A total of 35,600 people passed through the doors of the osprey centre, by Boat of Garten, before it closed for the season a month ago.

Mr Richard Thaxton, the RSPB’s site manager at Loch Garten, said he was delighted with the latest visitor figures, announced this week. It had been a highly successful season in terms of both feathered visitors and those of the two-legged variety, he said.

Three chicks were successfully reared at the reserve by resident lovebirds Henry and EJ after a blank season last year, and yet again there were more twists and turns than the plot of your average soap opera.

Mr Thaxton said: “Despite a somewhat fraught start – a ménage a trois involving the resident pair, Henry and EJ, and orange VS, a former lover of EJ’s – Henry eventually claimed his throne and his lady and settled down to care for three eggs, and went on to successfully rear three young ospreys.

“We will never know for sure if Henry or VS was the father, but crucially Henry did not know the events which preceded his arrival, and proved again to be a diligent provider.”

EJ departed for West Africa on August 14. Two of the three chicks left the very next day in hot pursuit, and the third and youngest chick hung on until August 21 before flying the nest. Once Henry was convinced that the family had all indeed left, he departed on September 1.

Mr Thaxton continued: “Once they fledge, the ospreys are out of our hands and very much on their own. We have spent six months watching over them, ensuring that they breed successfully, but from now on there is not much more we can do.

“Hopefully, experienced birds like Henry and EJ will be back next April to continue their Loch Garten dynasty, but as for the youngsters, who knows?

“Some do not even manage to reach West Africa on their first migration. Of all young ospreys leaving Scotland in any given year, maybe only 40 per cent will make it back as adult birds in the future.

“Their first migration poses a number of hazards for them. If they have not fully developed their fishing skills, they may starve. Inexperienced birds have also been known to collide with power-lines, and sadly, some are shot on migration.

“All being well, if our three youngsters make it to West Africa, they will remain there for up to three years until fully adult before making their first return journey north.

“It could be 2010 before they are seen again, whether it is locally, elsewhere in Scotland or the UK or even over-shooting to Scandinavia. With their unique coloured plastic leg rings – yellow 8U, 8V and 8W – we will be able to watch for them returning in the years to come.”

Spurned old flame VS, ousted by Henry, also had a successful season, going on to find a new mate at another Strathspey nest, with which he, too, reared young.

The antics of the Loch Garten ospreys were featured on the BBC 2 'Springwatch’ programme earlier this year. In addition, many people who were unable to visit the reserve were able to follow the saga via the internet through an osprey diary written by staff at Loch Garten.

Mr Thaxton said: “There were over 100,000 on-line visitors to the diary, and over 200,000 visitors to the Loch Garten osprey web-cams. Even some of our troops in Afghanistan have been following the antics of EJ and Henry.”

RSPB chiefs highlighted earlier this year the multi-million-pound contribution to the economy made by the ospreys at Loch Garten and the four other osprey viewing sites in Scotland.

The osprey was the most popular bird species north of the border in terms of tourism, atrracting 125,000 visitors in 2005, who spent an additional £2.2 million in the country. More than two million people have now visited RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten Osprey Centre since it

opened.

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