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Thanks Alice. Sounds as though you have your own problems at LG, so double thanks for this report. Off to check maps now.

Thanks very much for the update Alice. Mallachie is a little further to the west than I would like but she is still further east than Nethys track last year so hopefully all will be well.

Sorry about my last post I got my east and west mixed up. What I meant was that Mallachie was further east than I would like her to be. She is still west of Nethys track from last year.

Thanks Alice - what problems you are having up there.  Great to see our girls in Africa.  Fingers crossed for Mallachie and the Sahara.  Was in Dorset last week and saw them film Autumnwatch down at Portland :o) x

I'm right there with you Alan and Lesley.  I'd like to see Mallachie push a little more toward the west.  Rothes, dear Rothes is truly on holiday!  Thanks for the update Alice and hope you get your water problems resolved soon.  Darn frogs...

Great news! Thanks, Alice for taking time to update when you obviously have big problems up there.

Thanks Alice..... once these girls make their mind up to go there is no stopping them!!

It will be fascinating to see if they end up anywhere near to each other.

Hopefully it's just a frog !!  What kind of statement is that? Alice, do you mean a frog (real live animal) may be blocking the water pipe? Yikes, Hope the little creature is OK. And many thanks for your lates update, you sterling person you   :)

Atta girl Mallachie. Just take your time and eat well. Rothes enjoy your new home.

Gosh - go away for a couple of days and Mallachie finally decides to move!!

Good luck with the frog - I had to evict a couple of newts from my plumbing a couple of years ago!

Good news again.  Everybody in a good wintering place - now their growing up really begins.

Thanks Alice for the update when it seems you have other problems to sort out.  Well done Mallachie hope you have found good fishing and and can relax a little.  Rothes still doing her own thing but she is safe and that is all that matters.

Good to hear both are doing well!  Hopefully in a couple of years their will repeat their migration in reverse!

Thanks Alice for the news, good to hear she has moved on again. Hope you get your little problem sorted out, let's hope it's a simple one and there won't be a power cut!!

Please can we have a picture of the frog when you get it out?

Please can we have a picture of the frog when you get it out?

Thank you Alice. Hope the plumbing is easily fixed (maybe it's a tree root? we have that problem here and have to put root killer down the toilets every six months....)

Thanks again Alice for the marvellous update. At least we know our girls are safe. Just wonder where Garten is and EJ and Odin, hope they are safe as well!!!!!!

Don't think you'll want a picture of the frog when it comes out original goldfinch - we've had frogs in our plumbing before and they tend to be not too pretty when they come out!

Pleased to hear Mallachie's still moving and Rothes is still island hopping - quite envious of her really!

Just an aside on the various African travels of our ospreys. While the Sahara desert is obvioulsy not full of water, parts of the Atlantic coast in fact have plenty of fish, though of course these are out to sea. I've been driven along the Mauritania coast north of the border with Senegal and seen an osprey about every mile, with other birds being seen out to sea. There are no tres, so the birds were sat on the beach.

Further south there are some rivers, Senegal, Cassamance and the Gambia being the best known three and some stupendous wetlands which are absolultey vital for our Sedge Warblers and Sand Martins. I've actually seen somehwat fewer ospreys inland when compared to the coast, but they are still there.

All this goes to show is that a fish eating land bird will go where the fish are and if that's out to sea then to sea they will go. What I find much more interesting is how the bird's physiology changes to cope with long dyas in Scotland, with often rain and cold, to shorter days with dry heat, and further south humidity. How do the birds manage to stay awake for 20 hours in the summer, when in the wintering grounds there is about 11-12 hours of daylight at most. Given that most migrant birds are African ones that have moved north to take advantage of a temporary abundance of food the key change must be getting used to hugely longer day lenghts. And if they can stay awke for 20 hrs in summer why can't I.

Robert B, it is very interesting to know that the birds can cope well with no trees around! I wonder where they go to roost at night: they can't stay on the beach, as various predators could easily get hold of them without much effort. Alice, thank you very much for your much appreciated updates on our beloved ospreys. I hope wee Garten got to Africa safe and sound...I really miss her!

A brief news report (old news) today on BBC website. 'Young birds make it out to Africa.'

news.bbc.co.uk/.../8305224.stm

Thankyou Alice - so good of you to give us these daily updates, you really are spoiling us and it's really appreciated.  Hope you get you water sorted out PDQ!

I suspect they roost on an exposed point with visibility all round. I know it sounds bizarre but there is in fact plenty of light in a desert at night, there are rarely clouds to blot out the moon or the stars and together these will provide enough light for a creature to see. Remember that in an open environment such as an estuary there's enough light for a bird to move (for example waders will feed at low tide irrespective of the amount of light even in the UK).

Also to be borne in mind is that there really aren't that many predators in such an environment - all the resources are in the sea, with the land being very barren indeed.    

Thanks, Robert. I hadn't thought about that. How nice to be able to see all those birds sitting on the beach!

Robert, so enjoyed your knowledgeable comments, thank you.

glad to see them both safely in Africa. Thank for blogs lovely to hear. Hope all sorted for you now.

Thank you, Robert for such interesting info. Do you know anything about the area wherewe last had contact with Nethy ?

I can't be sure, but having been to Northern Senegal I can say that mountainous it is not. It's a place where in height terms a few feet is the difference between sand and water. I would therefore expect Lac du Guiers to be one of a series of shallow lakes that dot the area especially in the wet season (broadly June to August). These gradually dry out as the rains stop, leaving standing water only in the areas right by the Senegal river. I was there in December - there was still a good deal of water, but even then some lakes were getting dry.

The lakes are often very shallow indeed, and thus pretty good for dabbling ducks - just the odd 20,000 Garganey, plus a good sprinkling of other palearctic duck sepecies, such as Pintail, Pochard, Shoveller, Wigeon and Ferruginous Duck. Plenty of waders as well, especially Ruff (I saw 4-600 strong flocks). Best of all were in fact the White Pelicans, which bred in the Djoudj National Park, about 20,000 pairs.

Together with the coastal birds you can see most of the British wader species in northern Senegal, though not necessarily the British breeding populations (the movements of northern wader populations are pretty complex with sub-populations wintering in discrete, but often different areas). Looking back at the list I was short of (in Senegal) just Jack Snipe, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Bar-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher and Knot of the common British migratory waders, and had seen thousands of the last three further north in Mauritania

There will be trees in the area, generally varieties of acacia, but at least now there is very little that would be described as forest, instead single trees standing some 15-30 metres from each other.

If I get a chance to plug anything, it's to repeat the vital importance of Africa to "our" birds; Given this do support the RSPB/BTO expedition to look at the wintering populations of our songbirds - remember they probably spend more time in Africa than in Britain.

And as a final aside the year before I was in Senegal the expedition leader found a Yellow-browed Warbler in with the Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs; clearly at least some of our vagrants do survive and go south, it's jsut that there are very few birders to find them.