The first osprey chick of the season has hatched at Loch of the Lowes.
The chick started to peck its way out at around 3am on Wednesday and emerged at 3:18 pm, after a long wait for the watching volunteers and webcam viewers.
It is the 79th egg to hatch at Loch of the Lowes since the Osprey Protection Programme started in 1969.
Charlottte Fleming, Perthshire ranger for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which runs Loch of the Lowes, said: “The chick gave us an anxious 12 hours wait as the crack in the shell got slowly bigger and bigger so we were delighted when it finally hatched out this afternoon.
“Our volunteers have been watching the nest very closely after the first glimpse of a tiny hole in one of the eggs at half past three this morning. It just goes to show that the hatching of osprey chicks can take a very long time.”
Osprey chicks normally hatch one or two days apart. They are covered in down, but start to grow new feathers within days. They grow very quickly and are ready to fly after seven to eight weeks. This rapid growth is fuelled by a high protein diet of pike, trout and other fish brought to the nest by their attentive parents.
Once extinct in the UK, there are now around 240 breeding pairs of ospreys thanks to the efforts of nature conservation charities including the Scottish Wildlife Trust, whose Osprey Protection Programme is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Clara Govier, head of charities at the People’s Postcode Lottery said: “The osprey protection programme at Loch of the Lowes is vitally important for the conservation of these iconic birds.
“It’s incredible to think that in just a couple of a months’ time this tiny chick will be ready to fly thousands of miles to West Africa. Fingers crossed it will be joined in its nest by two siblings in the coming days”
