An Aberdeenshire business is celebrating after its resident ospreys successfully fledged four healthy chicks.
Lochter Fishery & Activity Centre, near Oldmeldrum, has hosted a pair of birds in the summer over the past 12 years – with the birds helped in no small part by a limitless supply of trout from the fishery.
Previous attempts to rear chicks on site have been very mixed, with the local buzzard population frequently stealing and eating part grown chicks from the nest before they can fledge. In 2012, this predation was caught on camera.
However, this season has seen two ospreys hatch, feed and successfully fledge four healthy and now fully grown chicks for the first time in many years.
The ospreys were also not alone having a great breeding season at Lochter, with other notable successes being a pair of swans with nine cygnets, seven grey partridge, little grebe with multiple hatches, sandpipers and kingfishers. In all, at least 74 different species of birds can regularly be seen at Lochter, not including winter visitors.
Owner of Lochter Fishery & Activity Centre, Euan Webster, said he was delighted to see the success of the osprey chicks after several difficult breeding years.
Euan said: “After several difficult breeding years, we are thrilled to see our resident osprey birds successfully rear four beautiful chicks which have now fully fledged. We always look out for their arrival around early April. We have had ospreys at our site during the summer months for more than a decade, with the unrivalled supply of trout at our fishery clearly a star attraction for birds that are perfectly adapted to hunting fish.”
More on:
Posted On: 23/09/2022