by Lindsey

A regular day on the Osprey nest with three fish so far, one Mystery Fish and two Brown Trout. They seem very well fed as this morning’s Mystery Fish lay around in the nest for hours until it was finished. It’s been warm here today so we’ve been getting lots of good views of the chick as the female has been standing off to the side. The chick’s feathers are beginning to pin (come through) which must be itchy or sore so the chick is beginning to preen itself and we had a lovely moment today when mother and chick were doing synchronised preening. We also saw the chick do its first bit of housekeeping, perhaps mimicking its parents. It started off with small twigs unlike his mother who was moving large sticks around today and biffing the chick on its head, normally that’s Dad’s job.

We had an unusual event on at the Centre today as we had a special performance of ‘Fly Lady Fly’, a song all about our female. It was written by singer and director Fiona Kennedy, who was inspired to write it after a visit here to Loch of the Lowes and sung by 13 year old Ruairidh MacDonald from Aviemore. Fiona was creating a show called ‘The Kist’, which was about emigration, and our female’s migration story fitted in perfectly. Fiona was keen to play at the place which inspired her but unfortunately we don’t have a Public Performance Licence for the Visitor Centre so were unable to host a public performance. Instead we were able to have a private event to say ‘thank you’ to our sponsors, The People’s Postcode Lottery, and our hard working volunteers. You can buy the single here at the Visitor Centre and all proceeds will go to our work here to protect the Ospreys. Alternatively, you can download it from iTunes via The Kist website and a percentage of the sales will go to support both our work here at Loch of the Lowes and to the Rutland Osprey Project.

The song is getting lots of local radio play but we’d like to get it on national radio to reach a wider audience and more sales means more money for Osprey Conservation work. You can help by contacting national radio stations and requesting the song.