23rd September...back upstream on the River Dee

23rd September...

Ozwold flew back to the River Dee and made his way upstream to the Linn of Dee. He's been flying over the Balmoral estate and across Braemar.

He'll have just missed the Highland Gathering...the Highland Games held on the first Saturday in September, and regularly attended by a member/s of the Royal family since Queen Victoria first visited in 1848. I wonder if she saw any ospreys fishing along the Dee back then. I guess numbers of ospreys were rapidly diminishing, as the Victorians were indulging in egg collecting and shooting the ospreys out of the skies, eventually emptying Britain of all ospreys. It's incredible to think of the recovery of the osprey in the past 60 years. I wonder if in another 60 years we will be breathing a sigh of relief at having rescued the tiger from extinction...or will the tiger have passed into folklore and legend by then?

River Dee