Perthshire nature reserve welcomes first osprey chick of 2018

This year's first osprey chick has hatched at a nest in Perthshire.
Laddie and Lassie were reunited in Perthshire in March after spending winter in Africa - the pair have already raised eight chicks together at Loch of the Lowes since 2015Laddie and Lassie were reunited in Perthshire in March after spending winter in Africa - the pair have already raised eight chicks together at Loch of the Lowes since 2015
Laddie and Lassie were reunited in Perthshire in March after spending winter in Africa - the pair have already raised eight chicks together at Loch of the Lowes since 2015

Lassie has laid three eggs since reuniting with Laddie in late March.

The pair, also known as LM12 and LF15, have been nesting together at the Scottish Wildlife Trust site since 2015, when Lassie replaced the much-loved veteran female Lady as Laddie’s mate.

But the youngster has a lot to live up to.

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Lady, who was the UK’s oldest known osprey, successfully reared a record-breaking 50 chicks during 24 seasons at the loch.

Perthshire ranger Rachael Hunter said: “It’s exciting to have our first chick of the season. We could have three chicks in our nest by the end of the week, so I’d encourage people to keep their eye on our live osprey webcam to avoid missing out.

“Spring has had a relatively slow start this year and the ospreys are no exception.

“They are about a week behind where they were in 2017 but and we could have a full clutch of three eggs by the weekend – and if LM12 can keep up with the large numbers of fish he will have to bring to the nest we’re fairly certain that we’ll have another successful season.”

Ospreys were extinct in the UK for much of the 20th century.

They began to recover in the 1960s and around 260 pairs of ospreys now breed here each summer.