Bird watchers will be looking to the skies this week hoping to see the UK’s oldest breeding osprey return to her Scottish home for a record 24th year.
The 29-year-old raptor, known affectionately as Lady, traditionally flies to her nest at the Loch of the Lowes reserve near Dunkeld in Perthshire in late March or early April.
She broke records last year by laying four eggs, one of which hatched as audiences watched on the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s webcam. Sadly the female chick – her 50th – died of starvation in Africa last year.
Lady’s great age means fears she will not return grow stronger every year. But staff at the reserve are hopeful they will soon see her again and have “everything crossed” that she will be back within days.
Ranger Emma Rawling said yesterday: “We have six staff members and 70 volunteers, as well as visitors and admirers online, who all have their eyes peeled for any sign of Lady. As the years go on, we do know that one year she may not come back, but she is tough old bird so we are hopeful.
“We’ll know it’s Lady because she’ll head straight for the nest and start doing the house cleaning by throwing out grass and other debris.”
Lady’s mate, known as Laddie, is much younger and is her fourth breeding partner in 22 years.
He is likely to follow soon behind her, depending on the weather on his 3,000-mile migration from Africa. All being well the pair will mate within a few days of arriving, with Lady laying her eggs a week to 10 days later.
Ospreys became extinct in England in 1847 following widespread persecution and were wiped out in Scotland by 1916.
However, the species has gradually returned thanks to a reintroduction scheme south of the border in the late 1990s and natural re-colonisation of Scotland from 1954.