Events from the nest:

It is now 66 days after the third egg was laid on the 19^th April, but our osprey pair continue to incubate.

Since yesterday’s blog post, our famous female osprey incubated the three eggs throughout the night with a brief visit from her mate, 7Y at 5.06pm. During this time the eggs were routinely turned and were left unattended for short periods of approximately one minute, while our female took a brief exercise or toilet break.

This morning, at 9.49am, our male osprey arrived at the nest with a large stick. At which point, our resident female left the nest while her mate took over the incubation duties. Later, at 10.03am our male left the eggs unattended until 11.20am when the female returned, but was perched nearby in view of the nest.

Our female osprey also left the eggs unattended today at 1.43pm, returning by 2.03pm to continue to incubate.

During the afternoon, visitors out in the hides could see an intruder in the vicinity of the nest which 7Y chased out of the area.

We have had a few enquiries to our dedicated osprey email ospreys@swt.org.uk  regarding how long our pair of ospreys will continue to incubate. At this point in time, all we can do is observe to discover what our ospreys will do in this situation. We are still learning a lot from our female osprey at an astonishing estimated 26 years of age.

Other wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Out on the loch today there have been sightings of great crested grebes, mute swans, Canada geese, greylag geese, mallards and, tufted ducks; while overhead were sand martins and swallows.

Visitors out in the hides were lucky enough to see a kingfisher today. This brightly coloured bird has the highest degree of legal protection in the UK appearing on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

At the feeding station were pheasants, robins, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, chaffinches, greenfinches, siskins, and a yellowhammer. Red squirrels have also been seen throughout the course of the day, 

Anna

Perthshire Ranger