As many of you will have observed via the webcam, our resident female osprey LF15 has not been seen by staff since the evening of Tuesday 7th August. She was last seen by webcam viewers early on Wednesday morning. As always we like to delay announcing her departure as we never can tell whether she’s just fishing in other lochs or has truly left us. In 2017 the last time she was seen was 5th August, so the timing seems to fit.

However, the consensus now is that she has begun her migration and rightly so. Last time we saw her she was in fantastic condition and stealing fish from the juveniles!

This season she has managed to successfully overcome intruding male and female osprey, herons, Canada geese and even loud music!

For the fourth year LF15 and LM12 have managed to successfully raise and fledge healthy beautiful osprey chicks, PT0 and LN1 are chicks 9 and 10 respectively.

We are delighted by the ospreys good fortune this year and we greatly admire their tenacity and resilience. Many of the high profile nests in the country have had difficulties this year, all of which were down to normal natural circumstances but we are humbled by the fact that the success of the nest is entirely out of our control. We’re lucky to have such a fantastic pair of dedicated osprey parents.

We still have LN1 and PT0 visiting the nest daily. Although we have observed them to be absent from the reserve occasionally, which indicates to us that they are beginning to become more inquisitive about the greater surrounding area. Fortunately, LM12 is still here and is continuing to provide them with the occasional fish.

However, our juveniles have been seen to be practising their fishing technique on our loch. As shown below with a fabulous sequence of photos from our guide in the hide, Marian Moore.

We don’t know when the juveniles are likely to leave but we’ll continue to update you as and when we have news.

Thank you,

Emma Castle-Smith

Visitor Centre Assistant Manager