Scotland’s most famous osprey site, Loch Garten in Speyside, has eggs for the first time in four years, it can be revealed.
A new osprey pair has settled on the nest in the RSPB’s Abernethy National Nature Reserve, where the iconic raptors returned to Scotland in the 1950s after becoming extinct here in the early 20th century.
Staff at the RSPB’s Loch Garten Osprey Centre, confirmed the pair has now produced two eggs, raising hopes for the first successful breeding since 2018.
Two eggs visible at Loch Garten nest
The last resident female, known as EJ, fledged at least 23 chicks from 2013-18 but failed to return from migration the following spring, leaving the iconic site unoccupied for the first time in 60 years.
Fergus Cumberland, visitor operations manager at the Osprey Centre, said: “It’s fantastic. This is the first time in four years that we have had an active osprey nest with eggs in it, so it’s very exciting.
“The first egg was laid on the evening of May 3. Our female looked like she was making contractions and then she stood up and appeared quite shocked, and there was a speckled egg below her. A second egg was visible on the nest on Saturday morning.”
The male, known as Blue AX6, was ringed at a nest site in Glen Affric as a chick in 2016 and was first spotted at Loch Garten a year ago. It is thought that the female may be the same unringed bird that was first seen visiting the site last year. The pair is thought to be breeding for the first time.
Mr Cumberland said: “Last year we saw our male Blue AX6 try to pair up with an unringed female. Based on their behaviour, we suspect this is the same bird. This year they look like they are really making this nest their home.”
Return of ospreys to Scotland
Ospreys were made extinct in Scotland in the early 20th Century. In 1954, two Scandinavian breeding birds came to Loch Garten and set up a nest in the forest by the freshwater loch.
In 1959 Loch Garten ospreys were the only ones breeding in the UK and, after they hatched three chicks, the RSPB opened up the nest to controlled public viewing, to grow support for the fish-eating raptors.
Loch Garten later became renowned for its breeding population of ospreys, which lent Boat of Garten its nickname “The Osprey Village”.
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