A female osprey, the oldest breeding individual in the UK, has returned to a Scottish nature reserve for the 22nd year.
Ospreys live on average 10 to 15 years in the wild, but this bird – known affectionately as Lady– has been positively identified by Scottish Wildlife Trust staff at its Loch of the Lowes reserve in Dunkeld.
The trust's Perthshire ranger, Emma Rawling, said: "I'm delighted to announce that our regular breeding female osprey returned to the nest at Loch of the Lowes. She has been positively identified thanks to her distinctive iris and plumage. It is an amazing achievement for her to return to the area for her 22nd breeding year – making her at least in her mid-20s.
"We are certain she is the oldest breeding osprey in the UK."
Visitor facilities were upgraded over the winter at the Loch of the Lowes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article