A very wet and blustery day here at Loch of the Lowes, but our ospreys are doing well weathering the storm so to speak.  There are actually waves a foot or so high on the loch which means fishing in these waters must be particularly hard for our male osprey today- often at times such as this the birds tend to travel further afield to fish where some waters are less windblown and easier to spot fish in. This may explain why our male brought in a large half trout at around 11.45 am- after eating more than half of it himself for over an hour on the other side of the loch. Both birds have incubated today and are showing admirable dedication to the task in the circumstances.

Some people have asked if our female osprey is getting weak or is hungry- the answer is no, one fish a  day is sufficient for her needs right now and if she was really hungry she would be nagging the male a lot more than she is!

Another question: will the male get better at providing fish once the chicks hatch, and the answer is yes, we can expect him to dramatically step up his efforts. The sight of the chicks and their insistent calls ( and those of the female ) for food, will prompt him to fish more and more- it is quite an effort to keep up with the growing demands of the family. This new male bird has so far risen to each challenge of ‘parenthood’ well, showing a particular dedication to incubation, so we have every faith in him he will be a good provider for his chicks.

In other wildlife news, we have had a really fabulous days viewing on the woodland bird feeding station. As well as all the usual suspects such as Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskin and Dunnock, we have had the highest numbers of Redpoll , Brambling and Yellowhammer that we’ve had for ages, and both males and female of each species helpfully being seen side by side.

We also had an educational visit by students from Perth College today, learning all about biological sampling and habitat surveying, who caught field mice and voles as part of their training- and released them back on our meadow happily.