Yesterdays Osprey Watch event was a great success, mostly thanks to the very obliging osprey(s). Our regular male made an appearance just over half an hour into the event, and gave us a wonderful display, as he struggled to find good fishing areas due to the choppy water surface.
He was eventually successful, and struggled off into the wind with a fish in his talons, but it obviously wasn't good enough for the family as he was back down again within a short period of time.
The immature male marsh harrier also appeared for a while which delighted many visitors.
A brood of 5 very small mallard ducklings stuck very close to mum as they made their way around the loch in front of Gullery hide, and the three broods of mute swan cygnets are now growing nicely. One visitor noticed that the cygnet which tend to be closer to the Gullery hide were all managing to keep a lovely straight line, but all of them only using their right leg to propel themselves forward!
There is still a family of tufted duck (3 young) seen from the Gullery hide, and a few part grown broods of mallard have appeared to.
A sighting of 3 young gadwall with a female last week was welcome evidence of successful breeding of this species.