The perfect take-off as osprey chick Blue takes to the air for maiden flight
The first of two osprey chicks born this year at a nature reserve near Dunkeld has taken to the skies for the first time.
The youngster, a female named Blue with the ring number LR1, is the elder of a pair which hatched in a nest at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes reserve, near Dunkeld, in Perthshire.
The fledgling and her brother, tagged LR2, are the offspring of the reserve’s current ‘celebrity’ ospreys – wellknown male Laddie, or LM12, and the female NC0, a relative newcomer. They raised their first brood together in 2020, although Laddie had previously fathered 15 chicks over the past decade.
If the latest two chicks fly the nest as expected, the parent birds will have successfully reared three chicks together.
These bring the total number of osprey chicks to fledge at Loch of the Lowes to 85 since the species returned to the site in 1969.
Blue took her maiden flight around the reserve on Friday and returned safely to the nest a short time afterwards afterwards.
The milestone moment was captured on video via the reserve’s nestcam.
Sara Rasmussen, Perthshire ranger for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: “It’s incredible to think that just a few weeks ago these young ospreys were tiny, helpless chicks. In about a month they will be capable of flying south by themselves all the way to West Africa.
"Seeing the young ospreys take flight is a huge moment and demonstrates the importance of our long-running Osprey Protection Programme, which ensures the birds are kept safe from human disturbance.