So March has arrived and this is the month when the ospreys will arrive back at their nests. There is a huge amount of anticipation for the season ahead.
For Loch Garten there are so many questions. Will EJ be first back as is usually the case? Will we see Blue XD at Loch Garten this year?
More recently we have had the Caledonia effect. The VAP team went out to Seville and managed to find Caledonia's wintering quarters. In the process they forged links with two local osprey loversin the form of Murat and Roberto. This was an extemely welcome development.
It will be interesting to see if Lady makes it back for yet another season.
Although it turned out very sad for Dyfi in 2012 the Ceulan effect will not be forgetten any time soon.
5N (04) will presumably get back to Rutland to find that she is a widow once again. What she will not know is that two of her offspring made it back last year which is quite an achievement.
Rutland are also publishing a new osprey book on 14th March 2013
Excitement is at fever pitch.
Tiger Signature
Yes B&B we are guilty of joking and casting Mary's good name into ill repute :)
ChloeB & Tiger's Osprey Data
ok closed Chloe and all I am saying is we should not assume and yes Mary probably will laugh :)
Osprey in New Zealand, but on a new NZ$2 coin, on pre-order but delivery commences this week. So if ospreys are not resident in NZ, do they visit? If so, from where? I imagine they must be well enough known to put them on coins. I suppose theoretically they could breed in say, South Island (colder longer daylight) and winter in North Australia.....pure conjecture on my part. (Distance of over 4000 Km)
"A Life of Ospreys" see p 204 Australasian Osprey....mostly non-migratory.
ChloeB & Tiger's Osprey Data Site
Sat track schedule Spring 2014
LG 7 days; RW & SWT nil; LDOP varies
Thanks jsb that is really lovely. Why can't they do something like that over here? We could do with some nice osprey stamps too. It costs us a lot for our plain old postage stamps.
Just converted the price of the coin to GBP, without shipping costs, and it comes to £80.
A point which I have wondered about is what is the white stuff in this picture?
taken from here
It looks like ice doesn't it? I haven't managed to locate the white stuff on GE.
EDIT have found the location. Here is what it looks like now. No white stuff.
Chloe & Tiger
I'm doubtful, that this would be ice. NB This is Beatrice's wintering site, like Caley's in Andalusia and close to sea level.
I found this climate chart for Seville - even in Dec and Jan, the average number of days with frost is only 2, meaning you're highly unlikely to get the kind of prolonged cold spell which would freeze large ponds and rivers. I'm inclined to think it's either a lighting effect, or in the case of rivers, that they are in spate following rain. There is a similar "effect" on the Guadalquivir NE of Caley's roost - near Alcala del Rio - which surely couldn't possibly be frozen after just coming through the Alcala barrage.
Something else evident from this chart that I've been thinking about. Young ospreys which migrate to West Africa arrive just as the rains have finished, and have to get through the dry season until the rains come again around June. For Caledonia and Beatrice in Spain, it's the reverse; they have their wet season in the winter, while the summers are hot and dry. I have some other "watery" information which I may post on the Caledonia tracking thread.
Thanks for the info Sue, I didn't think they would get ice to that extent either but wondered what else it could be. Rivers in spate I would go for but what about standing water ie those ponds?
How often are GE/GM images updated, does anyone know? More frequent than I imagined looking at these.
Hi everybody
Seville experienced a snowfall in January 2010, along with much of the rest of Spain. However this was the first time it had snowed in Seville for over 50 years.
My GE is the similar image as ChloeB's, and is dated as 4 th September 2012. The area a few frames directly to the east however is dated 28 July 2008. I would say they aren't updated more than every few years.
See the difference here
.
Thanks Mulberry. This is why the difference between Roy's images, taken in December and January, and the current one puzzles me.