Very exciting news – we believe that our resident male, “Lady’s” fourth mate who was new last year, has returned to Loch of the Lowes.

At around 3.15 this afternoon an Osprey was seen flying around the nest. It headed out over the loch in full view of the hides, hovered for a brief moment as if eying up a fish, before swooping back round and landing in the ‘Squinty Branch’ (part of a tree behind and to the left of the nest) where it remained for almost an hour. This followed on from an earlier sighting of an unidentified osprey at 1.20pm.

Staff and volunteers on duty have all had a close look at the bird through telescopes and we are very confident that it is him. He is unringed, has a pale chest & dark upper plumage, unusually long wing tips which extend well beyond the tail, as well as distinctive markings around the face and on the back of the head.

Without a ring we can never be 100% certain of the ID, but the fact that he settled confidently on one of the male’s favoured perches for a considerable period of time, combined with the distinctive features leave us in little doubt as to his identity.

Today’s date, 24th March is six days earlier than when he first appeared last year on 30th. It will be interesting to see how long he has to wait for company – “Lady” arrived on the same day as him last year.

The weather forecast for the week ahead promises little improvement with more of the white stuff due tomorrow and low temperatures for the duration. Any ospreys reading this would do well to stay further south for the time being and await the arrival of “Spring proper”. One of our volunteers, Kate, contacted the BBC Scotland weather team to find out what the small white balls of half snow-half hail that have been falling in Perthshire are. Apparently this phenomenon is known as “Graupel” – it occurs when supercooled droplets of water are collected and freeze on a falling snowflake. Thanks to Kate, & Chris Blanchett of the BBC for the info.

I’m sure you’ll also have noticed that we now have sound again on the webcam. This is thanks to the tireless efforts of our volunteer camera technician, Lindsay, who has been hard at work today tackling the remaining glitches – thanks again Lindsay!

The latest satellite tracking data for Blue YD will be available tomorrow so more news then…

Jonathan