LOCH OF THE LOWES - APRIL 2020

She flew off to eat it and Laddie is re-arranging the soft furnishings. 

_{© SCOTTISH WILDLIFE TRUST - LOCH OF THE LOWES}

Good Morning MARY I assumed there must have been fish as Laddie standing alone on the front of the nest looking in our direction
Can't bear the thought that Lassie is lost Has there bbeen any reports of any major hold-ups? I remember one year quite a few were delayed

Laddie still on the nest, faffing now and then but mostly looking around.    

I wonder what is going through his mind just now, does he remember Lassie,  they must have a memory to find their way back from migration, or is it purely by instinct.  Wish we knew what he was thinking :-) 

She is 9 days late now, having said that there are also four other Ospreys 2 days late and 2 that are 1 day late, so maybe being held up by weather.    

This is the agonising bit about following Ospreys, we want them ALL to come home but reality is there are very few seasons where they all come home. 

Laddie looks like he has been dunked in Persil LOL..... 

_{© SCOTTISH WILDLIFE TRUST - LOCH OF THE LOWES}

_{Edit: Hi Patily}

Female came back about 5 mins ago   Laddie left quite quickly.  :-) 

_{© SCOTTISH WILDLIFE TRUST - LOCH OF THE LOWES}

More mating :-) or rather EMN 

Hanging on in windy weather

(c) SWT LotL

''I wonder what is going through his mind just now, does he remember Lassie, they must have a memory to find their way back from migration, or is it purely by instinct. Wish we knew what he was thinking :-) ''

Well, Mary , I have certainly proved to my own satisfaction by observations of parent birds to intruders that are of their own previous brood or really bad events the previous year and subsequent behaviors of the birds that suffered them (and so on) that Ospreys memories go back at least two years and I am of the opinion that they probably span longer.

Unknown said:

''I wonder what is going through his mind just now, does he remember Lassie, they must have a memory to find their way back from migration, or is it purely by instinct. Wish we knew what he was thinking :-) ''

Edit: the way the Quote works it is showing Cirrus, but to clarify it  was me who said this :-)

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Well, Mary , I have certainly proved to my own satisfaction by observations of parent birds to intruders that are of their own previous brood or really bad events the previous year and subsequent behaviors of the birds that suffered them (and so on) that Ospreys memories go back at least two years and I am of the opinion that they probably span longer.

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I do agree with your observations, this situation is never one we want to see Cirrus, whereby the resident female is late, and this new female has bonded with the Male, if Lassie does come back and takes control of the nest again (which of course we all want to see), then you have to feel sorry for NC0 whose hormones must be in laying mode.   The other side of it though is we really do want to see chicks for Laddie, and if "dread the thought" Lassie doesn't come back at least Lowes has a breeding pair, which is probably more important to them and SWT.  

This is where the dilemma lies, our hearts say one thing but our heads say something else.   Who said it was easy watching Ospreys :-)    

Unknown said:

Hanging on in windy weather

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Not so the nest, Korky!  The front right side sticks/branches lifted off to be in this position (around 11:48) 

Thanks all for the earlier captures

©SWT/LotL

Poor Laddie, all his effort. If that had happened with young chicks on the nest it could have been a disaster. Ian