February 2010

On the 28th there was at least 1 Golden Eagle above Treshnish lochan, a male Bullfinch near Treshnish Old Schoolhouse and 8 Wood Pigeons in Treshnish wood.
I have not been keeping track of the satellite tagged Loch Garten Ospreys lately but I see now that Mallachie has not sent back any data since 25th of November. It only means the transmitter is not working and she could be fine, we may never know. The same thing happened to Nethy last year. I will not post regular comments on these or the Mull White-tailed Eagles as you can track the birds and read the RSPB blogs yourself. I will however post any exciting news, for example the day Rothes starts returning north, as this will hopefully be the first successful return of one of the four tagged chicks but as she is only a yearling she may not return until next year. On the last date with precise location details on the 23rd of November Mallachie was in the Gambia and Rothes was in Guinea Bissau, close to the border with Senegal. Rothes is most recently just over the border in Senegal in the area to the south of the Gambia.
To summarise the last few months of the Mull White-tailed Eagles: Brèagha has wondered a lot, she flew briefly into the central highlands as far as to the east of the southern end of Loch Ericht just to the north of Loch Ranoch. She also spent a lot of time on Skye and Raasay and Rona. She returned briefly to Mull just recently on the 2nd of February but is now back on Morvern where she was on the 21st. Morvern and Ardnamurchan are the favourite area of her brother Mara but he has also explored a little with visits to Coll around the new year and is according to the latest data on Rum where I presume his grandparents Blondie and her mate were first re-introduced. Last years chick Venus has only recently left Mull with a tour of the area just the south of Oban with a brief visit to north Jura. Her brother Oran has been from the start extremely adventurous and has even been as far as County Ballymoney, Northern Ireland via Kintyre. A dangerous place to visit; nine White-tailed Eagles from the re-introduction scheme in Northern Ireland have been killed since the project started two years ago. Oran is now, according to the most recent data, back on Jura.
On the 27th there was still a good 3 inch layer of snow at Treshnish Old Schoolhouse and with it two unusual birds. The first was a male Bullfinch beside the farm-road and the second was a pair of Common Crossbills on the conifers in Treshnish wood. Bullfinch is scarce at Treshnish but this winter with the unusually cold weather we have had four sightings. I was hoping to see some Crossbills this year, as the conifers have a good crop of cones but I thought the chances were slim as it has not been recorded in our 10x10km square before, so it was a real delight to see these 'parrots' of Britain. Common Crossbill was present in only one 10x10km square in mid Mull in The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland (1986), so obviously many leave the island for the winter. The birds seen today may be returning birds or possibly long distance migrants.
On the 26th there were 2 Golden Eagles above Treshnish lochan. One had a very straggly tail but I did not see them together at that moment so I am unsure of whether it was the male or the female. There were 3 Redwings at the fort between Lainne Sgeir and Calgary beach and an Otter to the west of Lainne Sgeir, Calgary bay with possibly the same one on the east side of the rocks about 30 minutes later
On the 24th there was a Common Shelduck near the stream at Calgary beach. This is the earliest I have seen them in this area as they appear to leave here in the winter. the previous earliest date was at Calgary on 28/02/2006. The Snowdrops are flowering in Treshnish wood and appear to have been flowering for at least 3 or 4 days.
[Gap whilst I was away]
On the 2nd there was a pair of Golden Eagles over Treshnish Old Schoolhouse
with one of them calling but I wasn't sure if the male or the female was calling. I took a photo of the calling bird but it did not show the id. pointers I needed.
On the 1st a Golden Eagle was heard calling over Treshnish wood. In the evening 1 Winter Moth came to a lighted window at Treshnish Old Schoolhouse. It is very likely that the flying bird that SC saw on about the 2nd of January by the small burn running below the reeds below Haunn cottages was a Water Rail. The habitat fits perfectly and the cold weather would have exposed it to more open areas. This species was heard by LG&CG in the same area on 15/08/2007. It is occasionally heard in the Dervaig area.

October satellite tagged White-tailed Eagle and Osprey

Mull White-tailed Eagles

Brèagha
1st: Raasay
4th: Southeast of Uig, Trotternish peninsula, Skye
5th: Northeast of Uig, Trotternish peninsula, Skye
8th: Southeast of Portree, Skye
Latest data from Google Earth on 18th October but undated on RSPB Blog, she was back on the Crowlin Islands south-west of the Applecross peninsula, between the Applecross peninsula and Scalpay, off Skye

This years tagged chicks. Not the Loch Frisa chicks.

Oran (male)
Extremely adventurous.

First points about 1-10: several (10+) points on south side of Ardmeanach peninsula (with 1 point near Loch Assapol on the Ross of Mull)

Point 11: Pennyghael, Mull
Point 12: Beinn Bhuidhe, east of Drimnin, Morven
Point 13: Fiunary forest, Morven
Point 14: Sandaig, north of Mallaig (57km from Fiunary forest)
Point 15 Shiel Bridge (23km from Dandaig)
Point 16 Western end of Loch Affric (22km from Shiel Bridge)

Point 17: eastern end of Glen Affric (13km north-east of western end of Loch Affric).
Point 18 Glen Affric (85km north-east of Glencripesdale)
12th: 3km east-southeast of Glencripesdale on the southern shore of Loch Sunart, Morvern.
13th: 2km east of Glencripesdale. On this date she appeared on the Google Earth data to be only 2km east of Mara at Glencripesdale.

Venus (female)
All dates in the Glen Forsa area except on 11th October at the western end of Ardmeanach peninsula.

Loch Garten Ospreys

Rothes (female)
1st: Diawling National Park, in south-west Mauritania.
2nd: passes Kayar west of Djoudj National Park in Senegal, crosses the Dakar peninsula near  Sebikotane and roosting at Mbourouk, Senegal
3rd: heads offshore, south of Dakar coming back to land 188km to the south (as crow or Osprey flies) near Abene in southern Senegal (south of The Gambia). At one time in this sea journey she was 70km from shore! She roosted near the border between Senegal and Guinea Bissau.
4th: Continues south through Guinea Bissau and made a sea crossing from about 30km west of Bissau to the Ilha das Galinhas islands within the Bijagos Islands, off the coast of Guinea Bissau.
4-15th: Present throughout on the Bijagos Islands except one 2 day round trip to the mainland where she was at one time 57km from the last known place that Nethy, one of last years satellite tagged Ospreys was located.


Mallachie (male)
1st: Still around Tejo National Park, Portugal near the Spanish border.
4th: Tejo National Park, Portugal
4-8th: Tejo National Park, Portugal
9th: At11am he was still at Tejo National Park but in the afternoon he was heading south and continuing south along the Spanish Portuguese border.
10th: He left the safety of land at Isla Critina, Spain near the Porugese border. After flying south for 300km he made land in Morocco at 5pm, 32km north of Kénitra. He continued flying in a south-easterly direction for another 30km roosting at Sidi Yahya du Rharb to the east of Kénitra.
12th: Crosses over into Algeria.
14th: Crosses the north-eastern corner of Western Sahara and then south into Mauritania crossing the earlier flight path of Rothes.

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).