Balgavies Loch Ospreys

I had my first visit to Balgavies Loch today as a direct result of reading this thread and seeing the comments and beautiful pictures.

When we arrived the male osprey was sitting in the dead tree next to the nest tree on the island.

The female had not been seen all morning and the other juvenile had been on the nest for feeding time but was now nowhere to be seen. Thankfully we were able to see this juvenile sitting on a low perch

and he was not alone! 8 feet away from him on the right of this picture sat this young grey heron. They frequently stared at one another! The original photo does show both of them but I have had to crop it as it is too big to upload

After a while, dad took off in the direction of the next door fishery and returned 5 minutes later with a fish.

However, it wasn't too long before he started alarm calling - intruder approaching.

He tolerated the intrusion for a while but eventually gave chase with his fish in his talons

No sooner had he flown when onto the scene flew another two grey herons one of which landed beside it's sibling. Again this has had to be heavily cropped before it would upload.

Beautiful peaceful setting with lots of other wildlife to observe, greylag geese, moorhens, coots, ducks etc. We heard the water rail but could not see it. We then went a few miles along the road to Murten Nature reserve and after having lunch we again heard an osprey and there was one flying over us!! Excellent day out.

Glad you enjoyed your visit Granny Smith :D

Thank you so much Granny Smith, these photos are wonderful!  Looks like you had a good day, you must be chuffed :)

KatTai Thanks for introducing me to this site. I will definitely return.

Starling, that is an understatement. I even managed to get a short video of the male flying after the intruder :-))

Granny Smith, thank you for your photos and updates. It's definitely a small and nice reserve where you don't risk to get bored while waiting for osprey action, there's plenty of wildlife to see.

I understand you only saw one juvenile but had information that the other was around earlier. I knew from a lovely couple I met at the hide in my first day there that Loch Rescobie, immediately W of the reserve, is more attractive for fishing - and also my OS map seems to confirm with an appropriate symbol. I'm wondering whether he/she has now reached a new level in the training process and is trying to grab something appetizing. I always saw Green BF coming from W when carrying fish, this might also be lessons learnt from observing parents.

Roberto, Green BF went off to the west when he went fishing and returned from the same direction so probably caught his fish in Loch Rescobie. The person in the hide did not mention anything about the juvenile fishing yet. We were ther for about an hour and a half and the juvenile sat on the perch the whole time.

Thanks for clarifying, Granny Smith. Mine was only speculation as you only saw one juvenile and the other one was likely somewhere else. The one seen performing small dives was really active and well visible in both days of my stay.

Great pictures GS. So glad you had a good day.

Saw both chicks today, they were together briefly on the nest before what I'm assuming is the older of the two decided they'd had enough of pestering for fish and headed off maybe to go fishing on their own!  Some practicing of aerial skills too with mock diving etc including with the adult (I'm guessing dad as it was on the male's perch).

Thanks for the lovely pictures KatTai