Published on behalf of Julie Quirie, who has done the satellite tracking today.
Can it really be the end of October........
I can’t believe it’s the last day of October and that the Osprey Centre has been closed for nearly two months now – where does the time go? What a change in the weather too – from snow a couple of weeks ago to balmy southerly winds, maybe not so much balmy as gusty, but pleasant all the same.
On Friday I met up with Julie Smith, who works in the shop with me, and Paul Turner, one of the osprey assistants from 2010 - some of you may have followed his adventures at Forsinard last winter and in Iceland during the summer. We had an enjoyable walk down to Loch Mallachie, and it was good to catch up on Paul’s news. We did manage to see a male goldeneye on the loch and a few tits flitting about the trees in the car park. Paul was hoping to catch sight of a crested tit, we could hear them but couldn’t catch sight of any.
Bill and I went to one of my favourite areas yesterday in the hills behind Grantown, it was late afternoon and to our delight, we saw our first big migration of geese overhead. There were hundreds, if not thousands coming in to land in the fields round about, an amazing sight and sound. The sun was beginning to set whilst we were there and the cloud formations over the Cairngorms and light created were beautiful – tenticular clouds I think Chloe B? Sadly I didn’t have my camera, an excuse for another visit I think!
News of the birds – Rothes appears to be still in the same area, Tore is still in Senegal on the Casamance river, she certainly seems settled there.
Bynack has ventured a little further south – at 12 pm yesterday he set off south along the Senegal delta towards Mbeye. At 4pm he passed to the north of St Louis and spent a couple of hours exploring some small islands, he then headed north again and roosted near the N2 road, a short distance south of Lampsar. Will he head back north or travel further south? I’ll update you on Wednesday.
Happy Halloween to you all and don’t eat too many treats
Julie Quirie