Missing eight-week-old osprey chick traced by satellite in trees

Fledging osprey: Blue 44 takes its first flight.Andrew Hine

An osprey chick missing from the Loch of Lowes reserve in Perthshire has been found.

Blue 44 was born to 27-year-old osprey Lady eight weeks ago.

On Monday the bird took its first flight and since then had been missing.

But now satellite has traced the chick which shows it is above ground level.

A spokesman for the Scottish Wildlife Trust said: "We have located the chick from satellite data as close as we can and we know it is alive and is moving around. It is in trees and not on the ground.

"It does seem quite nervous and may have been daunted by first flight or it may have been injured on its first flight.

"With the good weather we are hopeful it will be heading back to the nest. We think it has been fed which is also a good sign."

Lady the chick's mother has to astounded rangers by continuing to laying eggs despite her increasing age and is the oldest breeding osprey in the UK.

The trust said they were now scaling back the searches in order to reduce the disruption to the area and hoped that would encourage Blue 44 to return to the nest.

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