Stimulated Naturalists Bound for Lacustrine Havens,

Loch of the Lowes, near Dunkeld, is visited annually by ospreys. I like to visit the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve there each year, they have an excellent set-up.

This year, the SWT have begun charging an admission fee to enter the hides, £3 for adults. I didn’t grudge this, apart from the visit to their nature reserves, they have an excellent website with a webcam and diaries from each of their reserves - I don't think the RSPB are so praiseworthy.

There are three hides, including the new Crannog Hide which allows more of the loch to be seen, and each of the hides is fitted with decent binoculars and telescopes for people, like me, who haven’t brought their binoculars or don’t have any. Two of the hides are fitted with television monitors showing a live feed from the osprey’s eyrie.

This year has been quite sad for the ospreys at Loch of the Lowes, three chicks were born but two mysteriously disappeared. The surviving chick is fully-grown but has yet to leave the nest.

I think I arrived a little too late, the mother could be seen feeding the chick pieces of fish; it would have been wonderful to have seen a fish being caught or brought back to the nest. I watched for quite a while, the young bird, occasionally started flapping its wings but it never truly threatened to leave the nest. I, at least, wanted see an osprey fly but they weren’t going to. I started observing the rest of the loch – ducks (wigeon, tufted duck and mallard), geese (greylag, Canada), great-crested grebes, mute swans and the swallows and martins that skimmed the surface – and that’s when I missed the female take off to leave the youngster in the nest alone. Time wore on, it looked as though I wouldn’t see one fly but just as I had my handle on the Crannog Hide door to leave, two ospreys appeared, and they soared above the loch. Before flapping down lower and one appeared to be swooping into the other loch (there is another loch beyond the trees in which the ospreys nest). They’re not at all graceful fliers, they have a sort of “M-shape” wingspan, I think there’s more majesty in the buzzard’s flight and I reckon that’s due to their shallow “V-shaped” wingspan. Nevertheless, Scotland is blessed with these rare and beautiful birds in the summer and Loch of the Lowes is the best place to see them.

After watching the air show, I browsed the visitor centre; they have a fabulous large glass window that looks out onto their bird tables and feeders in the forests. It was a joy to watch the bustling wildlife that had descended upon these. I saw siskins, redpolls, greenfinches, chaffinches, a greater-spotted woodpecker, coal tits, great tits and blue tits – they’re not terribly exotic species but the opportunity to see them in abundance at very close quarters is quite special.