It’s been a long day and night for our team at Loch of the Lowes but, 20 hours after we first spotted a pip in the third egg, we can confirm we have three chicks this year!

Yesterday marked 50 years to the day since the Scottish Wildlife Trust purchased Loch of the Lowes. Given the significance of the date we were delighted to see the first signs of the third chick hatching shortly after 9am.

We were feeling confident that we would celebrate our birthday with another chick!

Of course, nature has its own ways. We faced a long wait through a gloriously sunny day, and into the evening. It was clear progress was being made as a pip turned into a hole and more cracks appeared. We also had several views of the chick breathing inside the egg.

However, it wasn’t until 5.12 am that we saw LF15 fly off briefly from the nest, giving us our first look at the newly hatched chick.

Our last chick of the year is LM12 and LF15’s 13th together in total. This is the third season that they have managed to hatch three chicks together.

It’s going to be exciting to watch them all develop over the coming weeks!

Rory