Everyone at Loch of the Lowes is eagerly anticipating the imminent return of our resident breeding osprey pair, LF15 and LM12. However there could also be another returnee to watch out for this year.

At the age of two our young satellite tagged osprey, FR3, could decide to make either a full or partial northward migration at some point in the next few months. It would be fascinating to be able to follow the first return migration of a Lowes raised bird and compare the outward and return routes.

If this were to happen it isn’t certain that FR3 would return to Loch of the Lowes. We only have one previous record of a Lowes chick being spotted back at Loch of the Lowes – Green US, a 1995 chick who appeared on the nest in 2001.

At the moment FR3 still appears relatively settled on his “home” territory in the Gambia. The latest data, which goes up to 11 March, shows a couple of short northwards journeys of up to 7 miles from the Bulok bolon towards the main Gambia river.

For the first time in many months FR3 spent a night away from Bulok between 7 and 8 March, choosing instead to roost close to the Gambia river, near Faraba Banta. However, by late afternoon on 8 March he was back near Bulok.

We’re still working on improving the functionality of the new Osprey Tracking page, including highlighting the latest GPS location and restoring the ability to view the data in Google Earth. We’ll let you know once the necessary modifications have been completed.