First osprey chick hatches

The first osprey egg has officially hatched at the Loch of the Lowes.

The eggs-citing news came early in the morning on Tuesday, May 22.

Volunteers at the nature reserve near Dunkeld started to spot cracks on one of the eggs at around 7.30am, and the female osprey LF15 stood up around half an hour later to reveal the tiny chick to the world.

This is the ninth chick that has been born to the resident pair at the Loch of the Lowes – LM12 and LF15 – since they arrived at the beauty spot in 2015.

Rachael Hunter, Perthshire ranger with the Scottish Wildlife Trust – which runs the nature reserve – said: “It’s exciting to have our first chick of the season.

“All being well the eggs will hatch in the same order as they were laid, and roughly the same amount of time apart.

“We could have three chicks in our nest by the end of next week, so I’d encourage people to keep an eye on our live osprey webcam to avoid missing out!”

She continued: “Spring has had a relatively slow start this year and the ospreys are no exception.

“They are about a week behind where they were in 2017 but we could have a full clutch of three eggs by the weekend, and if LM12 can keep up with the large numbers of fish he will have to bring to the nest, we’re fairly certain that we’ll have another successful season.”

Osprey chicks are covered in down when they first hatch, but the new chick is expected to start growing new feathers