After rather a long wait today, the female and three chicks were finally treated to an enormous fish brought in by the male, at around lunchtime. Although content for a while, our resident female, true to form, was soon shouting for another fish. The male dutifully soared over the loch, hovered over a promising spot, and unfortunately that’s where his chivalry ended.

Against his better judgement he headed back to the nest empty handed, which promptly resulted in the female shrieking in fury, being heard clearly from the hides. Rather than feeling encouraged to try again, this nagging resulted in him disappearing gracefully into the trees, in search of some peace and quiet!

This may have been a wonderful short term solution for LM12, however anyone in the hides this afternoon is left in no doubt as to the growing hunger of our feisty female! Incessantly calling, she demands that a fish be brought to the nest to enable her chicks to keep growing at the incredible rate they have been since hatching.

Many of you will have witnessed our chicks displaying very ‘adult’ behaviour; wing stretching, preening and even nest tidying! The next milestone to be reached by our three chicks will be when they are strong and proactive enough to claim a fish for their own once it is brought to the nest. At present they rely on the female to grab the fish off the male and tear it into nice bite-sized pieces for them. Soon you will see them rush towards the male, shrieking and wing flapping, endeavouring to snatch the fish for themselves.

I would like to thank all of you who follow our beautiful osprey family, either on the webcam or by visiting our reserve. It really is wonderful to see how much support our ospreys have gathered over the years and I do hope that the webcam, blogs and hides are proving as enjoyable as ever!

Many thanks,
Laura, Visitor Centre Assistant