Our Osprey chick has been again perched underneath the nest in the thick shelter of the Scots pine branches in the thundery downpours today. His flights from the nest have been short but confident and he has been doing ever increasing circles and showing off some good cornering and banking skills. Importantly he is now tackling live whole fish for himself too, provided by Dad, which is a major step. His development is entirely normal for his age, and he still has plenty of time to learn how to do longer flights and fish for himself. When comparing osprey chicks, it is important to remember their different birth dates- for example a chick who is five days older is a lot further along in Osprey terms, so we have nothing to worry about with Blue44.

 In response to popular demand, both live in the Visitor Centre and from webcam viewers, we have tried to follow our chick with the camera when he takes off from the nest (no mean feat in itself with a joystick control). This is not always possible however as the camera only covers a certain area of the loch and Blue 44 has taken to flying regularly behind the camera! By far the best views of his antics are being had by the staff and volunteers based in our lochshore hides, who are always happy to help people spot the birds with binoculars and telescopes provided.

We will be continuing to show the nest on the webcam whilst the majority of the Osprey action is still based there. The second camera we have,  which shows the general loch view from one of our hides, can sometimes show the birds in action over the loch, but has a limmitted range and  is of a far lesser quality, and not ideal for web streaming.