After an anxious 29 hour wait, our chick finally got its first taste of fish at 19:44 this evening!

Fifteen minutes beforehand, our volunteers spotted the male flying overhead with a large fish, before disappearing out of sight behind some trees to find a spot to devour the head. Shortly afterwards to everyone’s relief he arrived back at the nest with a huge salmon, presumably caught from the local River Tay. LF15 promptly stood to take the much needed meal from her partner and after taking a few well deserved beakfuls for herself, she delicately fed her chick its first ever meal, and a very posh one at that!

Despite LM12 unhelpfully deciding to steal the limelight by blocking our view for most of the feeding, from what we did manage to see the chick got a substantial amount of fish. But minutes later LF15 settled back down to keep the chick warm and dry, without pausing to take any more food for herself.

We are all delighted to have witnessed this important occasion, and relieved to see how  they are settling into their new role as parents again. There hasn’t been any more substantial developments in the hatching process of chick number 2 yet, but hopefully it won’t be long until our pair have 2 hungry beaks to feed!

As I type, our chick is currently being treated to a second course!

Charlotte,

Perthshire Ranger.