Pine marten poaches Loch Garten osprey’s rotten eggs
Image copyright RSPB Scotland/Carnyx WildThree eggs laid by a Highlands nature reserve's most successful breeding female osprey have been taken by a pine marten.
Laid by the bird known to conservationists as EJ, they had failed to hatch at the RSPB's Loch Garten reserve near Grantown on Spey.
The clutch has been in the nest for several weeks.
Staff at the site have suggested that the pine marten's meal would have made for "a rancid midnight feast".
Ospreys migrate from west Africa to Scotland to breed and can be seen hunting for fish from rivers and lochs.
Twenty-one-year-old EJ remains Loch Garten's most successful breeding female osprey.
Earlier in the season, she defended her nest against a pine marten.
The reserve in the Cairngorms is home to other ospreys and a wide range of bird species as well as red squirrels.
