The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Reserve osprey chicks ringed as growing duo get ready to fly the nest
Two osprey chicks have been ringed so conservationists can track their movements. The chicks, ringed LP8 and LR0, at Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve near Dunkeld, Perthshire, will be monitored after they leave the nest.
A bird ringer took just a few minutes to place large blue Darvic rings around the chicks’ left lower legs on Monday evening.
The oldest of the chicks has been ringed LP8 and the youngest has been ringed LR0.
These rings will help observers identify the birds from a distance and see that they have originated from nests in Scotland, but it has not been possible to confidently determine the sex of either chick.
The resident ospreys at Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve, LM12 and NC0, successfully hatched three chicks this season – but the youngest died earlier in June during a brief period of food scarcity and fierce competition between the chicks.
Ospreys were extinct in Britain for much of the 20th Century. They began to recover in the 1960s and an estimated 300 pairs of ospreys now breed in the UK each summer.
Perthshire ranger Sara Rasmussen said: “Ringing the chicks will help us know more about their lives after they leave the reserve at the end of summer.
“They are close to their full adult size, and it shouldn’t be long until they take flight and leave the nest for the first time.
“The work we do here at Lowes to help ensure the nest is safe from disturbance is just the start of the story.
“Our hope is that these young birds will return in the future and eventually form breeding pairs, helping to contribute to the recovery of ospreys around the UK.”
Ospreys migrate south at the end of summer.
Most birds spend the cooler months in West Africa, although an increasing number are wintering in Spain and Portugal.
Ospreys begin migrating north at around two to three years old.
Earlier this year PT4, a female osprey which was born at Loch of the Lowes in 2019, paired up with a male at the Kielder Osprey project in Northumberland.
This pairing came too late for the osprey to lay eggs but hopes are high for future seasons.
Any sightings of ringed ospreys can be reported to the Roy Dennis Foundation.
Laura Chow, head of charities at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “We’ve been thrilled to follow another successful season for the ospreys at Loch of the Lowes. It’s fantastic we’ll have the chance to follow the young ospreys’ lives and we’d love to see them return to Britain in the future.”