Archive for July, 2009

Our wee osprey family are doing brilliantly

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Our wee osprey family are doing brilliantly here at the Loch of the Lowes. The chicks are spending most of their time off the nest and flying around building up their wing muscles for their long trek to Africa whilst the father is actively fishing and making sure they are well fed. The mother will soon make her return trip back to Africa in around three weeks time now that both chicks have fledged and then the chicks will follow at the end of August along with the father.

The chicks have been spotted playing in the water, practicing their diving and figuring out how to take off from the loch. In the past chicks have also been seen coming out of the water with sticks as they practice their hunting technique. It is unusual for osprey chicks to start catching prey for themselves at this stage as they normally begin after they leave for their wintering grounds so they are still totally reliant upon the father to be fed.

We have a great number of birds visiting our feeders and we have as yet not had any reoccurrence of the parasite which is brilliant. If you were having lunch in the hides on Wednesday you would have also had the luck of spotting a pair of otters swimming by which is a brilliant sight when you are relaxing beside our peaceful loch.

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A brilliant time learning to fly

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Both of our osprey chicks have finally fledged and are having a brilliant time learning to fly. The second chick took its first flight on either Thursday night (16th) or early Friday morning. Unfortunately even though one member of staff waited patiently until late Thursday night, the osprey chick did not decide to leave the nest until later so we were unsuccessful in obtaining the footage of the first flight.

The oldest chick has had a few interesting landings over the last week. It was seen swaying precariously on top of the dead tree next to the nest trying its best to balance and at one point it landed on top of its sibling sitting on the nest, so the landings are still a bit messy but they are rapidly improving. Both the chicks are spending less time on the nest and appear to prefer to spend the night on a perch close by. They are still taking fish from the father and remain within close proximity of the nest, watching for their father’s return with fish so they can fill their bellies and then resume their flight, soaring over the loch and landing haphazardly on a perch. The chicks will spend the next month trying to perfect their flight ready for their 3,000 mile flight to their winter residence in equatorial West Africa.

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Our oldest chick has finally fledged

Monday, July 13th, 2009

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that our oldest chick has finally fledged. All the staff were perched on the edge of their seat on Sunday waiting for the chick to make its leap off the 60-foot drop to take its first flight into the sky after it spent the whole day flapping at the very edge of the nest building up its courage. It was not until 7.55pm that the chick finally took that leap into the air with very little hesitation and flew about for around 10 minutes before finally coming to rest on the tallest pine tree across from the hides. The chick did not return to the nest until 4.47am the following morning even though the male brought in a fish for the mother and youngster at 9.37pm. The chick landed perfectly on the nest and has since been enjoying soaring over the loch on numerous occasions taking in the sights of its beautiful home. The youngest chick should also be taking off in the nest few days as well to join its sibling in flight, building up their muscles before their long, arduous flight to equatorial West Africa where they will remain for about five years before they mature and return back to Scotland to start breeding.

Our birdfeeders have been replaced outside our viewing windows and all the birds are having a feast on the nuts and seeds left out for them. The pine martens have unfortunately still not returned but we are not giving up hope and continue to leave out food for them to entice them to the feeders.

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A big storm brewing yesterday

Monday, July 6th, 2009

We had quite a big storm brewing yesterday with thunder and lightning which cut off our web cameras on quite a few occasions. The chicks kept ducking every time they saw a flash of lightning or heard thunder and the mother did her best to try and keep the chicks covered to stop them getting soaked. One side of the visitor centre was flooded with the heavy downpour but the weather did brighten up later on and the ospreys finally got relief from the bad weather.

There has been plenty of fish brought in for the ospreys and the oldest chick has now started to feed itself. On Saturday the male presented the mother and chicks with a fish which the chicks then proceeded to fight over. The youngest chick was the first to grab the fish when the older one came over and grabbed the fish from the other end. A tug of war ensued with one chick using its beak to pull the fish and the other grabbing it with its talons. The battle ragged on for a few minutes and one chick was close to going over the edge of the nest when finally the oldest chick won the battle and took its prize for itself to eat. The mother attempted to gain access to the fish but the chick went for her and continued to eat the fish itself.

The chicks are due to fledge any day now. They have been practising hard and strengthening their wing muscles and it is just a matter of days before the oldest chick takes its first leap off the nest and into the sky. We are all waiting in anticipation to see how successful the first flight and landing attempt is and if it is a smoother one than last year’s chick.

A pair of otters was spotted swimming in front of the hide yesterday and an otter was also spotted the day before so they are becoming more of a regular sight here on the loch. Our bird feeders will be returned in a week’s time and we have not seen any more infected finches around the area so hopefully the parasite will have disappeared at last.

The pine marten evenings are still cancelled due to the absence of pine martens at the feeders but we will keep looking out for them and as soon as one is seen the pine marten evenings will recommence.

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