Loch of the Lowes Osprey Wildlife Diary

Hi folks,

Sorry for the delay in posting todays blog and approving your comments. We had an issue with our phone line which meant we had no internet connection. We’re back online now and we’ll get onto your comments ASAP.

The laird delivered a very large perch about 11am this morning but we have no idea of previous fish deliveries so if you witnessed any please let us know.
It’s another pleasant day here at Lowes. The sun is beating down on the nest and the chicks are panting away. There is a nice breeze though, so this should help keep them cool. I fear we can’t really call them chicks anymore, as they are almost fully grown now and acting like proper ospreys (except for the flying bit!). How quick they grow and how soon we will all be suffering from empty nest syndrome!
Fiona

A beautiful morning again here at Lowes, with glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze ruffling the surface of the Loch. There are duckling and goslings a plenty around the shores, and great crested grebes nesting again amongst the yellow water lilies near the hide.
We have been focussed very much this last week or so on our female osprey ( quite rightly) and her plight, but I would like to mention our male today, because he deserves a Hero of the Loch award as far as I am concerned.
Most of you will know that he is a new male this year, ten years old born at Ballinliug in 2000. As a new partner for our lady, he was very much an unknown quantity at the beginning of the season. His courtship was text book, his nest building skills in no doubt (he virtually buried our lady!), but his fishing skills took a while to impress us! He ahs turned out to be a specialist pike fisherman and capable of bringing in very large fish (though his average is small and some truly tiny!). He did give us a couple of frights when he abandoned the eggs during incubation for half an hour or so- he was called a few very bad things those nights!
Most of all though, he has impressed all his doubters with his dedication, first feeding his mate tenderly on the nest, and then proving himself incredibly dedicated to his hatchlings. Once the chicks arrived he stepped up his hunting to an incredible level and hasn’t slacked since- there has never been a lack of fish which has meant the chicks having the best possible start in life.
It is thanks to dad however, that the chicks survived their mother’s terrible illness, because he stepped into the breach when she was unable to, and fed them himself. Though not unknown in ospreys, this kind of behaviour is considered rare and a sign of our male’s total dedication to rearing his offspring- what a super dad!
three cheers for Green 7Y- hero of the Loch!
Emma Rawling
Perthshire Ranger

Hi All

Just a wee update on the camera. We have had interference problems so I changed the feed as you have seen from the black and white picture. I will keep at it and get the original picture back.

Thanks for your patience.

Peter

What a wonderful clear, fresh washed morning here at Lowes- after a big thunder storm last night, which made the cameras go off for a while (sorry!) and which brought much needed rain (as our well is looking very dry indeed).
Our chicks are now just over five weeks old, and as many of you have observed, starting to look like proper wee ospreys, not babies any more. With most of their juvenile plumage has grown in they are now able to regulate their own temperature pretty well and are shower proof! They are also now the size of small chickens and getting more co-ordinated, especially with those huge feet.
This week we should also see the chicks starting to stretch their wings more and begin the process of developing their flight muscles by flapping. Before long they will be standing on the nest edge giving us all heart attacks! It is hard to believe it may only be two weeks or so until their first flights, all being well. Meanwhile they are still benefitting from mums TLC- they will never know just how lucky they are to have her!
Emma Rawling
Perthshire Ranger

The brilliant warm calm summer weather continues. The water flat. It seems as if it will be another good day for fishing. Let us hope that the youngens will continue to be sated throughout the day and night to come. They, at this stage have their metabolic rates at a peak, during this very rapid feather growing season. They are regularly preening and their flight and tail feathers seem to grow by the hour. “Our” female encourages/calls/nags for meal delivery in an ever stronger manner. Although she still appears thin she sounds as if she is her old self again. Will she remain longer this year before flying south in order to gain strength, or perhaps she will more slowly meander as she migrates, taking in the sites towards West Africa? The best to all who follow. Rinchen

What a difference a week makes- lets all hope we don’t have a repeat of last weekends awful circumstances!
We are all overjoyed at our female ospreys recovery but still concerned and monitoring her weakened state- she still has a lot of weight and ground to make up. We are cautiously optimistic though, and of course relived beyond measure that the chicks have not suffered through this due to dads dillegence.

PLEASE NOTE: The SWT facebook page is in addition to this blog and the latest information will still be here every day. Personally I don’t know how it works but Fiona assures me she has it under control! It has been added due to demand from the public who preffer this medium.
Which leads me to another point- as I’m sure you are aware we have been getting up to 700 comments a day on this blog, all of which have to be moderated ( checked and posted by staff in case they are spam or offensive). This new medium has been a steep learning curve for us all and we have been surprised by its success. We do not have a dedicated member of staff to look after this- the rest of our very small team fit in in around all their other duties such as running the reserve, talking to visitors etc.

Particularly at night, when the office is unattended, you may find a delay in your comments appearing. We are hastily trying to work out better ways of dealing with this- perhaps having a team of volunteer moderators? We will keep you informed, and if you have suggestions, please let us know.

We would also like to encourage you more experienced watchers and bloggers to help answer some questions that recurr – feel free to add your own observations and help more recent bloggers with osprey basics.

Lastly another BIG THANKYOU to you all for your moral support during this very difficult week- your thoughts and wishes have helped the staff and volunteers enormously, and I suspect, somehow, our osprey too.
Emma Rawling Perthshire Ranger

P.S. A special sorry for the fact that someone ( an very overtired member of staff) forgot to put the camera over to night mode last night.

The unprecedented interest from around the world in the story of our osprey has prompted us to launch the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s first ‘official’ Facebook page and we need your help. We’re hoping that all of you who have been following our blog and the webcam will do anything you can to tell our story, which is itself part of our charity’s wider ongoing efforts to protect all of Scotland’s amazing wildlife for the future. We’d like to get as many people as possible signed up to our Facebook site in the first week, so anything you can do to help get people following us would be hugely appreciated by all of us at Loch of the Lowes.
Our Facebook page is at:
try this one:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scottish-Wildlife-Trust/121459871230143?ref=ts

Sorry, still working on it!

Many thanks to you all
Scottish Wildlife Trust

Good Morning All! Sorry for the late update today. It’s so busy here this morning that everyone assumed someone else had written the blog!
Having been off for 2 days (catching up on lost sleep!), I came in this morning to a bird who looked liked nothing had ever happened to her, so I’m now wondering if it was real or I dreamed the entire thing?!
The Laird has delivered several decent sized fish this morning and mum has yet again been stuffing them full of food. It’s hard to believe that in just 2 weeks they could be flying! I think after all that has happened, the fledging will be a momentous occasion and I’m sure quite an emotional one as well.
We will keep monitoring her progress and hope it is all as positive as the last few days have been. She has certainly put on a bit of weight again and her preening is making sure she looks her best.
Thanks again to all of you for your support over the last week. It’s helped us through and helped reinforce the importance of what we do.
Fiona

Thank you all for your interest in our fundraising campaign to raise money to satellite track our juvenile osprey chicks, and thank you to everyone who has kindly donated via the centre or via Toby Greens website at http://www.justgiving.com/Toby-Green.
As you will all know Toby made a superhuman effort in cycling the length of the UK and raised over £4,000 for this project.

We had made enquiries regarding getting the tracking done this year, though it appeared unlikely to happen due to the short timescale.

Due to the recent amazing, sad, mournful, depressing, fantastic, wonderful, uplifting, hopeful events we will now definitely NOT be tracking or ringing any chicks this year.

I think we, you, and our ospreys have quite enough drama to contend with already!
We would hate to jeopardise any recovery ( we hope) of our female by any extra interference to the nest at this crucial stage.

However, we will definately still be satellite tagging chicks- next years brood at Loch of the Lowes all things being well. All your money will go directly to this important and fascinating scientific research at Lowes.

I also just wanted to say how amazed, and thankful SWT continue to be at the comments of support from all corners of the globe at this stressful time.

Robert Potter
Reserves Manager North East

What a difference a day makes, (I sure that was song) well in an ospreys life it certainly does.

What a weekend, we certainly did go through a lot emotions over the last few days and I don’t think it is over yet. But the Lady of the Loch has certainly proved herself on many occasion to be an impressive bird, lets hope that continues today.

It is 3.30am and the birds are singing to what will be a magnificent sunrise this morning. The chicks have already started shouting for food, I think even with 7Y’s impressive fishing technique over the last few days he will still have problems at this time of the morning. Mum is still resting quietly at the side of the nest just now but has been very restless through the dark hours.

I think I will go out and enjoy the sunrise with her this morning and get away from the midges in my office. I can hear you say “in your office” yes in my office. Fiona went home about an hour ago and left the outside door open so I am now being eaten alive by them. Wait till I see her!! This will make you laugh. I was watching a ground beetle walk over the floor in the office a few moments ago (got in because of the door left open) and thought “Oh that’s a big one” the next thing I knew it was under my T-shirt and on my back. Man, I just about jumped out of my skin and I couldn’t get it off because of where it was. I did, I must admit, panic, but only a little, OK, a lot, Ok OK, I was like a big girl. It’s giving me the willies just typing this.

More update soon.

Peter

Hi

Sorry was out in the hide for a while. She flew around for a wee while before landing back at the nest. Our boy just brought in a stick. He is going to have to do better than that.

Peter

7.51am Good morning to all who have just got up.

The reason I was zooming in on her feet was to check the progress of her talon that was broken a while back. What made me do this, I found the other part in the nest by chance this morning. One of the chicks brought up a pellet, I zoomed in on the pellet and there beside it was the talon. It was not in the pellet nor did it come out of the chick.

No fish yet but she did find a morsel in the nest a little while ago. Her eyes are still sunken and could remain like that for a few days yet, until she gets enough fluids in her and her body fills out again. let’s hope what ever this was that affected her so badly does not have a lasting effect. It is a good morning to fish!

Peter

10am Update:
Good news this morning as our male osprey has excelled himself and brought in two fish in 10 minutes. Even better, the female bird has begun to eat again and has taken over some duties feeding the chicks too. What a fantastic scene we never thought to see- both parents feeding the chicks side by side.
Our female is still looking weak, however, and is noticeably thin and sunken in her chest area. Her eyes too are still not normal, so in short, though improved, we are not sure she is out of the woods just yet. Every day she hangs on is a miraculous bonus at this stage and a boon to the chicks.
Emma Rawling

3pm update
Our mum continues to do well today, feeding her chicks and herself. There have been 6 (I think!) fish brought by the Laird today and he seems happy to leave mum to do all the feeding once more. Can he sense that his mate has recovered?
As happy as we all are at the improvements she has made, we know that she is still no where near 100% and probably will never be again. Hopefully she can regain some of the body mass she has lost to keep her going for the next few weeks. If her episode was caused by an illness then there is a possibility that she may relapse, but I am staying positive that she will see her chicks fly and then she can rest easy. I think that regardless of what happens, this will be her final summer on the nest, but what a season she has given us!
Fiona

10pm Update
Our lady osprey has continued to go from strength to strength today, with incremental improvements by the hour. She has been eating small amounts today, but she has been feeding the chicks almost continually. She has also been beginning to preen and tidy herself up, and has taken at least two dips in the loch to clean herself. She is looking stronger in flight and sounding more like herself too. However, she is still rather weak and definitely not completely normal so we should be cautious as yet. The male brought in a staggering five fish this evening so there has been no shortage of food! Let’s just hope she continues to improve and we don’t have any sudden relapses. Emma the Ranger

22:36 Update

What a day it has been for all involved. Isn’t this bird amazing, she has now fed herself and the chicks 4 times now this evening. This is good news and yes there is a but, but she still is not 100%. Lets hope our male can get some fish into the nest early tomorrow morning so she can feed again soon. Fiona and I will be here through the night to keep an eye on her. We will keep the blog updated as usual, which reminds me to thank the guys at Red Paint for getting the Web blog up and running again. They do a great job for us.

Peter

6pm Update:
Our female osprey, though a wee bit stronger, is still definately weak and dehydrated. Her eyes are still partially closed and she has taken on a very sunken appearance, and her co-ordination is poor- all of these are worrying signs that still indicate a poor prognosis.
Obviously we will be with her through the night and watching every
detail. The good news is that the chicks are looking good- dad is really an amazing bird.
Please be patient with us on the Blog- with all that is going on here we may not be able to give individual replies just now, but tommorrow we hope to summarise lots of answers and recap events.
Thanks Emma Rawling
Perthshire Ranger

As the sun stands still on this, the longest day of the year, an eternal light seems to be hanging over the loch tonight. It is eerie yet calming. I think we have all been on a very bumpy roller-coaster ride for the last two days, and now the lack of sleep and over-indulgence of coffee is taking it’s toll! I’ve had to take a moment to contemplate and take it all in.
As I listen to the oystercatchers fly overhead, the tawny owls call and the loch gently lapping at the shore, I realise that life carries on all around us without us even noticing. How nice it is that if we stop for a while, we are allowed a glimpse, an intimate view of life at it’s simple best. Two squirrel kits chasing one another up and down, round and round the tree. The divinely black and white striped great crested grebe chicks hitching a ride on mums back. The blackbird beautifully signing, just because he can. The woodpecker that continues to feed her young even though he’s big enough to feed himself. The bluetits who try in vain to raise their large brood. The new boy in town, who will do anything to impress the lady. The mum who won’t give up the fight to protect her chicks the only way she knows how. By just being with them.
I feel very privileged to be surrounded by it.
Our mum has continued to fight her battle through the night and at first light she is still with us. It is amazing the strength a being can find solely to protect their offspring. She continues to amaze even in her decline!
Today will be another very busy and tiring day for us all here so your continued updates are particularly important to us, as we may miss a fish or interesting event that could be vitally relevant in the success of our dad and chicks.
I would just like to thank each and every one of you for your support and words of comfort and encouragement over the weekend. It means a lot to us.
Slainte mhath!
Fiona

9am
As I am very tired at the moment I will have to ask if this is all real later!
There have been 3 fish in so far this morning and the chicks had a good go at getting stuck into a left-over fish from last night. They are learning fast. Mum seems to be making the most miraculous of recoveries, sitting up, preening herself, flapping her wings (almost taking off it seems!) and opening her eyes for a brief time. This is all positive progress but we must keep grounded and realise she is still not out of the woods yet. She must eat, and soon, in order to rehydrate and build up her energy reserves, and at present she is showing no interest in the food being brought right to her. It is also very possible that she has sustained long-term damage to her brain or eyes and may not recover fully, in which case she won’t leave for migration and may have to face a winter at Lowes. There are many different scenarios and we cannot predict anything at present. We will just have to continue the roller-coaster ride and see where the journey ends.
Dad continues to be brilliant and the chicks seem none the worse for wear for being left to survive the elements for 2 nights. Lets see what today brings. Hopefully some sleep for me!
Fiona

12.29 Hi All

As you all know Fiona was up all night and has now went to bed. I would just like to thank her for staying on and letting me go off for a sleep.

Yes our Lady does look much better today but she is still very weak and has her eyes closed most of the time. We still think she will not survive this as she is not eating so not getting any fluids. A bird this size could last 4 days without water. This gives her till tomorrow evening. It is heart breaking to watch but we do have an up side and that is our male continues to feed the young. They do have a good chance of surviving.

Peter

Hi All

Sorry I have not been able to update as often as you would have liked. As you can imagine myself and the volunteers have been very busy looking after the visitors and press. For those of you who can watch we will be on BBC Scotland news and STV news tonight at tea time.

There has been no real change in the Lady over the course of the day and I can only expect her to go down hill very soon. This will be due to the lack of liquids. For those of you who are new to ospreys, these birds get all they need from their food, including water so she will not get the urge to leave the nest for a drink. I can also say that it is unlikely she has been poisoned as the chicks and 7Y are fine. This is (as the Vet has said) probably due to old age. If she does decide to go walk about and tumbles out of the nest, we will retrieve her.

Thank you all for your kind words and support at this very hard time.

Peter

It is 2:55am and the light is showing in the sky. It is time for our Oystercatchers to wake and and let everyone know they are up and ready for the day. Some of us have not slept but have been keeping watch over our magnificent Lady, who is still struggling on.

As the day breaks we will watch and wait to see what the day has to bring for our osprey family. Will 7Y continue to do such a sterling job of feeding the chicks, I think he will give it his best shot. I know it will be hard for everyone to watch the camera today, so keep supporting each other in the fantastic way you have all been doing so far. It also helps us here at Lowes knowing there is so many people out there who are feeling the same way we are. Thank you for all your comments.

3:21am and the dawn chorus is in full swing. I think I will go outside and enjoy it for a while with my 50th cup of coffee!!

Peter

Some of you would have seen me zoom in on 7Y. He is on one of his usual fishing trees looking for breakfast.

The barking you heard on the webcam was a fox just under the osprey nest. They do have a very chilling bark.

8.34am

Hi All

Sorry I have been away getting cleaned up ready for the days events.

Our boy has done well so far this morning 3 fish and has chased off an intruder, what more can we ask of him. Lets hope he can keep this up. The Lady is laboring now her breaths are very short. I hope that it is not long now before she goes.

Peter

When we go to the nest to take her out we will try to minimise the disturbance to 7Y by waiting for him to go fishing. unfortunately we cannot guarantee that he wont be there at the time. The chicks will behave like we are predators and stay flat in the nest not moving pretending they are invisible. They will not at this age attempt to leave the nest. Removing her body will give the chicks a far greater chance of survival by keeping the nest clean and healthy for them.

Peter

Hi All
+ I do understand your how you are feeling about our Lady. I too would love to ease her suffering but we do not intervene when it would cause even more stress and harm, not just to our Lady but also to the chicks and 7Y. At the moment we will allow her to see this out on the nest. If we were to try and remove her from the nest while she still has a bit of fight in her, would not only stress her out even more than she is already it could also cause harm to the chicks. The other thing to think about is the person who will go up the 60ft Scots Pine and take a stressed adult osprey out of the nest. We do have to think about their safety first. It will be a lot safer for our climber and the chicks.
+ I hope this helps to clarify things for you all.

Hi All

Just a quick update. I can understand how you all must be feeling about today. I just want to let you know that we will be here at Lowes all night and will update the blog if there is any change in our Lady’s condition.

Kind Regards
Peter

Hi

Just to answer the questions about her eyes. They are closed and have been most of the time it looks like she is having difficulty opening them. It also looks like she has lost strength in her legs and wings. It is very hard to watch, but I will let you all know if she goes through the night.

Peter

I would like to thank you all for your kind thoughts. Believe me when I say that I do share your frustrations and your sadness. I have spent many a night with her, watching her incubate eggs in what can only be described as atrocious weather and she has had to put up with me snoring in the hide at 4am . My first year doing nights the temperature dropped to -7 and she had snow completely covering her. She was a fighter then and is proving to be now in what could be my last night with her. I too hope that she goes soon and her suffering does not go on.

I hope you all have sound now.

Peter

I do wish the wind would remove the twig in front of the camera. It is getting quite strong now up there at the nest. I can still hear the faint calls of the chicks when they get up a move around or try to get under Mums wing to shelter from the night air. There feathers are well enough developed at this time to allow them to cope with the coldest of June nights. Our Lady is still moving now and again and it looks as though she will survive the night. 7Y will not be far away, probably roosting in a nearby Scots pine and should be back at the nest site well before the sun gets over the horizon.

I was so pleased to read that Pigeon saw the otter on the south shore. I have not seen the otter in such along time. They are a fantastic mammal to watch. My daughter was watching one on the river Tay yesterday morning by the bridge in Dunkeld. I saw one there a few years ago, it bounded up the river bank then up on to a picnic table, where it enjoyed the leftovers of someones chippy tea. Not really a very healthy diet for an otter. It was a fantastic sight until my Border Collie Nala had decided she had restrained herself long enough and took off after the otter. The otter quickly shot off the table and back into the safety of the river. I realised that what Nala wanted was the chips and not the otter.

Peter

Good morning folks,
Not a happy picture this morning. You have probably all noticed Lady lying flat in the nest and not really able to get up. We don’t know what’s wrong but it is a possibility that she is severely dehydrated and just needs some fish to get her going again. I’m hoping this is the case and dad will step up to the mark and feed her some.
We will all just need to keep everything crossed that she will be fine and dad proves his worth by helping feed the chicks in the meantime.
We will do our best to keep you updated throughout the day. Stay positive everyone!
Fiona

Update:
It’s not looking good folks. We’ve had a few experts take a look so there is a possibility our Lady won’t make it. We are keeping the webcam on, as traumatic it is to watch, it is nature and maybe it is fitting that her last days are here at the loch she made her home. If the worst happens, we have permission to remove the body for autopsy. Unfortunately we can’t intervene with the chicks. We have taken the stance to let nature take its course. I am hopeful that the Laird will continue to bring fish and feed the chicks when they beg. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, I think they will be sorely needed today! Our thoughts go out to you all too, who have been watching since the beginning and supporting us and the ospreys all the way.
Fiona

Update 2:
Dad has arrived with a perch and is feeding the chicks! Hooray! This is what we wanted and the chicks now stand a better chance of survival. Unfortunately mum doesn’t have the strength to move, but she has taught the Laird well and hopefully he can rise to the challenge of successfully raising the young ones on his own.
Fiona

Update 3

I have reviewed the recorded footage from last night and into this morning and I can see that our Lady has no marks that would suggest injury of any kind, this may just be old age. It is very sad to watch this magnificent bird in this way as I have been watching her now for 17 years. But it is nature and I am glad in away that she is spending her last moments on her nest which has been her home for such a long time.

7Y’s instincts are good and he will try to look after the chicks as much as possible but he can’t be there all of the time. At this age the chick do not have many predators so should be able to cope when their Father is away hunting. They will be able to feed themselves in just over a week, I am confident that 7Y will cope with feeding until then as long as the weather stays in his favour.

Peter