Tracking Rothes and Mallachie

Seems a strange place for Rothes to linger Tiger and I hope she has fed.  Maybe this is as far as she will go this year, but these ospreys have a way of surprising us.

By way of comparison Rothiemurchus was having a stopover in northern Spain after 17 days. After 21 days he was in Britain.

27 days and Rothiemurchus was further north than his natal site.

Lindybird said:

It still looks as if we shall have to wait and see - this is I suppose, why the satellite trackers are so useful.

Yes we will have to wait and see. :-)

Hazel b said:

So Rothes has been in the desert for 17 days now. That must be something of a record for a migrating osprey. I know she had been to the ocean and presumably has fed. We have not seen a tracked osprey behave like this before.

 

Tiger, 

I'm not sure how you worked that out! You're counting from when she left Unhocomozinho on May 22nd, and the desert is not considered to start till the Senegal river (crossed on 26th May), is it?

Looked at another way, she has only spent the following days entirely in the desert and without a possible fishing opportunity either at the start or end of the day:

May 27, 28, 29 (period of the sand storms)

June  5, 6, 7, 8

That's seven days, with a spell on the coast in between. Rothes is used to sea fishing, it's all she did during her stay in Guinea Bissau, and there is every reason to think that she was fed and rested when she set off again on June 4th. I am keen to see the next update, but I'm not feeling as pessimistic as some other people seem to be.  

Sue C   Yes you are entirely correct. I was thinking of her as entering the desert much quicker without actually checking it.

Very good point about her being used to sea fishing.

Rothes has moved, but not on GE yet. She is commented on by Richard under the new blog, posted two hours ago, in the comments.

She’s now close to Provincia de Bojador.

Provincia de Bojador:

This Wikipedia entry for Cape Bojador explains the possible attractions of the place - to an osprey:

"The sea next to the Cape, and for approximately 3 miles seaward from the coast, is no more than two metres deep. Fish are abundant in the area, and shoals of sardines rise to the surface during the feeding times of larger fish. When this happens, the sea seems to bubble violently as if boiling, and, observed from a distance, the hissing sound produced by the fish flicking their tails on the water's surface adds to the impression."

Delighted to see that Rothes is still heading north and is now closer to the coast.  Go Rothes.  Thanks for the map jsb.