The weather has been glorious in Montrose recently – visitors have been enjoying stunning views across the basin, spotting ospreys fishing and perching on fence posts by our visitor centre and terns diving out in the distance.

Ospreys have been particularly frequent these past few weeks – so far this year our record is 5 at one time! One individual osprey seems to have taken a liking to Montrose Basin and has come here to fish almost daily for the best part of a fortnight now. Today we’ve seen it catch and eat at least 4 fish, so it definitely has quite an appetite…

Today marks the beginning of one of my favourite times of the year – when chicks begin to fledge from their nests! When I arrived this morning, I had to open lots of windows because of how warm it was, and I was greeted with the sound of a very insistent young blackbird begging for food from its dad. The first fledgling I’ve seen this year! Since then we’ve spotted a juvenile collared dove, and 4 moorhen chicks in the salt pans.

We’ve also been seeing a pair of great tits making us of one of our nest boxes. The parents have been very busy bringing in all sorts of invertebrates for their chicks to eat, like caterpillars and spiders.

We’re looking forward to seeing all sorts of fledglings and ducklings in the coming weeks! It’s definitely a very exciting time to be a birdwatcher.

– Joanna Peaker (Visitor Centre Assistant Manager)