PIPERDAM Golf and Country Club is on the lookout for eggs this Easter following the return of a five-year-old osprey with a new partner.

Guarded by security cameras, the osprey, named Lyl, is being closely watched as she builds her nest.

Ian Kinney, resident ghillie at the club, said the female osprey returned from her wintering ground in west Africa last week with a new partner.

Mr Kinney said, “The male has been hanging around the area for a couple of years.

“We don’t know what happened to her previous partner but there are a lot of fatalities travelling back and forward.”

However, Mr Kinney said the previous male partner could still return and chase the new partner off the nesting site.

The osprey pair have been busy building a nest at the top of a power pylon, beside the 18-hole golf course.

“They are doing a lot of work on the nest at the moment, with twigs and branches. Some look that big that it is unbelievable she could carry them,” said Mr Kinney.

The birds create huge interest every year and draw hundreds of visitors. They are often seen taking fish from the water right in front of fishermen in the trout-stocked loch.

The pair, who mate for life, will share the task of incubating the eggs when they arrive but the male will fish for food.

Typically, the male osprey returns to the nesting site first, circling in a magnificent aerial display.

This year, however, the female returned first.

Last year Lyl, who has been nesting on the site for two years, hatched three chicks. Her watchers will look for eggs around the same time they were laid last year, on April 25.