Ospreys off danger list

Bird experts predict that more than 100 pairs of ospreys will breed in Scotland this year for the first time since they were wiped out by Victorian hunters and egg collectors.

The phenomenal success of the species, which returned to Scotland in 1959, has now resulted in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds taking it off the endangered list. In Scotland last year 99 pairs built nests and reared 140 young

Yesterday the most famous pair of all were settling in at the top of a Scots pine, unaware that more than 50,000 people will watch their comings and goings live on television. For several years, they have nested in the RSPB's Boat of Garten nature reserve near Aviemore, where a video camera is trained on them.

An RSPB spokesman, Derek Nieman, said: "The reintroduction of the ospreys has been an astounding success. They are now a well established part of Scotland's wildlife and would be better described as rare, but no longer endangered."