A beautiful morning again here at Lowes, with glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze ruffling the surface of the Loch. There are duckling and goslings a plenty around the shores, and great crested grebes nesting again amongst the yellow water lilies near the hide.
We have been focussed very much this last week or so on our female osprey ( quite rightly) and her plight, but I would like to mention our male today, because he deserves a Hero of the Loch award as far as I am concerned.
Most of you will know that he is a new male this year, ten years old born at Ballinliug in 2000. As a new partner for our lady, he was very much an unknown quantity at the beginning of the season. His courtship was text book, his nest building skills in no doubt (he virtually buried our lady!), but his fishing skills took a while to impress us! He ahs turned out to be a specialist pike fisherman and capable of bringing in very large fish (though his average is small and some truly tiny!). He did give us a couple of frights when he abandoned the eggs during incubation for half an hour or so- he was called a few very bad things those nights!
Most of all though, he has impressed all his doubters with his dedication, first feeding his mate tenderly on the nest, and then proving himself incredibly dedicated to his hatchlings. Once the chicks arrived he stepped up his hunting to an incredible level and hasn’t slacked since- there has never been a lack of fish which has meant the chicks having the best possible start in life.
It is thanks to dad however, that the chicks survived their mother’s terrible illness, because he stepped into the breach when she was unable to, and fed them himself. Though not unknown in ospreys, this kind of behaviour is considered rare and a sign of our male’s total dedication to rearing his offspring- what a super dad!
three cheers for Green 7Y- hero of the Loch!
Emma Rawling
Perthshire Ranger

Hi All

Just a wee update on the camera. We have had interference problems so I changed the feed as you have seen from the black and white picture. I will keep at it and get the original picture back.

Thanks for your patience.

Peter