PT0 appeared first on the livestream nest camera at 17:21 . We were very pleased to see that it was a ringed individual – the visitor that flew by the nest last week was unringed and so we were unable to find any information about that bird.

© Scottish Wildlife Trust, 2018

Who is PT0?

PT0 is a 2-year-old Osprey that fledged from Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire in 2018. Many people will have watched the nest that summer and seen PT0 grow alongside the other chick on the nest that year LN1.

At the time of ringing, PT0 was believed to be a male due to the size measurements taken – smaller birds are generally male. However, towards the end of the season, the behaviour of PT0, who was a feisty and very loud chick, and its large size, led staff at Lowes to believe that it was actually a female. You can watch some entertaining footage from the Scottish Wildlife Trust of PT0 on the nest in 2018 here.

PT0 in Poole Harbour

On Tuesday evening, PT0 initially spent around 40 minutes on the nest and returned again intermittently later that evening. There were a couple of times when both PT0 and CJ7 could be seen/heard, either on the camera pole, nest or flying overhead. The team are convinced that PT0 is a female, as did the Lowes team believed at the end of the season in 2018, due to her size and colouration (we released a video about identifying Ospreys a couple of weeks ago, so if you are interested in the sex differences you can watch it here). Despite both being female, CJ7 isn’t extremely defensive towards PT0, but she still makes an effort to get her off the nest. PT0 returned again to the nest on Wednesday morning shortly before 07:00. There were a blissful few minutes when both birds were on the nest together – before CJ7 made the point of taking it back, of course:

As a 2-year-old, this is the first year that PT0 she has returned to the UK, which great news for the team at Lowes, as well as really exciting for us to have another Osprey visit the nest. We’ve caught up with the Lowes team and they are very pleased to see PT0 back in the UK. Emma Castle-Smith, the Visitor Centre Assistant Manager at Loch of the Lowes, said:

“It’s fantastic to hear that PT0 has completed her maiden migration and arrived safely in Britain. Everyone at Loch of the Lowes has really fond memories of watching her develop from a tiny chick.

With the support of People’s Postcode Lottery players our staff and volunteers work around the clock over several weeks to protect the nest at Lowes. Our hope for every osprey that fledges from here is that they return to a nesting site, and that they aid the wider recovery of ospreys, both in Scotland and elsewhere. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for PT0, it will be interesting to hear where her first trip ‘home’ takes her.“

So, will we see more of PT0 on the nest? It’s likely that PT0 will move on from the harbour now and continue to explore potential sites for breeding in the future, as young Ospreys do, but there is the chance that she might stick around. We’re really pleased to see that she took such an interest in CJ7 and this nest, showing how having a resident population can attract others to the area. There is lots of excitement ahead: will we see PT0 back in the future, and which other returners will we see this summer? Only time will tell, but we feel incredibly lucky be able watch these events unfold through the webcam.