Tracking Oighrig, Breagha and Caledonia

This is a new thread to follow the travels of these three young ospreys from the Loch Garten nest.

Oighrig

This male juvenile is the elder of the 2013 brood, hatched on 25th May and fledged on 16th July.

Oighrig’s ring is Blue/white CF5

Breagha

Also male, the younger of the 2013 brood, hatched 28th May and fledged on 19th July.

Breagha’s ring is Blue/white CF4.

LG blog on the ringing and tagging of Oighrig & Breagha

Caledonia

Hatched on 16th May 2012, fledged on 14th July and left Loch Garten on 19th August.

The travels of Caledonia and her sister Alba were first followed in this thread, now closed. Caledonia is the first juvenile osprey tracked from Loch Garten to settle in Europe; she has been living on the northern outskirts of Seville for nearly a year now.

Caledonia’s ring is Blue/White AA1, reading downwards. LG blog on the ringing and tagging of Caledonia & Alba.

  • Hazel b said:

    Me too  I just thought I hadn't noticed the a when we were first given the name

    That is because there wasn't an "a" when we were first given the name.

    [/quote]

    'Twas I who queried it when they first used the "new" name in a blog, and Jen responded.  I was tempted to offer my YouTube password for whoever was responsible for the error to correct the ~200 videos with "Breagh" in the title ;-)

  • scylla said:

    'Twas I who queried it when they first used the "new" name in a blog, and Jen responded.  I was tempted to offer my YouTube password for whoever was responsible for the error to correct the ~200 videos with "Breagh" in the title ;-)

    Aaargh! LOL scylla :D

  • Gaelic isn't the easiest language around, to put it mildly. Apart from anything else, it is very much a continuum, rather than one (or 3) distinct language(s), from Lewis in the extreme north, down through Islay and Kintyre to Northern Ireland and on to Cork and Kerry in the southwest. Plus the eastern dialects of eg Strathspey/ Invernessshire; and Manx Gaelic (which is just weird, though that is a lot to do with how it is written, I think).

    There is a LOT of variation within that, and the 'rules' for what is or isn't 'correct' seem to keep changing. As much as anything else, I suspect, according to who is editing the dictionaries! It is all very confusing. Lewis Gaelic is what tends to win out in Scotland (because it has the greatest number of native speakers), but you could reasonably argue that Loch Garten ospreys really ought be named in Strathspey Gaelic (extinct as a spoken form, but only within the last 40 or so years).

    So is it any wonder that poor Richard and his team got a bit confused? I don't know how many of them are even Scots, let alone native Gaelic speakers!

  • I think the vast majority would have been none the wiser had they stuck to the original spelling. Plus it would have saved our scylla a load of stress :)

  • The vast majority certainly includes me, Chloe.  I must confess it would be quite interesting to know, of all the Scottish posters, how many were taught Gaelic.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Richard is English, by the way.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Rachel R said:

    Gaelic isn't the easiest language around, to put it mildly. Apart from anything else, it is very much a continuum, rather than one (or 3) distinct language(s), from Lewis in the extreme north, down through Islay and Kintyre to Northern Ireland and on to Cork and Kerry in the southwest. Plus the eastern dialects of eg Strathspey/ Invernessshire; and Manx Gaelic (which is just weird, though that is a lot to do with how it is written, I think).

    There is a LOT of variation within that, and the 'rules' for what is or isn't 'correct' seem to keep changing. As much as anything else, I suspect, according to who is editing the dictionaries! It is all very confusing. Lewis Gaelic is what tends to win out in Scotland (because it has the greatest number of native speakers), but you could reasonably argue that Loch Garten ospreys really ought be named in Strathspey Gaelic (extinct as a spoken form, but only within the last 40 or so years).

    So is it any wonder that poor Richard and his team got a bit confused? I don't know how many of them are even Scots, let alone native Gaelic speakers!

    The English language could claim to be a lot of this!  Some of our local dialects (I have a most entertaining book of the Suffolk one!) would be unintelligible anywhere else in England.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Very few, I imagine, Clare!

    I mostly just know the linguistic history, though I did a few terms of language classes at uni. There were enough native speakers around the department from the different areas to pretty thoroughly dispel any ideas about there being one 'right' way in Gaelic, though :-) What is correct in, for example, Lewis, can easily be totally different to normal usage elsewhere in the Gaeltachd.

    I agree that it seems rather unnecessary to make the change.

  • Thank you for the rundown on Gaelic, RACHEL . I forgive the team ;-)

    Thank you for the sympathy, CHLOE, but I'm not going to correct the titles.  I've run out of steam.

  • It must be said that people can be quite sensitive over name spellings - from personal experience it drives me mad when people spell my name as Claire or Clair!

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.