Loch of the Lowes Osprey Wildlife Diary

This will probably be the last update before Christmas to fill you in on what’s been happening. First off, the loch is frozen – you can check it out on our webcam – it looks amazing because snow has now fallen on the ice so its quite magical out there although very few birds this end of the loch due to the big freeze.

What has been spotted though is one of our resident water rails – very elusive birds – forced out of the reed beds to feed, dotting around the front of the centre for around 20 minutes so some mealworms have now been scattered on the ground to help it out should it return. Still got the odd Whooper hanging around on the loch although like I say they are fast swimmers and can make it from one end of the loch to the other in about 10 minutes when its not frozen solid!

The wee birds at the feeders are frantic in this weather with another (gigantic) brambling popping up and a solitary goldfinch appearing multiple times a day along with the usual suspects. Squirrel action is still good – the baby one popping up most days although it isn’t going to stay tiny for long the amount it’s been eating. After some advice from our SWT red squirrel officer, an antler (from a fallow deer) has been put in the feeding area, for the squirrels to knaw on, as a diet of just peanuts can lead to calcium deficiencies so this antler should provide some of the minerals etc missing from peanuts to help our baby grow.

We have had some beautiful frosty, Christmassy weather up here – putting us all in the mood.

On the loch, we’ve been having regular sighting of Whooper swans with up to eight seen at one time from the hides, although its got to be said they are fast swimmers and can get around the loch a fair bit. The wigeon can be heard whistling away and every coot has about five wigeon surrounding it and mugging it of the pondweed which it has dived to the bottom of the loch to reach. The greylag geese numbers are starting to rise and sightings range from tens to hundreds clustering on the loch. We have also had a few sightings of the smallest duck in UK, a little gang of teal have been scooting around the reed beds with the regular tufties, goldeneye, grebes etc.

The viewing window is really busy – chaffinch numbers are hitting over a hundred and the tits, other finches, robins, dunnock and blackbird numbers are also rising. The squirrels are still out in force and there has been a baby squirrel visiting regularly for the last couple of weeks – nicknamed tiny Tim. He is really wee and we think we’ve even seen him cuddling up with his mum as on the feeding tray when one squirrel approaches another on the tray one will usually run away but these two were happily cuddled up and munching away.

Recent webcam action has been the loch by day which we have been trying to vary by zooming in and panning round the loch to try and give different views and at night we have a resident blue tit roosting in one of our nestboxes. So at around half past three we try and catch the little bird coming into roost before settling down for the night. The other camera is on our feeding area which by day is birds and squirrels and at night we have been putting our usual pine marten food out but also some extra nibbles for the fallow deer which seem to be visiting most nights.