Loch Garten osprey diary

Just a little announcement to let everyone know that the long-awaited waterworks project is slowly reaching its conclusion before the start of our season. This may have some knock-on effects if you are visiting our site at this time.

For those not in the know, we are refurbishing the kiosk building at the entrance to the nature centre to modernise it, add an all-accessibilities bathroom as well as a new welcoming hub…

 Hello bloggers,

 I hope all is well with you and you are coping well with the downturn in osprey activity. We are all getting ready for the winter now with the weather changing just out of the summer. I have a little bit of a different blog for you this time as I have been away on an Erasmus+ Mobility exchange program in Finland to look at and compare their forestry. The project was funded through the  Erasmus+ programme…

Hello bloggers,

We have had the initial results back from the tests run on the juvenile osprey 1C1. This osprey season has been one of great excitement and sadness. I believe the spectrum of emotions the birds inspire is why so many of us engage so passionately. Our ability to empathise and share in their successes and failures is what keeps me coming back each year.

I was away on leave when I received the news about…

Hey bloggersphere, 

I hope you are all doing well. It has been a tough week to try and figure out what has been happening in our nest through the haze of excrement. It looks like our chicks are still feeding well. They have been combatting strong winds, heavy downpours and heatwaves over the past few days.  It wouldn't be a Scottish summer without them being bashed by all the elements we have on offer! 

We also had…

Hey osprey fans, 

I hope all is well with you and you have been enjoying the season so far. I have been away the last week and so have missed the controversy around naming the ospreys. I am excited to see that there are so many passionate people that care about this subject but I was saddened to hear that some would choose to cancel their memberships over this. This subject brings lots of debate on all sides where some…

It looks like my pessimism is paying off! 

We have seen two chicks hatch out over the past couple of days and are looking to see if there will be another in the next few days too. 

Early on Saturday morning, the first visible signs of a chick appeared on our nest. Like all exciting events at the centre, I was not present for this. Rest assured if anything exciting happens it is on my day off! 

It was a pleasure to be here…

Hello osprey fans, 

Apologies for the recent hiatus in osprey updates, I have been away in Tiree trying to track down a corncrake and a member of our team was isolating due to that thing we all got. This meant our team were very stretched over the jubilee week and spent most of their time talking to excited visitors in the centre. You will be happy to know that the abandonment of my duties didn't lead to me seeing a corncrake…

Hi, I'm Naomi, volunteering at Loch Garten for the first time. I spent last winter volunteering at another RSPB reserve carrying out practical tasks and I've been enjoying speaking to visitors here, sharing all the excitement of the ospreys, white-tailed eagles and goshawks. It's nice to meet so many visitors that have been here time and time again over the years. Loch Garten is a special place with lots of people holding…

Hello bloggers, 

It looks like things are all going swimmingly in the past week. So long as the eggs are not too fussed in being part of a grape crushing re-enactment performed by Axel! I must apologise and say that I have been late to the game with the osprey intruders. I know it is difficult to believe that I am not constantly peering out the windows in awe of these birds. Believe me, that is what I want to be doing…

It looks like my pessimism has been rewarded with some eggs and lots of fish!  

Almost as soon as I had uploaded my last blog admonishing these osprey's chances at producing eggs, one appears. I am still a little concerned at their bohemian attitude to incubation but who am I to judge. Over the past week, the initial egg has experienced a direct talon from AX6, trout tug of war and almost being lost amongst new branches…

Hello, osprey fans, 

We have been having a busy old time at the centre and I have finally found the time to sit down and try and give my best synopsis of what has been going on at the nest over the past couple of weeks. 

We saw the arrival of the male AX6 who after a little bit of sky dancing started building up the nest to make it more chicks friendly. He arrived on the 12th of April and spent the first  days alone on the…

Hello! I’m Gareth, and it’s my first year up here in the woods and hills of Abernethy! So far I have loved every minute of my time up here, with plenty to do and see as our evenings get longer.

One thing I have enjoyed while walking around the forest is stopping, silencing my squeaky boots, and listening to the trees come alive around me like the sea. First, I hear the chatter and songs from the chaffinches…

Very much like salt that enhances most things, Ewan has returned to us once again to share in the highs and the lows of the season. This will be his first time watching chicks being reared on camera at Garten. For choosing to keep returning through the quiet seasons, I think he deserves it! I will pass over to him for some much more eloquent words.

The chirping song of the chaffinch falls from sun-soaked branches. A…

It has been a hectic start to the season. We have seen the arrival of white-tailed eagle chicks, a male osprey prospecting our nest and goshawks looking to make important decisions about which nest they will choose. We are keeping our fingers crossed to be able to display the trifecta of breeding raptors across our screens within the centre! 

It has been exciting and wonderful to see all the new changes at the centre but…

The name ‘Loch Garten’ has long been synonymous with ospreys, since that first pioneering pair flew over the bog woodland and, as luck would have it, decided to build a nest here in the 1950s. This fortuitous moment began the recovery of the osprey as a breeding bird in Britain and as a species, they have gone from strength to strength across the country. Since 1959 this site has been pretty much as reliable as rain on…

Hello bloggersphere,

 As I am sure you are aware, we are in the midst of getting ready for a busy and exciting new season at the Nature Centre. Each year we see the sun return, a fresh-faced team and a renewed sense of optimism in what the season holds for us. This year has brought an even greater sense of optimism that could be the planet giving us a sign of good things to come.

To fully set the scene, I might have to…

Today is the day that we are saying goodbye to our two rangers Thomas and Heather who have been out diligently patrolling the forest, talking to visitors on the reserve and making sure that the natural heritage of Abernethy is protected. It has been wonderful having them on our team and particularly for myself as Heather is always sending me wonderful photos she has taken on her patrols of the reserve. Heather had been…

Apologies for the title, but I couldn’t resist. Anyone visiting the car park over the last few days will have noticed that we have some large machinery in a cordoned-off area. This is to allow the drilling of a borehole that will be used to provide water, enabling handwash basins and flushing toilets at both the Nature Centre and entrance kiosk. The work associated with getting running water to the centre will be taking…

We have reached the end of another season at the Nature Centre. This has been one of the strangest seasons that I have ever presided over. We finally opened our new visitor centre(hurray) in the midst of a pandemic (not so hurray). The European Regional Development Fund pot of money (administered by NatureScot) that was awarded in 2019 is now coming to fruition and it was exciting to see people inside the newly refurbished…

3rd-11th July 2021 is Swift Awareness Week. You can help our swifts by submitting sightings at www.swiftmapper.org.uk. May your summer skies be always full of swifts.

On a long evening in late July, high above the treetops the hot and heavy air will all of a sudden fill with unearthly screams, tumbling against each other and swelling to crescendo, fading to a last ghostly echo trailing behind as dark shapes streak by imp…

We bring you another informative blog, as Iona introduces one of the reserve's seasonal spectaculars: bog cotton!

As we finally transition from a very wet May into the start of the Scottish summer, the reserve is starting to come to life. Little fledglings are starting to explore their local patch, invertebrates are making the most of the warm summer air and the undergrowth is bursting into full colour. Across the…

Hi. I’m Sonya, the newest recruit to the team here at Loch Garten.  

I have been here for just over a week so far and am absolutely blown away by the beauty of the Abernethy forest, the lochs, the rivers, the mountains the moors, the wildlife.... what a special place! I am really enjoying learning about the incredible work that is being done here by the RSPB to restore this landscape to what it once was and feel very…

Hello everyone! My name is Megan, and I have joined the Visitor Team to assist in the running of the newly refurbished nature centre here at Abernethy. I have been visiting the Cairngorms for as long as I can remember. It felt like a second home here, and now with my parents having moved up to the area, it feels even more so. The Cairngorms has been very influential in shaping my views of the landscape, especially as…

Rishane gives us the inside line on one of Loch Garten's other amazing birds, the goldeneye.

It’s been an exciting few weeks here at Loch Garten. The brand new centre opening, the lifting of travel restrictions, and two ospreys back on the nest. But nature, as great as it can show itself to be, remains unpredictable. Whether we like it or not. Our two ospreys have deserted our beloved nest. And after digging out…

Hey bloggers,

 Going to try and give an update as best as I understand it. Feel free to leave comments and correct me if needs be. My normal days off are Monday and Tuesday so I was not aware of what was going on with the nest as when I left on Sunday both birds were still in and around the nest. It looks like we have had a couple of days with fleeting visits to the nest and birds still being seen in the area but not necessarily…