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.
Update from Roy. All 6 tracked ospreys are still in the same general area, so no move North - yet!
Thanks Sandy. I think they should stay where they are for now as we have had heavy snow again here today.
Hi Alan. Yes we've had the snow as well, with more to come this week by the looks of it. There's been a lot of speculation recently about the migration starting soon but, as you say, they'd be better off staying where they are for now.
It does seem that, finally, the weather might break either next week or the week after. I for one won't be sorry to see the back of this cold weather and hopefully Spring will catch up to where it should be at this time of year. Then we can truly look forward to welcoming the ospreys back to our shores.
Oh dear. It seems I was a little premature in my forecast for a break in the weather. Here is next week's forecast for Cairngorm, brrrrrrrr....
http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/14days.asp
Another migration has clearly started - on Faune-Aquitaine, look at the enormous numbers of cranes on the move through Dordogne department (24) today. There was a news item on the site a while back, that 50,000 were wintering in the Landes. It's not especially warm, and rainy - I wonder what triggered the move?
Yesterday on Faune Aquitaine:Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010Etang de Soustons / Soustons (40) 1 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) [Paul Lesclaux ]
Latest news from the blog of the Etang du Ravoir: http://suivi-balbuzard-ravoir.francis-digiscopie.fr/
On Monday 22nd February, Rolf Wahl observed an osprey repairing a nest in the Foret d'Orleans. So that definitely isn't wintering or a stopover - it's nesting activity.
*****************************************************************************************************************
Before the migration season takes off, there's a question I'd like to ask about this thread. It was started by Sandy R Poulter, originally to track Roy Dennis' satellite tagged ospreys, but we've discovered so many other sources of info that it's really become about "any ospreys not from LG".
We're now at 558 posts and 38 pages which has got to be the longest thread in the RSPB forum. If we continue with it, it's going to grow pretty fast over the next few weeks. I wonder if that would be wise, as the Forum already seems to have some kind of capacity/performance problem; some other forums impose a maximum length on threads. So I suggest that we deem it "closed" and start afresh; March 1st would seem a good time to do that.
I also feel there would be benefits in splitting up the subject matter, this should tell the story of the satellite tracked birds' migrations more clearly. The threads I'd suggest would be:
i.e. Roy's 6, Jukka, Erika, Karin (if reports available), Rob Bierregaard's 5 - but not replacing the Rothes/Mallachie thread.
Faune-Aquitaine, Birdguides, other reports
I've already put this to Sandy and he agreed, and also suggested possibly having a "News from other Nests" thread, once birds start arriving at the other public UK sites e.g. Loch of the Lowes and RW.
What do others think?
Thanks Sue C. I agree that we should have seperate threads as you suggest as obviously there are going to be lots of sightings very soon and the tracked birds data would be lost in this.
I agree with these suyggestions.
It is a good idea to place limits on the size of threads otherwise they can become very slow.
I have suggested some time ago that we should have a whole new group devoted to "Ospreys other than Loch Garten".
Tiger Signature