I offered yesterday to start a new Topic once Bynack had fledged, but as we now have the updated Satellite Tracking page, and biography pages for Tore and Bynack, and there are some tracking results for Tore on Google Earth, I’ve gone ahead with it.
A brief introduction to the ospreys we’re tracking – first, the class of 2011.
Tore – link to her Biography
Tore is the elder of this year’s juveniles, her ring is blue/white 48. She fledged on Tuesday 12th July aged 54 days, and has started to do a little exploring.
Bynack – link to his Biography
Tore’s younger brother, ring blue/white 47. Bynack is aged 53 days today and has yet to fledge.
Edit: He has fledged, at 10.18 am today 16/7.
Rothes – link to her Biography
Rothes is the eldest of EJ and Odin’s offspring, hatched at Loch Garten in 2009. Her ring is white/black PJ. She migrated as a juvenile to Guinea-Bissau, and spent her formative months on the small island of Unhocomozinho, in the Bijagos Archipelago. Now a sub-adult, she has travelled north to Europe for the first time this summer and is currently in the Gironde estuary in SW France, where she also spent 6 weeks on her way south in 2009. So far, she has not returned to the UK.
Rothes' earlier travels were followed in this thread, now closed.
Keith that is great to know!
Formerly known as Barbara Jean
Sue C,
surely this can't be entirely true, otherwise there would be no expansion or colonisation.
The first returning Ospreys to Scotland couldn't have been site faithful.
'as ospreys are site faithful and will return to their nest site.'
Prasad It is the males which tend to be site faithful. The females roam more widely. However as with every rule there are exceptions. I read somewhere that according to Roy Dennis it would take 150 years for ospreys to recolonise Britain left to their own devices. That is the reason why the translocation to Rutland was mooted in the nineties. This turned out to have the happy side effect of returning ospreys to Wales. The need for translocation is discussed here.
Tiger Signature
Prasad
What I meant, was that once an adult osprey of either sex has nested, then it will always try to return to the same nest site. If the nest is destroyed or the bird is driven out by a rival, then research has shown that it will still seek to nest close by. For example, EJ moved from her early nest in Rothiemurchus Forest to LG.
Any potential for colonisation comes from "first time nesters" - though subject to the limitations Tiger has explained above.
As noted by Alan above. Rothes has spent the last 5 days very close to the fish farm on the Gironde. I think there can now be no chance he/she will now travel on north to Scotland - the only question is when the journey back south will start. Its likely that there will be ospreys heading south overflying that area (or stopping for a break) in the next week or two, so that might be the point at which the return journey - ??possibly to Ilha de Unhocomozinho ?? - might start. Seeing the southerly track will give us an idea as to whether her northerly progress was impacted by weather or by the feather damage which Nigel's photographs showed. Here's hoping for a more straightforward trip, and the continuing good data which will enable us to know what happens.
Rothes fixes for 6th and 7th August:
Tore went on quite a journey on Saturday:
Google Earth has been updated. Rothes is still at the fish farm and Tore and Bynack have not ranged any further than before.
EJ seems to leave at varying dates each year although she arrives on the same or close to the same date .
Has anyone studied the chicks tracking lines from previous years to see if EJ waits to leave until they have ranged quite a distance from the nest? I would think they are not ready to migrate if they have barely left the nest area.
Also Odin has done the same thing for 3 years . He lets the chicks go without food for more than a day and then he brings fish. Do their tracking lines show they range a lot in that day of hunger? Does he get them so hungry they will follow him on a fishing trip?
He is such a good provider it seems strange that he suddenly cuts off the food and then in a day or two he brings food again.
When they update Google Earth the tracking lines for the 11th may give clues to the answer to these questions.
Barbara We have some data for for the 11th, showing they both went down towards Loch Morlich, though not necessarily at the same time.
I think it's true to say in general from the tracking results that by the time EJ leaves, the juveniles have visited lakes & streams where they might have "got the idea" of fishing, though it's impossible to know whether they fished successfully, or if they were accompanied by EJ or Odin. The one who was noticeably reluctant to leave the nest area was Deshar; both Tore and Bynack have ranged much further already than he ever did.