Our male osprey is really settling into his role here at Loch of the Lowes, bonding with the nest site whilst he awaits a mate to join him.

He was back at the nest at 5.30am , and spent most of the morning going to and fro bringing is sticks and fresh moss clumps to reinforce and decorate the nest. This is classic early breeding season behaviour. He has even been doing some excavation of the nest cup- lying on his chest and kicking with his legs in a comical but effective way to deepen the centre.

Still no sign of his usual mate, or any other female osprey as yet, but we are still really only in the early part of the typical osprey arrivals window, so we are not yet concerned at all.

Meanwhile, the loch has been graced today with a wonderful flock 20 or so of whooper swans, who dropped in this morning . These exquisite birds are starting to heard north west to their Icelandic summer breeding grounds, and are probably having a break here on their journey as the wind has swung around to the NW and is hard for them to fly into.

Ranger Emma