大象传媒

Wildlife reserve gets not one, not two, but three osprey chicks!

Osprey chicks in nest.Image source, PA Media

You wait for ages, and then three come along at once! That's certainly how rangers at a wildlife reserve in Scotland felt after welcoming THREE rare osprey chicks in the space of just a few days.

The three osprey chicks hatched in their nest at the wildlife reserve in Perth and Kinross.

The first chick hatched on Tuesday, the second on Thursday, and the third on Saturday at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve.

Ospreys were extinct in Britain for much of the 20th century but began to recover in the 1960s.

An estimated 300 pairs now breed in the UK each summer.

What are ospreys?

They are birds of prey and eat fish.

They are on the Amber List species after a decline, due to illegal killing and low breeding numbers.

Sara Rasmussen, Perthshire ranger with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said they were thrilled to see the chicks burst out of their shells.

She said: "Ospreys gain 70% of their body weight in the first month of their lives and we can see the youngsters developing almost daily.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

This is what the osprey chicks will look like when they are older

"It's amazing to think that in around 12-13 weeks these tiny chicks will be young birds capable of migrating all the way to Africa."

She added that although all of the chicks have hatched, the nest is still vulnerable to disturbance, so staff and volunteers would continue to keep watch over them to ensure they are safe and secure.

People can even watch the nest on a live osprey webcam.