On Saturday just after 12pm a ‘mystery’ ringed female appeared on the nest. The next day she was kind enough to give her a very clear view of the blue darvic ring on her left leg ring, allowing us to ID her as NC0.

We’ve now heard that NC0 was ringed by the late Ciril Ostroznik, Brian Etheridge and Adam Ritchie on 3 July 2016 at a nest near Loch Ness.

LM12 and NC0 have spent a bit of time together but they don’t seem too sure of each other yet. Our breeding male LM12 has been showing mixed signals, displaying a lot of defensive mantling behaviour, but also trying to mate with NC0. So far she has not seemed impressed with these amorous attempts, or by being presented with clods of grass rather than fish!

More birds are appearing around Loch of the Lowes. On Sunday afternoon an osprey, possibly a male based on the chest markings, dive-bombed the nest at high speed. You can see how close it comes to a clearly startled NC0.

Many people have been asking whether or not our regular breeding female LF15 will come back this season. She has arrived at Loch of the Lowes as late as 31 March (in 2015) before, so it is still too early to rule out her return. One thing is for certain, if she does return then things could get very interesting indeed!

Our Osprey Protection Programme at Loch of the Lowes is kindly supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.