Osprey Update 24/05:

This last week has given us some glorious weather along with some interesting happenings down at the osprey platform.

The female osprey which arrived on the 11th May has been seen to be ringed with a blue ring. This means that she is not the same female as previous years and is in fact a bird who was originally hatched from one of the nests in Dumfries & Galloway. The identification on the ring has not been seen as yet, but hopefully soon we will get a good look at the ring and be able to work out which nest she has come from.

The male has been seen bringing fish to the female and mating along with other pair bonding behaviour. However, there does not appear to be any eggs yet as there has been no behaviour to indicate that eggs are being incubated.

To make things a little more interesting a third bird has been seen around the nest. It is thought that it is likely to be another female bird as the male would have shown much more aggressive behaviour if it had been another male. We are unsure yet if the third bird is ringed but hopefully we may get a closer look if she stays around.

There is still a lot that could happen and with a number of young birds prospecting the area and details to be gathered about the birds that we have seen, it is promising to be an interesting summer. As is always the way with wildlife, the script has been well and truly thrown out the window, so what happens next is anyone's guess.