Our osprey pair have been settling back into life on the nest today and showing all the signs of a happy, stable couple. There have been lots of stick deliveries by the male, nest digging and arranging by them both, and some good fish deliveries shared- all good solid signs of osprey courtship behaviour, which reassures us their pair bond has not been weakened. There was some intruder activity this afternoon  on flat top tree, but it is impossible to say if this was the same rival female- the bird didn’t stay long.

We resisted the temptation to play an April fool joke with our blog readers about an osprey catching a Beaver but the thought did give us a few chuckles! For the record, ospreys have never been recorded in the UK eating anything other than fish or rarely crayfish.

There have been so many kind messages and compliments sent in by viewers and supporters – thank you everyone who took the time to contact us and we love hearing you share our excitement. Some questions sent to ospreys@swt.org.uk too:

Q: How old is she?

A: Our female osprey is at least 28 years old, possible older. She has been breeding here since 1991, so this is her 24^th year on this nest. She would have to have been at least 4 to breed successfully the first time, possibly even older. We cannot be more precise as she is not ringed so we have no exact records of her birth.

Q: How many offspring has she had?

In her breeding career so far she has laid 68 eggs and reared 50 chicks to fledging- a remarkable contribution to the species recovering in the UK.

Q: How far has she travelled in her lifetime?

A: As we don’t know exactly where she geos in winter, we can only guess at how far she has travelled in her lifetime. I did some rough estimates and came out with the following:

If she has been going to West Africa (say Senegal) she will be doing 6000 miles a year, for 24 years = 144,000 miles!

If however, she has only been going to Spain, which works our as about 3000 miles per year, then she will have flown 72,000 miles- still amazing!

Lastly some wonderful photographs taken yesterday  on the loch by a stalwart volunteer at Loch of the Lowes- Phil Hannah, who generously shares so many of his photos with us- thanks Phil!!!

” Lady” By Phil Hannah- copyright.

Osprey Pair, Loch of the Lowes March 31st 2014- copyright Phil Hannah