September satellite tagged White-tailed Eagle & Osprey news

White-tailed Eagles update 31st: Between the 7th and 23rd Brèagha was in the Loch Maree area, spending the last of these days on the hill lochs to the northwest of Torridon and before that to east of Lochdrum, and Strathmore valley south of Ullapool . On the 23rd Brèagha was on the Crowlin Islands southwest of the Applecross peninsula, between the Applecross peninsula and Scalpay, off Skye. On the 30th she was on Raasay, where she stayed until the 1st of October. Mara coninues to stay in the Ardamurchan amd Morvern peninsulas favouring the Glencripesdale area on the southern shore of Loch Sunart, Morvern and on Ardamurchan the more general area of Loch Mudle and the adjacent lochs to the east.


White-tailed Eagles update 14th: On the 3rd Brèagha was at Loch Maree, by the 7th she had flown to Dundonell, at the head of Little Loch Broom, (the same area where she had been on 30th and 31st of August and the 1st of September), on the 9th she was about 7km to the east near Ardcharnich (spelt Ardchamich on the RSPB blog Googlemaps), on Loch Broom.
Mara has been on Morvern, along the south shores of Loch Sunart, from the 3rd to the 9th except on the 4th when she was on the souteast corner of Morvern and the 7th when she was across Loch Sunart on Ardamurcan.


White-tailed Eagles update 2nd: the female Brèagha in the same area at Loch Maree and Mara in about the same area on Morvern.

 
Osprey update 31st:  Mallachie still in the same area in Portugal near the Spanish border.

Osprey update 30th: The RSPB blog is a bit unclear here regading times but flying off the Morocan shore Rothes reaches land near Tidergit in Morocco at 9am on the 28th a distance of 944km as the crow flies. She continued due south passing over Western Sahara and into Mauritania by 2pm, where she was slowing down but still heading south in Mauritania crossing the southeast corner of Western Sahara at 4pm the next day on the 29th and arriving at 10pm on the 30th near the coast, south of Nouakchott, the capital. On the 30th she was still in the vicinity of Nouakchott.

Osprey update 28th: On the morning of  24th, Rothes finally left the Sturgeon farm north of Bordeaux where she has been since the 14th of August. She was near the Spanish border on the morning of 25th, and by the evening was roosting near Toledo. On the evening of the 26th she spent ther night 7km southwest of Oliva de la Frontera by the Potugese border where she was about 160km south of Mallachie, who was still in the same area around Tejo National Park in Portugal by the Spanish border. The next day on the 27th, Rothes continued flying along the Spanish-Portugese border for about 56km and then continued flying south-southwest in a straight line until heading out to sea just south of Olhão in Portugal at 1pm.


Osprey update 10th: Now is must be about the most exciting time for the young ospreys. They have both made it safely to the continent but still have to make it to Africa. Mallachie has been travelling virtually non-stop since the 31st of August and has navigated safely around the coast of the Bay of Biscay and is now according to the RSPB blog on the Portugese/Spanish border in the 'Rio Tajo area between Parque Nacional de Monfrague in Spain and Parque Natural do Tejo Internacional in Portugal'. Whilst I said in an earlier post that Rothes was approaching Spain she actually stopped near Fontaine north of Bordeaux and has been there since the 14th of August, perhaps she is going to stay there!. Interestingly the data shows that the paths of Rothes, Mallachie and last years Nethy came very close together in the Bordeaux region but perhaps this is natural as they all had to negotiate around the Bay of Biscay.

Osprey update 4th: Mallachie overtakes her sister Rothes and crosses into Spain

Osprey update 3rd: Mallachie crosses the channel from the Isle of White to Normandy.

Osprey update 1st: On Sunday 30th these were the positions of Mallachie according to RSBP blog

'5am just north of Acklington,
6am she flew over a huge quarry at West Chevington,
7am near Ulgham, south of Widdrington Station,
8am she flew over A19 near Seaton Burn roundabout,
9am West Pelton near Chester-le-Street,
10am Proudfoot Drive, Bishop Auckland
11am just west of Scotch Corner on A1,
1pm near Whitwell, east of Catterick,
3pm just west of Northallerton, and between 3pm and 8pm she seems to have been fishing along the River Swale, presumably roosted nearby and continued to quarter the river again early next morning when her last fix was at 5am 31st August.'
That overnight spot is only three quarters of a mile from the RAF base at Leeming where my father was stationed for many years. The idea of looking out from the control tower and seeing an Osprey hunting over the river Swale, would have been inconceivable at that time (mid-late 1960's).