The UK's oldest known osprey has broken another record by laying her 69th egg at a nature reserve.
The bird, known as Lady, laid the egg at Loch of the Lowes reserve near Dunkeld, Perthshire, yesterday morning.
The laying of eggs is generally separated by a couple of days so more could be on the way, the Scottish Wildlife Trust said.
On average, osprey incubation lasts between 37 and 39 days, so the earliest hatching would be on May 20.
The Trust believes Lady is 28 years old and she returned to Scotland as usual this spring after spending the winter in Africa.
Last year, she watched her 50th chick fledge from her nest at the reserve.
Park ranger Emma Rawling said staff are "overjoyed" and delighted she is still breeding.
"It has come just as the Trust is celebrating its 50th anniversary, so it is almost like she knew that it was a special occasion and wanted to make it extra special," she said.
"Now there is a tense wait to see if there are any more eggs to be laid this season. This osprey never ceases to amaze, so it is certainly a possibility."
The Trust said the day the egg was laid had been eventful.
Hundreds of people visited the reserve to see the bird but Lady fled her nest when two people got too close.
An entry on the Loch of the Lowes blog, which regularly provides updates on the osprey, said: "She was away for quite a while, and even on her return, she was unsettled and didn't resume incubation for another 10 minutes.
"We are so very lucky that in this period an opportunistic predator didn't happen by, and that the weather was gloriously warm so the egg is unlikely to have suffered any damage.
"What caused the disturbance was the irresponsible actions of two people who walked into the small area of the reserve that is off limits this time of year to protect the breeding birds."
Egg collecting, hunting and a loss of habitat reduced osprey numbers across the UK in the early 20th century. The birds began to repopulate Scotland in 1954 when a pair of Scandinavian birds settled in the country.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust said the success of the Loch of the Lowes reserve was down to the hard work and dedication of staff and volunteers since 1969.
The Trust was established 50 years ago this week and manages over 120 reserves in Scotland.
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