The Further Adventures of Breagha

Thank you for those links, TIGER.

I'm in tears with you {{{PATILY}}} and we are not alone.

NOISETTE, thank you so much for offering to look for Breagha and I do hope you get helpful info to narrow the search.

So many beautiful osprey chicks have fledged and migrated from LG, it must have among the highest attrition rates of any longstanding nest.

In the folorn hope that Jen might still be contactable I sent her an e-mail but I got an immediate out of office reply simply saying she has left the RSPB.

What I can't understand is why they didn't get in touch with the LPO (local equivalent to the RSPB) as soon as they got the news that something was amiss. They could have got a team there with me & others in the raptor group in no time at all. After all if a French bird went down in say Yorkshire you'd expect the LPO to contact their UK counterparts! I've spoken to the local LPO & they've heard nothing.

If there is any evidence to be got from the scene as to what happened, its going to be disappearing fast!

Looking at the map he seemed to be roosting a bit further inland to Rothes. It's only about 1Km away, but as I can't see on Google any readings for the 13th or 14th, I can't be sure where he roosted the last time.

If anyone can put those last points up I can get a good idea where to look.

So very near to you HinNH if only you had the latest info!!!  I have sent a message to Mrs T, Claire Thomas, Moderator for RSPB In the hope she may be able to contact Jen Clark or others involved in tracking co-ordinates ... Can't think of any other resource at present!

Hazel, I think your frustration is shared by all of us here in England. You will see from the various posts above that all sorts of 'routes' have been tried but so far without result. Unless someone can come up with a direct contact we are stuck until at least Monday morning when the offices open and even then we have to hope we can get to the right person!

I will take up your first point next week for sure!

Thanks Mike. I must admit I keep coming back to my theory of storm problems. Around 5pm on the 13th when I was at Royan (up the coast a bit) there was a terrific thunder & lightening storm, the rain was torrential all the way home, I went through Saint Dizant, they must have had the lightening there. I got home & we had no electricity & found out the next day that a tornado had passed about 5km away. It really was very bad weather & maybe he got struck or his tree was. However in that bad weather, there wasn't much hunting going on. So if it happened that night he probably wasn't shot.

Hazel. I have trawled the RSPB site and there is guided walk in the Abernethy area on Sunday led by a ranger called Allison. Her mobile munber is on the site and I have left a message for her explaining the situation and asking her to contact me, hopefully with the details of someone who can help and preferably 'Mike'. Storm or otherwise it seems to me an answer is required.

Hazel

I have found footage of the tornado, embedded in this local news report, which gives the time as 17.30 on Sunday 13th Sep.  

It seems to have started on the estuary near the nuclear power station, and tracked north east. (The people in the car watch it form, wonder how they can avoid it, and them find themselves driving straight through it!) This is about 14 km south of the last reported location for Breagha, but the weather seems to have been generally pretty disturbed in the area at the time, going by the report and also what you said above.     

Thanks SueC/Noisette about the news of the storm.

Certainly if an osprey got caught up in that it would be in difficulty maybe with bad injuries.

I am sure when Mike returns from wherever he is then he will analyse the data and try and conclude the story - I am sure they know enough to be confident to post that it is not a transmitter problem.

MIKE - An answer is required - PATIENCE. The staff whereever they are deserve to be left alone to enjoy a break.