There was sad news for wildlife lovers as it was confirmed the UK’s oldest breeding osprey’s latest batch of eggs have failed to hatch.
It had been hoped that Lady would successfully breed for the 21st consecutive year after laying three eggs at Loch of the Lowes in the spring.
But staff at the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve near Dunkeld broke the sad news that old age may finally have caught up with the bird, thought to be 26 years old.
Trust Perthshire ranger Anna Cheshier said, “We were optimistic about a successful hatching for the osprey this year but sadly all three of the eggs have failed to hatch.
“Ospreys live an average of eight years and are estimated to produce 20 eggs during that time so it’s incredible that this individual osprey is now around 26 years old and has produced 60 eggs in her lifetime.”
She added, “Unfortunately, it may be that her age has affected the fertility of the eggs this breeding season. We have also had terrible weather at the reserve, which inevitably puts the eggs at greater risk.”
The trust had been hoping to satellite tag the chicks and preparatory works for the tagging and tracking were under way. This work will now feed in to the relaunch of the project when next year’s brood hatches.
SWT stressed all money donated in support of the satellite tagging project are held as a restricted fund and will only be used for this purpose.
Anna said, “It does mean that we will need to delay our project to satellite tag osprey chicks too, which was planned for them fledging and migrating to west Africa in August.
“But we haven’t written off our amazing osprey being a mother again just yet, as we hope to have more chicks hatching during the breeding season in 2012 and believe with Lady anything is possible.
“All going well next year, we will continue with the project. In the meantime, the pair of ospreys are likely to remain in the area and make for an early migration when the season dictates.”
Wildlife enthusiasts across the globe have been following the breeding season online thanks to a blog and streaming nestcam at www.swt.org.uk.