From the diaries....
25 March
We are pleased to announce the winners of our annual competition to be the first to spot our newly returned osprey on the nest. Keen watchers via the webcam will have seen the female bird arrive , and we had an overwhelming number of reports. Our joint winners are Alison Crouch, Daisy Gordon and Mr and Mrs Thomson, all of whom will receive a free pair of binoculars courtesy of Opticron. Thankyou to all who emailed and phoned in.
25 March
Wonderful news here at Loch of the Lowes, with the long awaiting arrival of our resident female osprey. She has made the long and hazardous migration from Africa sucessfully for another year, which is miraculous given her age- she is well into her twenties we beleive. If she goes on to breed this season, it will be her 20th breeding year here at Lowes- a UK record for an osprey.
She arrived about 2pm on Tuesday and immediately settled back into her nest- she began renovations and bringing in extra nesting material straight away as we expected. She is also in very good physical condition , which is vital for the breeding season.
No sign of her regular mate yet- and we know there is bad weather ( desert dust storms) on the migration route which may have slowed some birds down. However, we have had another visit from a stray male osprey yesterday, who flew over the loch calling and tried to land on the nest a couple of times- he was seen off by our female in no uncertain terms.
So will our veteran osprey couple be reunited in the next few days? We hope so!
22 March 2010
What a difference a week makes! The loch is now free of ice and there has been a big changeover in the kind of birds we are seeing, with lots of summer species arriving- we have even see our first swallow of the year today near the hides.
There is also a lot of courtship behaviour going on. It is beautful to watch the grebes, swans and goldeneyes displaying to each other- though sometimes it is more comical than elegant.
The big news is that we have seen our first osprey of the season here at Loch of the Lowes over the weekend, but it looks like a bird passing through rather than one of our regular resident birds. An unringed osprey was seen visiting the nest on Saturday and briefly on the loch on Sunday, but it did not settle. It is most likely to be using our loch as a reststop on migration route further north.
So we still await the arrival of our usual breeding ospreys - will you be the first to spot it? Be sure to let us know if you do- there's a prize of a pair of binolcuars to be won!
fingers crossed homeric is in as good a shape as marge is. And i hope he comes quick. Xxx
