WILDLIFE watchers have carried out the first "health check" on a newly-hatched osprey in Cumbria.

The recently-born chick was also ringed by wildlife experts who scaled the nest tree in Wythop Forest near Keswick for their first visit to the birds.

The chick - believed to be female - was also photographed for the first time.

Staff from the Lake District Osprey Project at Bassenthwaite Lake, say they are "extremely pleased" with the progress of the chick.

Ospreys usually lay three eggs and the project team monitoring the nest is hoping that more chicks will hatch in the next few days.

Where to watch Lakeland's ospreys:

A public Osprey Viewpoint at the Forestry Commission's Dodd Wood near Keswick gives open-air viewing of the nest from a safe distance. It is located, 3 miles north of Keswick off the A591 - follow signs to Mirehouse.

The Viewpoint is open all daylight hours and from 10am-5pm osprey project staff are on hand with telescopes for visitors to use. Access by less-abled people is available using a specially equipped minibus - call 0789 9818421 to book.

Live images from a camera overlooking the ospreys' nest can now be seen on screen at the Forestry Commission's Whinlatter Visitor, located west of Braithwaite on the B5292. This 'spy in the nest' gives close-up pictures of the activity on the nest as it happens.

Nest cam pictures, a regularly up-dated "osprey diary", details of viewing arrangements and public transport information and are on the Lake District Osprey Project website: www.ospreywatch.co.uk which uses the BBC Cumbria webcam.

Pictures from the osprey "nest cam." can be viewed on the BBC Cumbria webcam.

The Lake District Osprey Project is a partnership between the Forestry Commission, the Lake District National Park Authority and The RSPB.

Additional information:

The Osprey is a dramatic, fish eating bird of prey with a five-foot wingspan.

Its return to Scotland in the late 1950s after a century of extinction as a British breeding bird is one of the great conservation

success stories of the 20th century. The return of ospreys to the Lakes in 2001 was the culmination of several

years work to encourage ospreys to nest in the Lakes.

The Forestry Commission and the National Park Authority have erected a number of artificial nest platforms, and it was on one of these that the ospreys decided to breed.

Bassenthwaite Lake has been owned and managed by the Lake District National Park Authority since 1979 and is now a National Nature Reserve.