Hopes osprey love affair will resume at famous nest in Cairngorms
Could Loch Garten’s famous eyrie at last be set for its next great love story?
Hopes are high that after three ‘lost’ seasons there is real activity taking place up there which might see the ever-popular Strathspey conservation base producing osprey chicks once more.
“Well, it’s still early days,” Jess Tomes, Visitor Operations Manager, told the Strathy, “but we do have two ospreys here and they’ve been doing all the right things for a couple of days now.
“We’ll let you know when – if – an egg appears.”
At lunchtime on Sunday, there was intense speculation on social media sites as Jess and her RSPB team posted: “A busy morning at the nest site!
“An unringed female, who has been visiting the nest for a few days now, arrived back at the nest just after 5am.
“Blue AX6 brought her a fish, which she accepted and ate on the nest, since then there have been several attempts at mating.
“Let’s hope this bodes well for a new chapter at Loch Garten.”
The ringer of Blue AX6 has confirmed ringing took place at a nest site in Glen Affric on July 1 2016.
He was one of three eggs laid, one failed to hatch, a second chick was found dead in the nest at the time of ringing.
It is the first recorded sighting of AX6 since then.
The nest has been without a resident female since spring 2019 when veteran EJ failed to return for a 16th season.
She had fledged 25 chicks at Loch Garten over that time.
The Abernethy reserve has seen birds return from the wintering grounds of West Africa, southern Spain and Portugal for years.
The osprey nest site at Loch Garten has been in use since the late 1950s, when ospreys first returned to breed in Scotland after being persecuted to extinction in the UK in the earlier part of the 20th century.
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The nest site has been continually monitored and protected by volunteers throughout the osprey breeding season ever since 1958.
Ospreys now breed across the UK and population estimates are at around 400 breeding pairs – a real conservation success story, which started at the famous Strathspey loch.
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