This thread has been set up to follow the travels of Caledonia and Alba, the young ospreys raised at Loch Garten in 2012.
Their mother is “EJ”, the resident female at Loch Garten since 2003; there is some doubt about the identity of their biological father, given EJ’s dalliance with a male from a neighbouring nest, Blue XD, both before and after the return of her regular partner Odin, who raised them.
Caledonia hatched on 16th May and Alba on 18th May; they both fledged on 14th July.
This is a link to the Loch Garten blog describing the ringing and satellite tagging.
Caledonia’s ring is Blue/White AA1, reading downwards. Alba’s is Blue/White AA2, reading upwards.
Following the tracking
This page gives a quick overview of the routes on a map, which will be more useful once they start migrating.
If you want to look at the routes in more detail on Google Earth, this page contains instructions on setting up your PC to do this.
This blog contains some useful information about how the tracking works – we are now on a 3-day reporting period.
Unknown said:. I can't remember of the top of my head but was Nora back last year as a 2 or 3 year old?
She was never spotted back as a two year old.
She was first reported when she turned up at Dyfi on 9th April 2011
SueC ringing data covers a lot of birds including Nora.
Tiger Signature
Thanks Tiger for map - she certainly was steaming on. Long wait to hear on where she is now and again I hope she is in a good area - she must be exhausted. It was some flight over the Western Sahara.
Good morning all and such amazing news re Alba. Just proves we will never stop learning about these fantastic birds. Hope she has managed to eat, surely she would not have been able to fly all that way on an empty tank. Caledonia enjoying her stop-over in Spain so good news all round. Look forward to the nest update now. Thanks to all for the input and maps, much appreciateed.
Margobird
Thanks for your response LMAC and the encouragement
TIGER Here is Alba flying over Nouakchott on Monday. Is there something special about Nouakchott ? I'm missing the point :(
Nora MAY have been spotted but not identified. Dyfi reported a visit by an osprey with a white leg ring in 2010 but did not state if male (possibly the Glaslyn bird who intruded in 2011) or female (possibly Nora)
Hilary J
Thanks Hilary and Tiger, I was more just curious as to the earliest we might see one of the LG juveniles back and would 2 be too young
Unknown said: Thanks Hilary and Tiger, I was more just curious as to the earliest we might see one of the LG juveniles back and would 2 be too young
I know of two ospreys that came back at one year old. The most well known being 06 (01) from Rutland. Roy Dennis refers to a one year old Scottish osprey being spotted at Rutland but I do not immediately have the reference to hand.
Lots of juveniles have come back as two year olds.
Wow one year old. It is an amazing return statistic that Rutland have, I wonder why, or perhaps I believe over the hundreds and thousands of acres in the British Isles it is very difficult to spot particular birds. Perhaps there have been scottish returns but may not back to the nest site.
For those worrying about the terrain shown on Google Earth: remember that what we see is a snapshot of one particular moment in time when that set of images were taken.
I'm no expert, but I do know that these semi-desert areas vary greatly according to the time of year. So a photo taken during the dry season might show a very arid, unwelcoming scene, but will be totally different - and much more favourable to passing ospreys - during or soon after the rainy season.
Nouakchott is a former fishing town, now a city and mainly a port. There is a plentyful supply of fish just a few miles to the west into the sea. Looking at Google images shows there is still an active community of fishermen, and looking around the coast pictures, there are a great number of seabirds. I dont think Alba will be short of a meal there.
Just because her tracking lines dont show she has been over the sea for a couple of days doesn't mean she hasn't been there. On the 2nd September, she could have quite easily carried straight on for a few miles to the sea and followed the coast down, instead of the dog-leg shown.Those lines are only joining up the tracked locations, not the actual journey.