Blogs

I know that many of you out there are very eager to find out what is happening to the birds. I am checking for new data on the hour and will report on their movements when I know.

As of 10pm last night (29th) Deshar was still in the North Atlantic - he was at a height of 63m above sea level - but was flying North (at a course of 6 degrees) - prior to this his bearing was between 230 and 250 degrees, his speed was 17kph.  At this course he has more chance of hitting Puerto Rico than Suriname - As mentioned before, the next data set will be very interesting.

Nethy has moved on from her position NE of Rennes and appears to have roosted at 8pm close to a lake near La Praliere, south of Montaigu.

When the next (complete) data set comes in, I will let you know. 

Just got the data - as of 3pm today (29th) Nethy was 50km NE of Rennes (France) and Deshar was still flying, he has missed the Azores. He was at an altitude of 500m and has so far flown 1978miles (3185km). The facts are now clear - on his current course the next landfall is 2470 miles (4000km) away in Suriname,South America - that distance is 3-4 days away.

I will post a more detailed blog with the satellite data tomorrow.

For those of you who can only view from work.

I have been checking on the hour and as yet there is no new data from the satellite. I will check again at 6pm and then hourly from then until I get some data. As soon as I know, you will know.

I would like to add at this point that there is no proof at all that the transmitters cause the birds to fly off course - we will be updating the FAQs on the tracking page to explain this further. If it did cause a problem then the data which we are gathering would be flawed and therefore worthless. It is known that several ospreys have been seen wintering on the Azores, and these did not have satellite tags on them. I think that the last few days of north easterly winds have been more likely the cause of Deshar's flight path than anything else.

I should really start with the news on Deshar - The last data point I have is from 15.00 yesterday (28th September) where we found him at an altitude of 430m above sea level, 300km east of the small island of Santa Maria, the warmest and most southern of the Azores,it is approximately 50 miles from São Miguel. The island has an area of 97.18 km² and is the third smallest of the group - let's hope he can find it. So far Deshar has flown 1470miles ,or 2365km - and the data would suggest that it has been a non-stop flight. - the next data set will be very revealing.

As for Nethy, - at 11.00 yesterday (28th) she started to move, she flew almost due south for 3 hours, covering a distance of 91km before switching course, between 14.00 and 15.00 she flew SW, only covering a distance of 15km before settling in a tree. The last data point for her was at 17.00, still in that tree in the Downton area, only 1.6km from the south coast and the English Channel.

I will be checking on the hour for the next satellite pass - believe me, as soon as I know I will report - good or bad.

Let's start with the easy bit...... Nethy is still, as of this morning (28th September), around her favourite spots in the Fairford area. She is still very active despite not going very far, I wish the same could be said for her brother.

For the past 4-5 weeks we have been hoping that these birds would get on with it and head off towards Africa, well at 9am on Friday 26th Deshar started to move, and moved significantly. You would imagine that from where he was it was almost impossible to miss France, well think again. He headed off WSW and completely missed land - The last signal we had from the bird was at 7am this morning where he was 424m above sea level but still unfortunately heading WSW. Since 9am on 26th to 7am on 28th our bird has flown approximately 2070km, or 1287 miles in old money. I am guessing that it has been non-stop as there is definitely no land 'en-route' and the data would suggest that he didn't find a ship, boat, buoy etc.

If he had taken the expected route he could have been in North Africa by now. So what can save him? Realistically...The Azores.

The next satellite data set will be very interesting - Will he hit the Azores, will he change course and start heading towards Africa or will he just continue aimlessly in the same direction? I have written this bird off in the past and have been proven wrong and I hope to be proven wrong again, but the signs, unfortunately, are not good.

You can see Deshar's route on the osprey tracking page: www.rspb.org.uk/ospreytracking

Decided to check out the satellite data this morning - as you never know something might have happened, but you've guessed it - no change. Infact, Deshar has been flying over "his" lake so much we can hardly see it under all the lines - it looks like a Jackson (Jack the Dripper) Pollock painting. Rest assured though both birds are still seemingly quite content in their respective locales. Good weather is forcast in the south this weekend, so Deshar ought to be able to see France from where he is, so just maybe, he at least, might be tempted to move on - but we've said that all before haven't we? They continue to keep us guessing.

The good weather might be here (it is up here in the Cairngorms at any rate), but Deshar and Nethy haven't taken the hint to head south. When I checked the satellite at 5pm this afternoon, the familiar sites were once again where I found them (and so I haven't updated the map today).

As the temperature gets colder at night maybe they'll decide to head off, but the fish stocks where they are currently must be encouraging them to stay put!

 Promise to update you as soon as anything happens.

The birds are still in their respective areas - some people have seen Nethy recently in the Fairford area but no positive sightings of Deshar have been reported - that doesn't mean that there is a problem, I know he is flying around because his position is changing by the hour. So as of 14.00 today (Sunday) the birds are still in the UK

We do check the data on a daily basis so rest assured, as soon as we get a movement - we will tell you.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Yep, you guessed it, they are both still at their respective spots. They have been at these locations for nigh-on 24 days. It must be the good fishing that's keeping them there, as surely the weather isn't still so bad to deter them from moving on.  Are they waiting for northerly winds to send them south?  Or under current circumstances, could it be that their onward flights were not ATOL protected!

We will check the latest satellite pass and any data received, for signs of movement and we will up-date the map & blog in a few days time unless something happens meantime.

Well I logged on today to see a strange movement by Deshar - He had apparently flew 80km North into Essex, that is not the case I'm afraid. I made a slight error on the data inputting and instead of putting a latitude of 51.08600(N) I put 51.8600(N) which translates to approximately a 80km movement North - my apologies - just as well that we have eagle-eyed bloggers to let me know.

On the subject of movement - the same as before, not a great deal of significant movement. I will check again tomorrow and I promise to be extra careful when inputting the data.

Still no significant movement. I thought I would leave it a little while longer today before downloading the data - 7pm to be exact - BUT, it didn't help. There is one piece of good news - Nethy's battery has charged up, so when she does move we should get hourly updates of her progress.

I will write again tomorrow when ....well, it goes without saying. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Still no movement from either of the birds - or should I quantify that by saying no SIGNIFICANT movement. There is obviously a lack of sunshine in the Fairford area as Nethy's transmitter battery is quite low, thankfully we are still getting some data from it and it does show that she is still flying up and down the river - however, we are not getting hourly signals as expected. Deshar's transmitter is a little bit better and shows him around the lake as usual.

The general concensus is that the birds will go over the weekend when the weather improves - I do hope so.

Until then........