by Lindsey

And then there were four….

We asked in our last blog if anyone knew of any other ospreys who’d laid four eggs and we got a resounding yes!

• Keith Brockie, who fearlessly scaled our nest tree last year to ring Blue 44, tells us of two clutches of four that were successfully raised in Scotland in the 1980s.

• The RSPB Loch Garten team have been in touch to say EJ has laid four eggs ( or more) at least twice now, but  in response to the original egg clutch or part thereof being destroyed.

• And of course the Tweed Valley Ospreys who successfully reared all four of their chicks in 2005

At the moment it looks like she’s the only one to have laid four eggs twice as a first clutch, but are there any others people know about?

Keith tells us the only way for all four to survive is if there’s the maximum amount of food is available and there’s certainly plenty of that around here but the if all four do hatch the fourth chick will be considerably younger than it’s siblings and in Osprey terms that’s a big difference. Ospreys grow and develop at a considerable rate, I can see a change in the chicks from when I start and end my shifts.

It’s been another quiet day on the nest, with several changeovers but no fish as yet. There have been two intruders today, one which both birds saw off and one which they didn’t bother about. An intruder female has just landed on the nest and now all three are in the air – will there be a battle?

Our Red Squirrels are obviously getting very frisky given the amount of bald patches we’re seeing on them!