Scotland's most famous bird of prey found dead as police appeal for help over osprey Laddie

Police have appealed for information after Scotland's most famous bird of prey, the osprey known as Laddie, was found dead five days after going missing from its nest near Dunkeld, in Perthshire.

Laddie, one of the breeding pair of ospreys at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's (SWT) Loch of the Lowes reserve, had gained fans around the world after first appearing on the nest in 2012 and pairing up with the legendary osprey known as Lady.

The raptor, also known as LM12, returned on March 27 for the 13th consecutive year and reunited with his current mate, known as NC0, to the delight of staff at the reserve and thousands of enthusiasts monitoring the nest via the reserve's live webcam.

The pair produced three eggs last month, but SWT rangers began to fear Laddie had come to harm after he failed to return from a fishing expedition on Sunday, April 28.

Famous osprey Laddie had delighted viewers while captured on webcam at his nest near Dunkeld. Picture: Scottish Wildlife Trust

Police Scotland said the remains of an osprey were found near Dunkeld on Friday, adding: "The protected species is believed to have been nesting at Loch of the Lowes, close to where it was found."

Inspector James Longden said: "It is illegal to kill any protected species and we are working closely alongside partner agencies to confirm what has happened here and whether there is any criminality involved. Information from the local community could prove vital and it is important we speak to anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area, or who may know something which could assist our investigation."

Laddie – or LM12, short for Lowes Male 2012 – arrived in Dunkeld in March 2012 as the fourth partner of wildlife phenomenon Lady, the oldest breeding female osprey ever recorded in the UK, and six times his age.

He then fledged 12 chicks over five years with Lady's successor, which quickly became known as Lassie.

When Lassie failed to return from her migration in March 2020, she was replaced by NC0, a female ringed at a nest near Loch Ness in 2016. Laddie and NC0 produced a full clutch of three eggs last month and Laddie was providing a daily supply of fish to the nest when he went missing on April 28.

SWT staff posted about the "rapidly developing situation" in a blog, saying: "He took off after a period of incubation, on what looked to be a fishing trip. Sadly, there have been no sightings of him since. For a breeding osprey to have been absent from the nest for this long is highly unusual, so it is likely that something has happened to LM12 preventing him from returning."Laddie's death is likely to have grave consequences for this year's clutch of eggs. Facing starvation after nearly six days without feeding, the female NC0 has already been forced to leave the nest unattended to hunt for fish, putting the eggs at risk.Ospreys were extinct in Britain for much of the 20th century. They began to recover in the 1960s and now an estimated 300 pairs breed in the UK each summer.