Tracking Rothes and Mallachie

Some of the more knowledgeable members of the forum may have more details from American or European tracked Ospreys but from what I know 2nd year returning birds generally don't appear until much later in the season, generally late May, June or even July. Certainly it has been this sort of time when they have first been spotted at Rutland (Apart from 6(01) who returned after 1 year & bred in year 2!!). What we don't know is whether they leave now & take a very leisurely trip or leave much later & travel at the same rate as mature birds. My guess is somewhere in between but would appreciate others ideas, I'm not sure if the American studies have shown anything?

Barbara Jean I wouldn't give up hope of Rothes coming north this year.

Rutland Water seem to have deleted their archives in transferring to their new site, but I know they showed that almost all their birds which ever have returned to RW, were first seen back as 2 year olds. However they do generally show up some time after the nesting adults.

The other 2 year olds to keep an eye on, in the Satellite Tracked Ospreys thread, are Rothiemurchus (Roy Dennis, Scotland) and Buck (Rob Bierregaard, US). As far as we know, neither of them has made a move so far.  

Vespa - I will look at the records for US 2 year olds, but this is an interesting one from Europe, Mirja, a Finnish osprey tracked up to Age 4. As a 2 yo in spring 2004, she did return to Finland, but didn't really get going till late April, reached Finland in early June and then only stayed for a few days!  

Hi Sue, according to my records there have been 16 Ospreys returning to Rutland’s having been bred there or translocated. Of these 12 have been positively identified returning in their 2nd year; 03(97), 08(97) 03(98), 09(98), 05(00), 06(00), 5R(04), 5N(04), 30(05), 32(05), AA(06) & 05(08).

06(01) was first spotted at Rutland after 2 years but is known (satellite tracked) to have returned to the UK after 1 year. 10(00) was first identified after 3 years, 02(01) (the bird also seen at Bassenthwaite) was possibly spotted after 2 years but definitely after 3. 08(01) was only positively identified after 5 years but might again have been the bird seen after 2 years. Obviously all of these birds might have returned earlier & just not been spotted & identified.

Interestingly all of the returning birds returning to Rutland have so far been seen after 2 years, with the others all translocated birds (we don't know if this makes a difference??)

Vespa Glad you kept the details. There's one returned "Rutland" bird missing from your list - the former Orange 11 (98) - he's lost the ring. Translocated to Rutland Water in 1998, he apparently wasn't seen again, in Rutland or anywhere else, until 2004 when he was discovered nesting at Glaslyn, where he still breeds to this day. One can only guess that he spent the summers from 2000 on, roaming in isolated parts of Wales where no-one was expecting to see an osprey.  

I can't see that there's anything about Rutland Water that would make its birds, whether translocated or locally bred, more likely to return at age 2 than Scottish birds. The differences are that Rutland is an isolated osprey colony in central England, meaning that it's likely to attract returned birds, and also that ospreys who hang around there are closely observed, by the project team and by birdwatchers, increasing the chances of an ID. So the Rutland info does support the theory that returning at 2 years old is the norm.    

Sue, It's a real shame the details from the Rutland site have gone. Unfortunately I'm currently at work & can only access the list on by PC which details birds at Rutland, I think there were two other Rutland birds that also returned elsewhere; the female that bred at Piper and the other Welsh breeding (2004) bird (which I recollect was also a Rutland bird) I know the details are in Roy Dennis's book, which is stuck at home!! I wouldn't have a clue when they were first seen

Great information as always Vespa. The Rutland bird you are thinking of that bred in Wales in 2004 was 3 (97). His mate was a bird from the Black Isle like Henry.

The female that bred at Piper was 01 (99)  and she was fascinating as she bred with a disabled osprey. He had three toes missing and it felt that he could not care for a family but he did.

I do have records of all the Rutland birds.

5 (08) came back really early on 29th April 2010. He must have started his migration about now.

One of the American birds from 2008  Penelope  started her migration north on 2nd April 2010. She made it home on 30th May but was then sadly lost on her autumn migration.

I feel sure that Rothes will start moving north in the next month or so.

of course not forgetting Rothiemurchus. Maybe we will have a transmitter derby!!

This is just to thank Vespa Crabro for directing me to this page after I enquired about Rothes on the LG daily update.  As no-one had posted for a couple of days, this thread had slipped down on the index page and I didn't realise it was there.  Of course I now remember its existence!

Very interesting comments on the migration of younger birds,.

Looking forward to seeing what Rothes decides to do - and Rothiemurchus, of course. 

Flyingc  A useful link to keeping track of threads like this is Index to Important  Threads. Useful to save in your favourites.

Thanks, Tiger.  That's a great help.