Osprey fans are set for a cracking Easter after an early surprise for Perthshire birdwatchers.
The resident female at Loch of the Lowes near Dunkeld laid her first egg in the nest at the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve on Tuesday.
And excited rangers say they hope it will be the first in a clutch to appear over the Easter weekend.
Love is in the air! Our osprey pair are doing well and our @LochoftheLowes team even managed to capture a successful mating attempt!#Osprey #Mating #OspreyNews pic.twitter.com/y6RshLex5u
— Scottish Wildlife Trust (@ScotWildlife) April 3, 2023
Meanwhile, Angus enthusiasts are keeping their fingers crossed for similar breeding success at another SWT attraction.
The resident pair have returned to Balgavies Loch, east of Forfar.
And they are settling into a makeshift nest built last summer after a searing heatwave cracked the high tree their original home was in.
It sent the nest – and a chick – crashing down, but the young bird survived.
Loch of the Lowes delight
Female osprey Blue NC0 arrived back at Loch of the Lowes on March 17 – around 10 days earlier than usual.
And reserve staff were even more surprised when male LM12 appeared later the same day – another unusual occurrence since they generally arrive a little later.
Visitors have been flocking to the loch as well as watching the live webcam of the nest.
This week Loch of the Lowes posted footage of the resident raptors mating there.
They then revealed NCO had laid her first mottled egg at 9:32am on Tuesday.
“She will be laying more eggs in the coming days, and could be sitting on a full clutch of three eggs by Easter Monday,” the reserve Tweeted.
Absolutely delighted to share the our breeding female NC0 has laid her first egg of the season! Talons crossed for more over the Easter weekend
😍🥚 https://t.co/VTTk7HmdoE— Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve (@LochoftheLowes) April 4, 2023
Balgavies hopes
At Balgavies Loch, reserve warden Jim Hughes hopes the resident pair will be in for a less eventful summer than 2022.
Balgavies was the setting for the birth of the first recorded Angus osprey chick back in 2012.
Since then, more than a dozen birds have hatched there.
Last July, soaring temperatures cracked the trunk of the tree on the reserve’s island nest.
Balgavies regulars found the single fledgling floundering at the side of the loch.
But it was right as rain after warden Jim fed it sea bass fillets before the bird was returned to the safety of a makeshift nest.
It became only the second Angus osprey to be ringed.
And in the spring the bird, Blue 640 – known as The Bairn – was sighted almost 3,000 miles away on the coast of Senegal in West Africa.
The original Angus chick – Blue YD – also now returns to a secret nesting site in the district each year.
