage’ birds passing through, as the weather conditions are so favourable for migration just now .

From now on, the Osprey sightings and action on the nest can only get more fascinating!

We will continue to watch and record the nest 24hrs a day and there are staff and volunteers in the hides now watching in all daylight hours.  I myself am part of this watch team  after hours and so will try to get to the computer to update news as often as I can- I will certainly try to post daily from now on. Please be aware that these updates may not be instant however, as I am also still looking after all five of the other SWT Perthshire reserves, and am often out of the office.

It is our wonderful team of Visitor Centre staff and hard working residential and local Volunteers who are the mainstay of this Osprey Watch team and to them we are so very very grateful for their dedication and generous help- thank you team!