SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Lady is back!

Swooping back to her old breeding ground for an incredible 22nd year, this is the spectacular sight of Britain's oldest-ever breeding osprey which has amazed birdwatchers worldwide.

The 27-year-old bird, known as Lady, laid a remarkable 62nd egg with a three-year-old ‘toy boy’at the Loch of the Lowes nature reserve in Dunkeld, Perthshire.

The record-breaking osprey produced the egg at 7.15pm on Saturday 4/15 on her usual annual nest, delighting both birdwatchers and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Rangers were thrilled!

Every year for the past two decades, Britain's oldest breeding osprey has migrated from her winter home in West Africa to the shores of the Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire — a 6,000-mile round-trip covering perilous stretches of ocean and desert.

Lady has now raised more than 48 chicks and flown over 120,000 miles during her remarkable life.