Good afternoon all,

Events from the nest today:

Fantastic news here at Loch of the Lowes!

Today at 14:16 we were all thrilled to see our resident female lay her second egg of the season.  This brings her grand total up to 60 eggs and increases our hope of seeing her 50^th chick fledge this year.  Last year our resident female laid 3 eggs and we may see another egg over the next few days.  Osprey eggs take between 35 and 39 days to hatch and throughout this period the female will carryout the larger portion of the incubation responsibilities.  On average males will incubate for 20-35% of daylight hours but this does vary from male to male. 

Other Wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Today on the loch there have been many sightings of mallard, tufted ducks, mute swans, Canada geese and sand martins.  A little grebe, a pair of great crested grebes, a pochard and two oyster catchers were also spotted. 

Round the feeders today there has been the usual abundance of chaffinches, as well as great tits, blue tits, two siskins, two green finches, four jays and a pied wagtail.

A great deal of underground activity has been going on around the feeders, with piles of earth marking the path of a mole.  The mole was very briefly seen on the surface, an unusual occurrence as moles spend the majority of their time underground hunting invertebrates.     

Lindsay

Volunteer Species Protection Officer