A new female osprey has joined the resident male “Laddie” on the nest at Dunkeld’s Loch of the Lowes wildlife reserve.
Scottish Wildlife Trust staff got their first look at the ringed female on Saturday when she made a fleeting appearance on the nest.
She spent more time on the nest on Sunday and Monday, and Laddie, officially known as LM12, has made several attempts to breed with her.
Video of the male osprey divebombing the nest at the wildlife reserve is above this article
The female osprey has been identified as NC0, a bird who was ringed as a chick in 2016 in the Loch Ness area. Rangers believe that this year is likely to be just her first or second year back in Scotland.
The Trust’s Perthshire Ranger Sara Rasmussen said: “LM12 and NC0 are still fairly unsure of each other. He has shown some defensive signs but there have also been attempts at mating.
“Birds can take time to build a relationship, and so far they aren’t sharing fish in the same way that established pairs do.
“There is still some chance that LF15 will return this week. If she does it will be very exciting to see what plays out, and whether she is able to reclaim her nest from NC0.”
There was further drama on Sunday afternoon when another osprey, thought to be a male, divebombed the nest at speed.
Sara added: “This is a fantastic reminder that there are lots more ospreys around, and they are jostling to find nests where they can breed.
“At some points in previous years we’ve seen upwards of half a dozen birds over the nest at Lowes in a single day.”
Ospreys were extinct in Britain for much of the 20th century. They began to recover in the 1960s, and now an estimated 300 pairs of ospreys breed in the UK each summer.
