More extracts from the diary. there is also a link to an oral version if anybody is visually impaired or just fancy listening to the soft scottish lilt.
http://www.swt.org.uk/docs/file/Audio_video/OspreyDiary.mp3
17 April 2009 Listen to the latest osprey diary
It has been a brilliant, bright, sunny and warm day here at Loch of the Lowes. An excellent day for the female to sun herself on the nest and apparently an even better day for the male to fish. So far he has come back with two small fish for the female, one at 10.10 am and a pike at 1.44 pm this afternoon, which she accepted and flew off. After she filled her belly she returned to the nest and relieved the male from his shift incubating the eggs. The male does most of his fishing at Butterstone Loch where he can catch rainbow trout but he also fishes on the Loch of the Lowes and in the neighbouring Craiglush Loch which are inhabited by both perch and pike. He can also be seen skimming the surface of the loch with his talons in order to clean them.
16 April 2009
Both the male and female have been collecting material for the nest today. The female has been adding bark to the nest and the male had brought in sticks. An unwanted guest arrived at the nest at around 5 pm causing a bit of a stir: another osprey tried to land on the nest but the female made sure it knew it was not welcome. She shouted at it whilst flattening her wings across the nest in order to protect the eggs from the intruder. After a few strong words from the female, the other osprey flew off within seconds of landing on the nest and all was still again.
At 10.20 am the male brought back a fish for the female which she took away to go and feed on a perch close by. Ospreys are well adapted to fishing as they can see their prey when flying over 40 meters above the water surface. They will generally hunt between 5 and 40 metres above the surface but this will vary depending on the prey being hunted. Slower prey and schools of fish will generally be hunted from a distance whist fast-moving, surface-dwelling fish will be watched from closer to the waters surface. The talons of the osprey are long, incredibly sharp and can snap shut around a fish in 2/100 of a second. Sharp spines known as spicules also cover the base of the foot which help to grasp slippery fish. The opposable outer toe which allows the osprey to move its toes from an arrangement of three in the front and one at the back to two on each side, also aids the osprey to grip fish more firmly. It is not only their claws that are well adapted to hunting in water: they cover their feathers in oil from an oil gland located below their tail to provide water proofing and are able to close their nostrils, which is a huge benefit when diving for fish up to one metre deep!
A great big huge thank you to the LotL for giving such an informative update. Much appreciated by me.
