What a day of excitement here at Loch of the Lowes! With no fewer than four Ospreys seen on the reserve today, the trickle has become a flood!

Firstly our resident Male has continued to make himself at home and has been using his usual perches around the loch, fishing and visiting the nest regularly to see if anyone else has arrived. Twice today he returned bringing a fish – trout, and  finding his partner absent, went away with it again. These are all very good signs that he is setting well and bonding with the nest again, ready to provide for a partner and family.

There has been a lot of action in the skies above the loch, with four ospreys visible in the air at one point!  In addition, there have been visits today at the nest by two female birds – neither of which is our famous resident female “Lady”. One of these birds interestingly, appears to be the same young female who was at this nest this time last year. We’ve compared the eye iris markings with recordings from 2012 and found exactly the same patterns.

Its seems very likely that this is either another local female who has dropped in at Lowes as her own partner is also yet to arrive, or a persistent young female trying her luck at stealing  a nest again. Last year our regular female saw her off without any trouble when she returned a few days later.

There was one abortive mating attempted between our male and this female today- it seemed like he changed his mind half way through and began mantling (defensive behaviour) instead. He has also not responded to her food beggng calls this evening as he sat on the loch side eating, so we don’t think this relationship will last!

As you can see,  a lot can happen in a day at an Osprey nest and we will continue to update this blog each afternoon/ evening  with a summary of the day’s events. If you would like more instant news, please consider subscribing to our Twitter feed (@SWTLowesranger) –  a service which sends short texts to your mobile. The staff here can send messages via phone from their frontline jobs in the hides during the day, when access to a computer isn’t possible.

What excitement will tommorrow bring?

Ranger Emma