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There's not much to report on Rothes, she is still in the same general area, north of Bordeaux on La Gironde River, as at 4pm yesterday evening - the last data fix that we have for her.  Her wee sister, Mallachie, is on the move.  Having roosted in the Longhoughton area of Northumberland on Saturday evening, come first thing Sunday morning she was pressing on south into North Yorshire.

Here are a few selected locations she passed en route;

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 if you live in Proudfoot Drive, Bishop Auckland and were in your garden, she went right over you, - (hope she didn't poop on any one's washing!),

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 today 31st August.

Meantime, back here at Loch Garten we have had intruder osprey White TF with us again today, this morning at least, and he seems to be trying to make a statement of intent - bringing in sticks and fresh nesting material !!  Come April, Odin might have rival on his hands.  Next season's osprey intrigue has started already!

Mallachie is on her way!

The word last evening from the Osprey Centre was that Mallachie had not been seen since 11.30am on Saturday morning, 29th August.  So I have just been up to the office to download the latest data to see if we could find out where she's got to, and it gives fixes on her up to 9pm last night,  She is in Northumberland.

Sure enough, she left the Loch Garten nest area at about noon yesterday, she flew east over the edge of the main Cairngorm Mountains massif, passed the wonderfully named Spittal of Glenshee, over Benvie, just west of Dundee, then........(oh no!).......out over the North Sea east of Edinburgh!!

Hmmm.  It was a bit unnerving seeing her go out there, as that is what Deshar did last year, and we know what his navigational skills ultimately led to.  With trepidation, I tapped in the next few co-ordinates into Google Maps, and was relieved to see that she looks to have come back in to shore near Bamburgh, Northumberland, finally moving just a wee bit further south and in land a bit too, to a spot near Longhoughton, her last know fix at 9pm last night.  So she has at least passed her first test, of venturing out over water.

So, loneliness has got the better of her eventually and it has prompted her to leave us here at Loch Garten, the last of this year's osprey family.  However we are not entirely bereft of ospreys as yet, as in Mallachie's place, intruder white TF has been around on site most of the day for visitors to see.

As for Rothes, she is still pretty much in the same area in France. She has though, taken a few day trips out, venturing further south a little, up stream on La Gironde river, close to what looks like an industrial complex on the east bank of the river at Le Montalipan. I cannot work out quite what it is, a power station perhaps, before heading a little futher south still, to St Genes-de-Blaye, but always continuing to return back north to her favoured roost, at Dr Jones' sturgeon farm.

With both our tagged youngsters on the move now, we'll have our work cut out making daily checks, up-dating the map and keeping you informed.  Thank goodness Alice is back tomorrow from leave.  Meantime, my thanks to my friend Andrew Hutchinson, who's visiting for the weekend.  He read out the data to me as I entered it this evening.  Andrew remember, is the wildlife artist who painted the original of the osprey print that's free to new members when you join RSPB here at Loch Garten.

More anon.

Through a somewhat convoluted route, we are now in contact with the sturgeon farm where Rothes is currently located. Thanks to a string of e-mails from Tony to Nick to Yvette, word eventually got through to Dr Alan Jones of Sturgeon SCEA, who then e-mailed me and I just this minute phoned him in France to chat.  Thank goodness his secretary spoke excellent English, is all I can say!  Though I did just manage parlez vous Anglais - phew!

Anyway, when Dr Jones went on Google Earth, he was delighted to see that Rothes has decided to take a break on one of his sturgeon farms at St Fort sur Gironde. He told me that he is very honoured to have such a celebrity to stay.  He spoke to his staff there, to see if they had actually seen Rothes but they haven't.  She seems to be largely just roosting there, perhaps coming and going after the staff have gone home, hence no actual sightings. She is obviously fishing elsewhere in the vicinity, and Dr Jones confirmed that there are extensive wetlands on both sides of La Gironde river. He doesn't think it very likely that Rothes is eating his sturgeon as on that particular farm they only keep the females destined for caviar production and they weigh from about 5 to 15 Kgs!  This would be an impossible challenge for her.

Dr Jones has now become a regular blogger to check if Rothes is still gracing his farm with her presence, and he wonders if it will become a regular stopping off point for more ospreys in the future. When Rothes does eventually leave the area, he told me he hopes the rest of her journey is completed safely and he hopes that she will come and visit them on her return in years to come.  He's already pondering on introducing a new “Osprey”  brand of caviar to mark the occasion!  Needless to say, this is very welcome news indeed, to know that Rothes is welcome there and that the farm staff will be keeping an eye out for her during her stay with them. He has my contact number so he can keep me informed of any news.

I have checked the latest data this afternoon and Rothes is still in the same general area - her last fix was at 8am this morning.  On checking the data, for some odd reason there are no fixes at all for yesterday (27th). I've spoken to a techi-colleague at HQ who tells me that sometimes there can be blips in the satellite transmission cycle, a loss of sychronicity or some such explanation,  to be frank, he lost me a bit (sorry Nigel).  Anyway, in short more data will be out there in the ether somewhere and will arrive at some point, so until then I shall not up-date the map.  I'll try and take a look over the weekend, but otherwise it will be on Monday morning.  Have a good weekend.

In summary: Rothes in France. No Odin since 22nd. No Garten since 8.30pm on 26th. No EJ since 8am 27th. Just Mallachie here now on her tod, oh plus the intruder juvenile who's still hanging about.

Katie asked you to let us know your most memorable osprey experiences, and thank you for sharing those you've sent.  I wondered whether you might like to share mine.  It's a bit long, Katie's advice to us is that blogs should be of no more than 400 words, but she's away right now so I'll risk it.

It was May 27th 1986. I was working here at Loch Garten as Osprey Warden (what Claire does now), and I received an urgent call from a “roving“ colleague, whose job it was to keep an eye as best he could on other osprey nest elsewhere in parts of Highland.

He was making his routine check of a particular nest, by spying the nest from a distance with a telescope and as he put his eye to the eyepiece, to his horror, he saw an egg thief up the nest tree, at the eyrie in the very act of stealing the eggs!

Watching from some distance, he was unable to do anything.  It was too far to get to quickly, too far away to be heard shouting and yelling at the egger, so feeling somewhat helpless, (imagine not being able to do anything!), he could only watch the robbery unfold from afar, noting anything down that might eventually help the police find and catch the perpetrator.  He watched and witnessed the egger go up and down the tree three times.  The terrain below the nest made it difficult to see the man all the time, and he kept dipping in and out of view.  Eventually he was seen to take to his heels and flee the area.

This was in the days before mobile phones, so my colleague then had to leave the scene to summon my help.  I set off to join him at the site and eventually we ventured out towards the tree.  Both adult osprey circled above us, alarming incessantly.  We combed the ground for any likely evidence and then I climbed the tree to check what, if anything, was in the nest – untouched eggs and the would-be thief was just curious?  Replica eggs to lure the birds back so nobody would know the nest had been robbed?

It was a tricky climb but when I reached the eyrie rim and peered in, the nest was empty.  We knew from a licensed nest-check some weeks before that there was a clutch of three eggs in that nest, but not now.

From his distant vantage point, my colleague had seen the man dip in and out of view and we pondered on what that was all about.  On a hunch that he might have been hiding the eggs, we set about searching.  The eggers thinking here would be to stash the eggs, then flee the area empty handed and so if stopped, would not have the eggs with him. Instead he would return at some later date, perhaps many weeks or months later, out of season perhaps, when the heat was off and retrieve his ill-gotten gains.  We combed the area beneath the tree, side by side back and forth, but nothing.  We had just about given up, when with almost the last action, my colleague lifted up a large heavy over-hanging peaty divot of heather and blaeberry.  And lo, here in the peat underneath, were the three eggs.

By now, some time had passed and the eggs had no doubt cooled and were cooling even more, with every passing second.  We had to move fast, very fast, if they were to survive.  We had nothing in which to put the eggs, and I can’t quite remember what exactly we did, wrapped them in a hat or scarf or something I think, but climbing the tree with all the eggs together was too risky, so with one precious egg at a time, I climbed up and down the tree three times (as the egger had done, for the same reason), to place the clutch back in the nest.

By this time it was raining, making the climb more tricky and slower each time and this would only add to the cooling of the eggs.  Eventually with all three eggs back in the nest cup, we beat a hasty retreat to enable the ospreys to come back to the nest, resume incubation and get the eggs warmed. Looking back, it probably was not all that long, but at the time it seemed like an age, as we waited and waited to see the female safely settled back on to the nest.  Time and time again, she approached the tree, made low passes over her nest but each time she stopped short of landing. This seemed to go on for ever, and the rain continued to pour down.  By now we were losing hope and despairing for those eggs, but then finally in she came again, one more time and this time she landed on the nest and eventually shuffled back on to her clutch.  There was nothing more we could do, so somewhat despondent, fearing the developing embryos in those eggs would by now have perished, we left to go and get dried off, but we seriously doubted our efforts would be successful.

On his rounds, my colleague (and others) continued to keep a distant eye on the nest and kept me informed that the female was still sitting, which was of some comfort, but on eggs that were likely to be duds.  However, later still on 23rd June, a feed was witnessed.  Imagine seeing that, after what had happened!  Something had indeed hatched.  The mixture of elation and relief was overwhelming.  It remains, to this day my most savoured osprey moment.

Eventually, weeks later, it was ringing time and on 20th July, when we went to the nest it contained one healthy osprey chick.  My memory of this very much focuses on the chick and I cannot now remember whether the other two eggs were there or had been disposed of by the parents or broken and become mashed into the nest platform, I just cannot remember,  the important bit though, was that an extra young osprey would enter the population from that nest after all.  It fledged on 14th August.

Presumably the other two eggs had chilled just that bit too much to survive, but one at least had made it and the success of this nest albeit with just that one chick, meant the parent birds would likely return and continue to breed at that site, and they did.

Postscript: I've checked with Roy Dennis and the chick was ringed G8153 - pale blue/black U - but it was never reported seen again or found.  So that doesn't mean it's not still out there somewhere, though it would be a veteran if it was, at 23 years of age.  -  Richard.

My thanks to my web-team colleague Katie Fuller, for holding the fort for a few days while I was away and for resolving my parting error of Rothes' day trip to Mongolia and back!  Not sure I can now compete with her fancy web-ways an' all.  I'm afraid that it is back to the humble field staff now out here in the boondocks - good word eh?  Note to self: must try and use that more often.

Rothes is still in the same general area, on the east bank of La Gironde river, but she is perhaps now getting a tad exploratory and restless.  At 2pm on 25th she was picked up having travelled north, on an afternoon out, to Chenac-St.Seurin-d'Uzet, before returning later that afternoon/evening back to her now regular fish-farm spot to roost.  Next day (26th) amongst other localised micro-movements, she had a day out south this time, with a fix at 3pm that afternoon at what looks like, from Google Maps (we don't have Google Earth here), another fishpond or gravel pit-type complex, not easy to tell.  Rothes was back at her roost at 8pm that evening.  Not much more to report on her.

Some developments on site though, here at Loch Garten. Just spoken to David and the up-date is as follows. There has been no further sign of Odin for a few days now, so he is presumed to have gone.  EJ, who we thought had gone too, is in fact still here, she delivered a fish this morning at 9am.  What is going on here?  EJ still here!  Males are always last to go, as I've said before.  Not any more, seemingly.  Bin those osprey manuals, yet again.

Interestingly, Garten hasn't been seen since 8.30pm last evening (26th).  Has she gone, or just finally plucked up the courage to go that bit further afield? I bumped into a friend in Grantown High Street this morning, who's a ghillie on the River Spey and he told me he had had an osprey above him as he fished a local beat of the river.  Could that have been Garten or Mallachie?

Meantime Mallachie is still here, as I type, perched in the dead tree adjacent to the eyrie, and somewhat agitated, because we have an unidentified, un-ringed juvenile osprey perched below her in the same tree.  From whence, who knows?  Could be from anywhere.  A youngster from further north in Scotland or even beyond that perhaps.  On its way south, passing close by or overhead and attracted by seeing or hearing our birds, and has called in for some company and reassurance, maybe?

It is becoming inexorably autumn up here now, all the more and faster it seems to me after just a few days away in the south.  Darker all the earlier now and noticeably cooler.  The forests have fallen virtually silent, and most migrants are now long gone (except our ospreys!).  The rowan trees are bowed low under the sheer weight and volumn of fruit and the purple heather moorland is beginning to lose its lustre.  And yet at the BIrd Fair, it was hot and sunny and seemed like high summer down there, compared to here in Hyperborea - another good word, seldom used, must use that more often too.

Map for Rothes should up-date this evening. 

Well, you can probably predict the situation. The latest data we have shows - a drum roll, please -

Rothes: still in residence near Fontaine, north of Bordeaux

Mallachie: still around the nest she calls home.

The weather forecast for Aviemore shows high winds and rain coming soon, which will surely put off Mallachie and Garten from migrating just yet. I'm sure the Loch Garten crew will report any exciting occurrences.

So, here's something to talk about. I'd like to hear about your most memorable osprey experiences (staying up to watch the osprey webcam for 24 hours straight does not count!).

Here's mine. We were walking along the moor top at Porthgwarra in western Cornwall, through beautiful heather and gorse. There were migrant wheatears dotted around, choughs playing in the breeze and gannets and shearwaters cruising past offshore.

Suddenly, a big bird came into view: an osprey! We got a fantastic look at it as it flew right over us, even down to the pale tips to all its wing feathers - it was a young bird that had hatched just a few months earlier.

It looked around as it flew south-east across the headland, and that got me thinking. Where did it hatch? Where's it going? Will it cross the Channel from here? And that's what so interesting about birds - their mystique! There's so much that we don't know... your imagination can run riot.

Your osprey 'moments', please, ladies and gentlemen...

No, not pens and pencils, but Rothes and Mallachie, neither making any exciting movements as far as we can tell from today's batch of data.

Rothes has been mostly sitting by her favourite fishpond. At the Birdfair, Richard spoke to Naomi, the wife of one of the RSPB's directors, who was just back from Bordeaux and saw an osprey very near to where we know Rothes has been hanging out. Was it her? We can only wonder...

Rothes did make a brief sortie to the Gironde yesterday afternoon. She actually registered as the dreaded 'negative altitude' though my guess is that she was sitting on the shore of the estuary while the tide was out. Perhaps she was watching boats go past or maybe just eating a fish.

And as you webcam-watchers know better than almost anyone, Mallachie is still in residence at the nest.

Richard's sent me a few snippets of news, though...

Today, Malcolm saw Garten making a fishing attempt in... Loch Garten! He couldn't see if she'd been successful, but it's good news that she's having a go.

The gang at Loch Garten think Odin has left, not sighted for absolute certain since Saturday morning... They thought EJ had gone too, for a while. She wasn't seen yesterday, but a fish delivered this morning was believed to be from her.

An intruder, ringed White TF, was around this morning, making Mallachie nervous and putting her off eating the fish. Will she get the message that she'll attract less attention once she's not sitting on a big nest?

The Osprey Centre is still quite busy with visitors, no doubt enjoying the extended opportunities to watch Mallachie sitting around... They've had some fine, warm, sunny weather, but otherwise it's getting autumnal and very close to a frost late last night. Come on ospreys, it's time to go...

More tomorrow.

Hello.

Mallachie really has made my job as temporary basher-in of data for the map rather easy. She has managed this by not going very far.

When I receive the data, I scan through it looking for coordinates different from the norm (there wouldn't be much point in putting in all the identical coords from the nest). I pick out the more interesting ones. We have data from the weekend, but it will come as no surprise to you, osprey-watchers, that she hasn't really been any further than halfway to Nethy Bridge.

The tags capture data once an hour, on the hour. Of course, it's feasible that Mallachie sneaks off for long flights between 1 minute and 59 minutes past the hour. But it seems unlikely.

On to Rothes, our balbuzard pêcheur dans la belle France. She's been more active and has kept me busy for part of this afternoon.

We don't have full data for Sunday and today yet, but on Friday she went on a jaunt across to the south side of the estuary. On Saturday she flew a bit upriver before returning to roost at her favourite spot near the sturgeon place. One of the points shows she flew past the nuclear power station, the Centrale nucléaire du Blayais, on the banks of the Gironde. It's good to see she's exploring her local area.

As for when Mallachie will follow suit, I've no idea, but I can't wait to see where the sisters go next!

As I write this blog, EJ has just delivered a fish to the nest...and Mallachie and Garten are having a squabble over who is going to get it  No wonder they haven't started their migration, when good sized fish are still being delivered on a daily basis!  That fish is the first of the day, but it is a big one!  EJ had been eating her fill for fifty minutes, and there was still at least fifteen inches of it left!  There were four fish yesterday, at least one of which we believe was delivered by Odin, as the bird literally dropped off the fish and flew away immediately, very characteristic of Odin, who probably doesn't want to get caught between his daughters when they are arguing over the fish! 

On Friday there were three fish delivered to the nest.  With this ready supply of fish, Mallachie in particular has rarely been away from the nest area, and it will be interesting to see if she has ventured any further than the shores of Loch Garten!  She did have a rather strange intruder to contend with on Friday, when a raven was heckling her, and it wasn't until EJ returned in the late morning that it was well and truly chased off!

The wind has really picked up here at Loch Garten this afternoon, you can probably see the effect it is having on the birds, and it is even moving some of the smaller sticks in the nest.  I doubt that any osprey would want to start their migration in wind like this, so we may well be able to watch the birds in the centre and on the webcam for a few more days yet!

As well as the osprey, we are still being entertained and amused by the antics of the red squirrels, birds, bank voles and wood mice at the feeders, and this week they have also been joined by a rabbit, who has been a bit of a talking point!  We also have lots of fungi popping up in the woods and by the path to the centre,  so even when the birds are off stretching their wings there is still plenty to see!

We await the next fish...and the next migration....

Hello

This evening's map update has been prepared. As you might guess, not a lot has changed.

Rothes: still pootling around the Gironde and returning to her favourite spot next to the big ponds. It's been up to 23 degrees C there (73 F)

Mallachie: still at Loch Garten. She got almost as far as Nethy Bridge. That's as exciting as it gets. The temperature has been up to 14 degrees C (57 F)

It's interesting to note that Nethy and Deshar left the nest on 20 August last year.

Have a good weekend, and don't have nightmares.

Well, not a lot new to report today, I'm afraid. Mallachie still hasn't roamed very far from the nest. At 5 am yesterday she went to the shores of Loch Garten again, but the data doesn't show her exploring any further afield as yet. 

Meanwhile, as of 7 am this morning, Rothes was still in residence on the banks of the Gironde. She's been spending nights in what look like big trees near the big fish ponds. However, I've been able to fill in some gaps in the data from Saturday (15th), when she took herself off for a tour of the local area.  

Between 11 am and midday she crossed the Gironde, which is nearly 4.5 miles (or 7.3 km) wide at that point. Then she flew north-west and crossed back to the north side of the estuary. By 4 pm she'd completed her circuit and was back at her regular perch - in time for tea, perhaps...

ChrisJB asked about Rothes' altitude seeming low. My guess is that the area she's in at the moment is very low-lying. The numbers you can see on Google Earth (in the middle of the bottom bit of the screen) refer to the land's height above sea level, so she won't necessarily be very high above sea-level when flying, if you see what I mean! That said, she did get up to 479 m on the afternoon of the 15th. 

Heather asked how she could follow Rothes and Mallachie on Google Earth. You'll find instructions here, and I included some pictures which might help in a post in the Loch Garten osprey group last week. Hopefully that's all you need to get started.

If you're already having fun with Google Earth, have you tried exploring the Layers section on the right-hand side of the screen?Tick the 'Geographic web' box, then click the + sign next to it and choose 'Panoramio'. You'll be able to see photos on the map of Rothes' range. There are also more photos on the Panoramio website. To me, the landscape looks a bit like the north Norfolk coast, maybe the wilder bits of the Fens, or perhaps Holland. 

Have a look and tell us what you find! 

The map will be published some time after 7 pm, as usual. No excursions to Mongolia, with a bit of luck...

Clearly, Rothes did not go due east, non-stop, in a dead straight line to Mongolia!!!!! Now that really would be a case of tearing up the osprey manuals!

Looks like either we have that computer gremlin back again or, I've entered a co-ordinate wrongly somewhere, in my haste to up-date.  Sorry.  Katie will sort in the morning.  (Sorry to leave you with that Katie!)

Time to slink off with tail between legs.

R.

Latest news on Rothes is that she is still in the same general area as she has been for several days now, adjacent to La Gironde river, north of Bordeaux.  Her most recent position was at 08.00 this morning 19th August and she was between the villages of Camailleau and Fontaine.  From Google Maps, there looks to be a lake there or some such body of water anyway, and where there's water there'll be fish for Rothes, so she seems to be in a good area.  Too good, perhaps?  Are easy picking keeping her there? Can't be a bad thing, I guess.

Talking of easy pickings, meantime here at the rez, yep, you guessed it, the other four ospreys are all still here.  I haven't up-date Mallachie's movements on the map because they have been so insignificant, just very short distances away from the nest thus far, that to map all those micro-movements will make the map look like a Jackson Pollock painting or a child's frantic crayoning, i.e a mess (no offence to those that like his work, but you know what I mean).  She has though, ventured all of 400m to Loch Garten, so she may have had a go at fishing for herself.  There are very few fish in there and the water is so brown & peaty that seeing them is difficult, but she just may have been lucky, though we haven't seen her return with anything.  She'll need to get out more, if she's to hone those fishing skills before departing.  Is she, and Garten for that matter, becoming couch (well, nest) potatoes?  Will eventual hunger bring on their fishing abilities once they are on their way?  For how much longer will parents EJ and Odin continue to spoil them?

Only myself and Alice here at Loch Garten, can access the tracking data and up-load it etc,. Alice is away on two weeks leave and I'm off for a long weekend south (including Bird Fair) so HQ web-team colleague Katie Fuller will keep you in the picture in my absence.  Katie will be holding the fort until Tuesday, by which time surely there will be some developments.  By then Rothes might have moved on, EJ will surely have gone and, feeling bereft of company, maybe Mallachie and Garten will decide to head off too.  As for Odin?  Male ospreys are always (!) last to leave, but this lot seem to be full of surprises, so who knows when he'll wend his way.

Over to Katie.  Back Tuesday.

Rothes is still in the area of La Gironde River, France.  Her last known location was near a wee village called Les Ebaupins, still north of Bordeaux, at 9pm last evening.  From Google Maps it looks like on that east bank of the river there are a lot of field drains and ditches which might hold fish but also several hollows that could be quarries or gravel pits, some of which look like they have water and so will likely hold fish too, and/or are perhaps used for aquaculture.  All making for potential good pickings for Rothes.  Someone did make a comment about aquaculture in this area, farming sturgeon.  I guess that if they're of a suitable size for Rothes to catch and lift, then why wouldn't she eat sturgeon?

I wonder, do we have any bloggers in that area who could go and take a look and report back?  Even though we're tracking her, it would be nice wouldn't it, to get a first-hand sighting reported to us?

Meanwhile, the other four ospreys are still all present on site here at Loch Garten, showing well today, on the nest quite a bit of the time which was great for our visitors.  Quite when are they going to go?  Both EJ and Odin, but especially EJ, who really should have gone by now, seem determined to stuff these two chicks to the gunwales with fish, to do their utmost to have them in tip-top condition for the journey ahead of them.  Their parenting skills have certainly served Rothes well so far given her progress. 

Latest data just in, is up to 12 noon today 17th August,.  It show Rothes to still be in La Gironde river area, France, dotting about a bit there, so presumably she's fishing to fuel-up before moving on.

Meantime all other Garten ospreys are still here with us.