Staff at Loch Garten RSPB reserve were celebrating the first egg laid by the returning female osprey as work is completed on providing a secure power supply to the centre. The osprey, called EJ, has laid an egg after returning to the reserve near Aviemore for an eighth season. The bird’s partner, named Odin, has been bringing a regular supply of fish to the nest.
Visitors to this osprey stronghold will benefit from an unrivalled experience after £63,000 funding by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The backing will provide the Abernethy National Nature Reserve (NNR) with a new mains power supply.
The RSPB says this is crucial in providing a stable service as part of the increasingly hi-tech approach to site interpretation along with essential monitoring equipment used by site managers RSPB Scotland.
The backing gives RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten Osprey Centre new interpretative features featuring the ospreys at the site. The Centre has used remote cameras for several years to give visitors an unrivalled view of breeding ospreys at their nest.
More recently it added opportunities for viewing other nesting birds via nest box cams and a nearby feeding station visited by squirrels, crested tit and other woodland birds has a global following via the internet.
Until now the Centre, which has expanded hugely in its 50 years, has been powered by a generator with consequent noise and emissions an unfortunate by-product of the hi-tech visitor experience. The Centre is 2.3km from the nearest transformer and SNH’s grant has enabled an underground power cable to be installed to link the Osprey Centre to the national grid.
Planning permission was required to install the cable along the roadside through internationally designated habitats and the timing of the work has had to be carefully scheduled to avoid disturbance to lekking capercaillie which reaches a peak in April. Pete Moore, area officer with SNH, said: “We are delighted, in conjunction with RSPB Scotland, to provide funding for this ambitious project which will allow visitors an unrivalled experience.
“We are committed to helping people benefit from the outstanding natural heritage on offer here and this funding will allow us to provide a greater visitor experience.
“Visitors to the reserve will benefit from the lack of background noise from the generator when it is replaced and the wildlife will hopefully approve too.”
Richard Thaxton, RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten site manager, said: “We are delighted that SNH, along with Cairngorms National Park and Cairngorm Leader, has been able to provide financial support to the project. The RSPB has been showcasing the ospreys of Loch Garten for 50 years. This support means that we will be able to do this even better in the future.
“Among other things it should improve the quality of the webcam which allows people worldwide to monitor the progress of the ospreys when they are nesting.
“The SNH element of this £130,000 project will allow us to ensure that the facilities on offer match the stunning nature that is around. We want to deliver a service for people that is more reliable and efficient and this helps us towards that aspiration. These improvements will also provide a greater hands-on experience for visitors to the reserve to see and enjoy the ospreys that migrate each summer to Scotland and this area of the Highlands in particular.”