Satellite Tracked Ospreys (non-LG) Mar-Aug 2012 CLOSED

New technology being used on some of the US birds transmitters:

"Summer: We've tagged 3 new adult males--one in New Hampshire
(Art) and 2 on the Westport River (Bridger and Rammie). The Westport birds'
transmitters are new technology. Rather than transfer data to us via satellite,
they use cell towers. As a result, we get a lot more data--GPS fixes every 15
minutes rather than every hour."

Oh I am not sure this has been mentioned before but it seems that the amazing Belle came back from the "dead" That girl does lead a chamed life.

30 April to 1 May

 [Here's what I wrote a couple of hours ago:] No movement from the transmitter for 2 days. Either she lost the transmitter or died.

HA! That's what I thought for a day until the next data came in! She's fine. I had already written her obituary, only to discover with the next data download that she's merrily flying around Lake Saumâtre [don't ask about the change in fonts--certain whims of Microsoft's SharePoint Designer are incomprehensible to us lowly mortals]. I don't have time to add the most recent data, but I can confirm that's she's still with us. How we could get 26 hours' worth of locations from exactly the same point is hard to figure. Either the weather was so bad for that whole time that she didn't move--and that doesn't make sense because these locations are all out in the open, not where you'd expect an Osprey to weather a storm, or she was moving around a bit, but every time the GPS took a fix (on the  hour) she happened to be back on her perch. I don't want to figure out what the chances of that are, but one or the other of those explanations has to fit the bill.

Blue YD has fledged

I read that on the SWT LOTL blog Alan.  Is this the chick near Forfar?

Emma : That is the chick at Balgavie Loch.

Update on Beatrice:

"Beatrice has fledged two young and she has spent the whole of last ten days around the nest site with her chicks. Excellent result in this summer of nearly perpetual rain and cold."

Red8T update:

"Red 8T has been a regular visitor to Rothiemurchus fishery catching fish for his two young which have just started to fly. Earlier in the week I saw him and his mate perched on the top of the next door tree to the nest tree, where one chick was on the eyrie and the otherwas perched on a lower branch."

Unknown said:

I think we get a fuller picture from Rutland. We know that there are other Welsh nests from reports in the Rare Breeding birds survey. Do these involve the young of 11(98)?

Interesting. Do you have any more info on this? The subject of breeding pairs in Wales came up several times while chatting to Janine and others at Dyfi over the last few days, and unless they are all incredibly good actors, I'm fairly sure they don't know of more than the 3 pairs publicly acknowledged, though there are regular reports of sightings in a few other locations (in some cases provably not the known local birds). I think it was generally agreed, though, that there is enough remote territory in Wales that there could quite easily be a few more pairs out there that no-one has spotted yet (or that have been dismissed as sightings of known birds - e.g. an osprey fishing on or around the Dyfi would be automatically assumed to be Monty).

One thing I picked up during a brief stop at Glaslyn (though we didn't see any ospreys!) is that white YC seems to have found a mate, and has been showing interest in a nest platform. These were specifically referred to by Glaslyn staff as a 'potential 4th pair'. Everything crossed that both return next year, and breed successfully.

Rachel,

The Rare breeding birds in UK report for 2009 has the following reports for Wales:

Meirionnydd - One pair fledged 3 young at Glaslyn. Wales elsewhere - One pair probably bred (attending nest platform) and one pair possibly bred, remaining on site through May & June

The 2010 report (published this July) has:

Meirionnydd - One pair bred fledging three young and one pair present at a second site.