Our wee osprey family are doing brilliantly here at the Loch of the Lowes. The chicks are spending most of their time off the nest and flying around building up their wing muscles for their long trek to Africa whilst the father is actively fishing and making sure they are well fed. The mother will soon make her return trip back to Africa in around three weeks time now that both chicks have fledged and then the chicks will follow at the end of August along with the father.

The chicks have been spotted playing in the water, practicing their diving and figuring out how to take off from the loch. In the past chicks have also been seen coming out of the water with sticks as they practice their hunting technique. It is unusual for osprey chicks to start catching prey for themselves at this stage as they normally begin after they leave for their wintering grounds so they are still totally reliant upon the father to be fed.

We have a great number of birds visiting our feeders and we have as yet not had any reoccurrence of the parasite which is brilliant. If you were having lunch in the hides on Wednesday you would have also had the luck of spotting a pair of otters swimming by which is a brilliant sight when you are relaxing beside our peaceful loch.