A mixture of brilliant sunshine and hail showers today at Loch of the Lowes, with our steadfast ospreys sitting through it all on their precious eggs.
The morning started excitingly when a fish was brought in by our male very early before six am , and the female left him in charge of the nest for two hours- luckily, though he is a fidget, the male was rock solid in his incubation duty.

At approximately 8.02 an intruder osprey landed on the nest again- and tried to land right on our resident female’s back- she saw him off abruptly! This was again an unringed bird, presumably male, and not Green 7Y thankfully.

Add to this the fact that a Red Kite was also seen over the nest at around 8.30 and the early morning shift volunteers were kept busy!

The day passed remarkably peacefully in the sunshine after that, with the highlight this afternoon around 5.30pm when two crows mobbed our male Osprey as he was trying to eat his pike- he was not impressed!

Teal have been seen again on the loch – could we be lucky enough to have a pair nesting as they have been consistently in the same place recently? There was also great excitement this afternoon when some our most experienced watchers thought they saw a Hobby over the loch- early but not impossible for this remarkable wee raptor species.  

Elsewhere on our Perthshire reserves today, we had a big spring cleanup at our Tummel Shingle Island Tomdachoille. Thanks to the volunteers who turned out to collect eight big bags of flotsam and jetsam rubbish washed up by the winter floods and help compile a great species list of what is out already this spring: Primroses, Cowslips, Cuckooflower, Ramsons, Violets, Wood anemone, Wood Sorrell, Goosander, Dipper, Tree-creeper…. the list goes on!

Fancy lending a hand? Why not get involved in our conservation volunteer days – help make a practical difference to the Perthshire reserves. Contact Emma the ranger to find out more: erawling@swt.org.uk