After Tiger started the thread for tracking Rothes and Mallachie I thought that we could do with a thread for the tracking of ospreys fitted with transmitters by Roy Dennis. As the "summer" marches on it won't be long before the only way we can get our osprey fix is to follow their migrations.
This year we have the opportunity of following all three tagged birds from last year: Nimrod, Beatrice and Morven. It will be fascinating to find out if they will winter in exactly the same place as last year, and also whether they take the same route.
Added to that Roy has tagged two more adult males this year, Red/white 8T (an Abernethy bird) and Morven's other half (Logie's ex fella). I'm not certain whether Roy has any further transmitters or will attempt to catch any more adult males but, including Rothes and Mallachie, we will be able to follow at least 7 ospreys on their incredible journeys this autumn.
Thanks Alan for this link very interesting and some wonderful photos as well.
Margobird
Latest news of Jukka the Finnish osprey is that he is still at the Lagdo reservoir in Cameroon. The last plot I could find was at 06:00 on 10.01.2009.
Thanks for that Alan was thinking about Jukka this morning. Trying to see if a new update on blog yet but can't get into the site. Is it just me - if you have the time could you have a go.
Margobird: This is the link to the Jukka site. There is no blog update as such but if you click on the kml link it initiates GE and you can see the plots but be warned there are hundreds of them:
http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/zoology/satelliteospreys/jukka/winter2009.htm
Thanks for that Alan will make enough time to view it. I have just seen all the wild boar. there must have been over 30 of them.
Lots of news today - Roy Dennis has also updated, for all birds. Most are just sticking to pretty small areas, though Beatrice is continuing to travel further afield, I suspect due to more flooding: http://www.laopiniondemalaga.es/municipios/2010/01/06/diseminado-indiana-inunda-cuarta-vez-diez-dias/313031.html
Roy doesn't mention this, wondering whether to email and let him know.
Rob Bierregaard has also done a full update; apart from Bea two other juvenile birds, Caley and Moffet, seem to have been lost, leaving just one out of 7 of the 2009 juveniles.
Thanks for that, Sue. So Buck is left flying the flag for this year's juveniles from the East Coast. It looks like Bea is yet another bird to be shot after completing migration. Interesting that the transmitter kicked-in again after a while - at least it afforded the opportunity to find out what had happened and hopefully will lead to the retrieval of the device.
Great that Roy is having such a successful season with his tracked birds. I'm crossing my fingers that Rothy and Rothes will be the first juvenile ospreys to be tracked back to the UK one day.
I'd definitely e-mail Roy to let him know about the flooding in Beatrice's area, it would seem to explain her movements quite neatly.
Sandy I am not sure I have said this before but SSK may hold the record of being the first UK bird to carry a transmitter to Africa and back. It is just that her transmitter malfunctioned in Portugal and we do not know what happened after that. She may well have carried it to Africa and back.
To determine whether she has or not would require tagging her again.
So perhaps we have to start saying "carrying a working transmitter to Africa and back".
Tiger Signature
Thanks Sue C for alerting me to update but truly sad news that only one one out of seven birds have survived for Rob Berregaard.
SUE: I was wondering whether Roy was aware of the floods too. I think you should email him just in case (you've probably done so already!)
On a completely different subject ( ie not ospreys!) I've posted a thread on the general forum (Forums>Advice>Identify this) seeking identification of mysterious bird tracks which I cannot identify. Just mentioned this here as you are all so knowledgeable and might be able to help out. Don't want to clutter this thread with irrelevant requests...