A quiet day for the Ospreys, there was heavy rain so both birds roosted up out of sight for most of the morning with the male only appearing to scare off an intruder Osprey and Blue YZ appearing to shout at her dad for fish. It worked as she’s had three fish already and an eel which is proving a challenge to the young female. It’s still writhing around despite being pinned under her talons and having part of its insides dragged out. She’s standing on it looking very puzzled!

The injured Swan is still on the loch and appears to be feeding and preening okay although you can see the line trailing from its mouth. We still need to catch it as the line and hooks could become infected but it’s proving very difficult to get near it.

There was a funny incident further up the loch with the Great Crested Grebe adult and its large grebling, this may sound familar to anyone with children. The adult Grebe came over with a fish for the youngster but it refused to take it so the adult then chased the young one around trying to get it to eat the fish. Three times the adult either forced the grebling to take the fish or dropped it right in front so it could pick it up. Three times the youngster ignored it so the adult ate the fish itself.

I’ve been asked by a couple of people to repeat the fleece rating scale I mentioned earlier on in the season so here it is again. Today was a 0 – 1 fleece day.

The fleece weather rating

No fleece = very hot and sunny, likely record temperatures, rarely happens

One fleece = Scottish Summer –  sunny, windy with some rain thrown in

Two fleece = Scottish Spring and Autumn – wind and rain with rare glimpses of the sun

Three fleece = Scottish Winter – wear thermals

White fleece = Covered in snow, please defrost and hand me a mug of tea

Lindsey