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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.

Just downloaded the latest data and it shows Rothes to be pretty much in the same locality as previously. The most recent fix of her position was at 10am this morning (Sunday 16th August) and she had just moved across to the other side of the La Gironde river, still north of Bordeaux.  I haven't up-dated the map but will check on her progress and position tomorrow.

All other birds, still with us today here at Loch Garten.

A quick up-date with all the available data for now on Rothes....

The postion fixes for her on Friday 14th August were as follows; 9am, she was near St-Vincent-sur Jard, heading east a little in whats looks like an arable farming area. 10am, near L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer. 11am, St. Xandre, east of La Rochelle. 12 noon she turned inland east of Surgeres and by 1pm was just north west of Saintes. At 2pm at an altitude of 978m she passed Gemozac and an hour later had dropped to almost at sea level (just 3m) at La Gironde river, fishing presumably, near St.Romain-sur-Gironde.

So, all still looking good for Rothes, and meantime our other four ospreys are all (?) still with us here at Loch Garten.  EJ  brought in a fish at 1pm this afternoon, both Mallachie & Garten haven't ventured far at all, but Odin hasn't been seen today as yet, but that's what has been happening lately, just one or two brief appearances a day, so no doubt he'll put in a show later.

That's all for now.

It's 8.30pm on Friday night and the tracking map depicting Rothes' should have up-dated sometime at the back of 7pm.  It didn't do so last evening at all and it's looking like it isn't doing so this evening either.  With the weekend now upon us, web-colleagues will not be on the case to sort this until Monday morning.  So your patience please.  At least in the previous blog post, I made reference to the key places Rothes has passed, plus her most recent known location north of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast of France.  Whether the map up-dates over the weekend by some automated means or other, remains to be seen, but I'll try and run a check on Rothes over the weekend and let you know where she's at.

(Saturday 7am-  I spoke too soon, map has now up-dated)

Meantime back here at Loch Garten, Mallachie and Garten, Odin and EJ are still here and with such an awful weekend's weather in prospect, I doubt that they'll be going anywhere fast, it being driech here right now, - dull, damp and overcast, with light drizzle, requiring the first log fire of the "autumn" to be lit here tonight, as its the weekend - which tells you something of the conditions here.  Just when is EJ going to go?  It was 14th August (today) last year, I think, but whilst the drop in temperature and the shortening days should be her cues, with this current weather, she'll likely be here until Monday at least. Making for what's looking like being one of the latest adult female departures from Loch Garten.  We shall see.

I just want to make mention of Team LG.  Today they recruited the 500th new RSPB member of our season, which is a magnificent achievment for them.  So well done Claire, David, Malcolm, Debbie, Ian, Andrew, Chloe, Paula and the two Julies.  They have worked hard at telling the osprey story to our visitors, sharing their passion and enthusiasm, firing-up people's imagination, interest and care for; ospreys, other wildlife and its conservation and portraying RSPB in a very positive light, as a creditable organisation worthy of support.  So I say, well done to them, and thanks to the many of you who have visited and joined RSPB here on site this season at Loch Garten and indeed to those of you who haven't manged to visit, but who have joined on-line.  Plus of course all those of you out there who are already RSPB members. Thank you.

Have a good weekend.

Not me guv, honest.  Checked our data entry at this end this monring and phew, we're in the clear, Alice and I had indeed entered the information correctly.  Seemingly it was computer gremilns that caused the map not to up-date last evening.  However Katie and Olivier at Web-HQ have worked their magic and the map is now up.

Whilst on the case of the problem, we took a look at the latest fixes on Rothes location, up to 8pm last night (13th). She's really motoring now and has pressed on further down through France.  At 7am yesterday morning she was near Montauban-de-Bretagne, 9am south of Mauron, 10am north of Carentoir, 11am Redon and at 1pm she was at the mouth of the River Loire at St.Nazaire.  Moving on further, she was at Pornic, west of Nantes, 3pm Machecoul and at 4pm was on the coast at Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. with her last fix at 8pm inland a little at Grosbreuil, north of La Rochelle - and all before adult female EJ has even left Loch Garten!  This is both amazing and intriguing.

The data for Rothes' latest movements has been entered, the map should up-date tonight sometime after 7pm.  We have up-dated the movements of Mallachie too, but compared to her big sister, she's still just making micro-movements locally.

Rothes has made it to France, yo!

I have just checked the latest data, only getting a further seven fixes on her position since 10am yesterday when we knew her to be near Torquay, Devon. 

Well, at 11am-ish, yesterday morning, she set off out over The Channel at a height of 76m. The next three hourly readings gave her position as being still over the water, though passed halfway, so now technically over La Manche, I guess, but having lost altitude to 42m, then 20m and then.......worryingly........down to sea-level!

One such reading, though very, very scary after what befell Deshar last year, is really of little consequence (he says, nervously) - she may have stopped for a rest on a buoy or other Channel marker.  Reassuringly, the next few fixes gave her at heights of; 16m (just west of Jersey), 47m and then a soaring 263m, (hooray!), at her last known position at 5pm yesterday 12th August, over Le Haut des Bois, south west of Saint-Malo, Brittany......phew! 

Juveniles Mallachie, Garten and adault male Odin, are all still here on site, but we haven't seen adult female EJ since 9.30pm last night (12th) when she delivered yet another fish for her remaining brood.  Was it her last fish, her last supper?  Has she set off on migration to West Africa?  Not being satellite tagged, we cannot know,  but we'll watch closely for her here this evening and tomorrow to confirm whether she has indeed gone.

STOP PRESS:  No sooner had I pressed the Publish button, when Malcolm phoned to say that EJ had just arrived with a fish.  So she hasn't gone, yet.

Finally tonight, how spooky is this?  When we got a fix the other day, on Rothes over Llanddeusant, Anglesey, I e-mailed my colleague, Alastair, RSPB Area Manager in North Wales, to jokingly tell him to watch out for our bird in his area.  Unbeknown to me, he lives quite close to Llanddeusant - and it was his birthday as Rothes passed over, and get this, Alastair used to be the Osprey Warden here at Loch Garten back in 1985.

After entering the latest data yesterday, the map up-dates automatically, but not until about 7pm in the evening.  When I looked last evening, the map showed Rothes' route was all over the place, she appearing to have yo-yo-ed south, then north, then south again in several places en route.  This is very unlikely behaviour!

When checked, the data had indeed been entered correctly, but quite what caused the map to depict her route in this way, we are not entirely sure.  However, web-colleagues at HQ Katie and Olivier have worked on this throughout today and we believe it to be sorted now.  We shall see, later this evening after 7pm-ish.  In addition, Alice and I have looked at the latest data and in-putted that now too, so the map should show you Rothes' movements from her last know position on Anglesey to her latest know position at 10am this morning.

Her route has been as follows; she moved on from Anglesley and at 10am yesterday she was flying through the Snowdonia National Park, at 11am she was just west of Machynlleth, at 12 noon she was just east of Tylwich, and at 1pm near Aberedw.  Later yesterday afternoon, at 4pm Rothes was near Highbridge, just south of Weston-Super-Mare and appears to have roosted near Branscombe, Devon at 9pm.  This morning at 9am she worked her way west a little, along the south Devon coast towards Salterton, over the East Devon Golf Club.  Her last known position was inland a little just north west of Torquay at 10am.  So Rothes has made further great progress, she's on The Channel coast already.  What did she do later today, bide her time, refuel perhaps?  Or press on, to make that Channel crossing to France?  We'll know more tomorrow.

Meanwhile back here at the rez, the remaining fab four are fine & dandy.  All birds; EJ, Odin, Mallachie and Garten, were all in-about the nest area at intervals during the day.  Who'll go next?  And when?  Despite not yet being mid-August, there is an Autumnal feel here already, we are getting cool evenings now, and the nights are drawing in.  A frost before the month's out, I'd wager - all cues that will some time very soon, prompt our birds to leave.  EJ will go this weekend, I reckon.

Today, we held the last guided walk of the season and it was distinctly quiet in the forest; redstarts & tree pipits appear to have gone already, there were precious few willow warblers to be seen either, suggesting they too have also left. Swifts, normally to be seen hawking insects over Loch Garten, were conspicuous by their absence, and we found no common sandpipers along the loch shore.  Just a lone spotted flycatcher was seen, flying the flag for summer migrants.  Still, we enjoyed a fledged family of resident crested tits and the children in the group were thrilled at the mouse-like treecreeper we saw scuttling up the trunks of pine trees.  But, I'm afraid the signs are there, of a summer almost passed.  It's such a long time coming, but then it seems to go all too quickly. Bah!

They're under starter's orders......and they're off, well Rothes is, at least.  Yep, she's gone!

We haven't seen Rothes on site since Sunday morning, 9th at about 09.30am,  so we were getting a bit curious.  Could she just be out exploring, venturing further afield than previously, finding her feet (wings) honing her fishing and flying skills, maybe catching her own fish but not returning with it to the nest area, to avoid squabbles with her pesky sisters?  Certainly unlikely, in fact unprecendented here at Loch Garten, I think, to actually leave before the adult female EJ......but she has!!! 

Rothes is in Wales already!  As at 5am this morning (her latest fix), she is/was near Llanddeusant, Dyfed.

This is exciting and fantastic news, to know that Rothes is safely on her way and that she has made such good progress so far.  Her route was interesting.  It seems like she ventured north a little on Friday 7th, just on a  wee sight-seeing day out perhaps, up as far as Garve, north west of Inverness, taking herself a set of aerial photos of Highland perhaps, before returning back to the nest area and then departing south on Sunday morning.  She passed close to Ardrishaig on Loch Lommond-side at 4pm on 9th, overflew Saltcoats, Ayrshire at 11am 10th, heading out over the Irish Sea passing over Isle of Man and was at/near Llandeusant Dyfed overnight on 10th August.  Wow, how amazing is that?  That's the latest we know.

EJ, Odin, Mallachie and Garten are all still with us.  We have been expecting EJ to go at any moment - LG females have usually gone between 8-10 August, though last year it was 14th, but Rothes is already on her way.  We'll keep you up-dated as often as we can.

Here we go, here we go, here we go............ the journey has begun - both theirs, and ours!  Brace yourselves, and hold on tight.

Correction:  Oops my mistake, sorry.  There are apparently two Llanddeusants in Wales, one in Camarthan (not Dyfed) the other in Anglesey.  Rothes was near Anglesey.  Having flown passed both Lochwinnoch and Inversnaid RSPB reserves, maybe she'll add Valley Lakes to her list of reserve visited en route.  The map gets up-dated in the evenings at 7pm.

We have now added the document about the red squirrel as an attachment. Hope that helps. Sorry you weren't able to view it before.

Perhaps that steep learning curve all osprey chicks have to experience just got a little steeper in the last few days. Don’t worry they are all fine!

The intruders that were seen on Tuesday and Wednesday were the same ones that were around on Sunday, ie, the un-ringed male and the female, White TF.

On Tuesday evening, just after 6.30pm, Garten was happily tucking into a fish, having patiently waited her turn, when the un-ringed male landed on the nest post. Garten mantled her wings and the male swooped at her. Despite this, Garten managed to keep hold of the fish and fly off with it. Initially, the intruder chased Garten, but, then returned to the camera tree and dive-bombed Rothes. Both the intruders were away just before 8pm. At 8.13pm, EJ returned with a large fish. This was taken by the male intruder, who was sat in the nest. Garten flew into the nest and both her, and EJ, looked confused, as to what had just happened.

On Wednesday night, just after 7pm, Rothes landed on the nest and alarm-called. She was dive-bombed by an un-ringed intruder, who pulled her off the nest. Both were seen flying afterwards. The un-ringed male then sat in the camera tree, with White TF. A short time later, an osprey was seen displaying with a fish, before flying away. Two ospreys remained and dive-bombed each other. One was wearing a satellite tracker. We lost sight of them behind the trees. Just before 8pm, we saw Odin chase the intruders away and then eat the fish he had been displaying with! Just after 8.30pm, EJ appeared with a 20” brown trout, which Rothes ate. EJ then fed Mallachie and then fell asleep with the rest of the fish under her foot. Just in case…

All of this happened after the staff had left the centre, so we are, as ever, grateful to our volunteers who record everything that happens!

So far today, EJ has brought two HUGE fish and Odin has brought a smaller one. Rothes has been exploring high above the reserve. We have seen intruding ospreys, but they have kept their distance.

In answer to the question about ospreys eating bones: Bones get eaten too, the digestive juices of ospreys are strong and small soft bones like those of fish will largely be dissolved.  Ospreys do though also regurgitate pellets of the less digestible materials - toughest scales and bones.

 A few days a go there was a question from one of you, asking about red squirrels and what are our views, if (when) grey squirrels arrive in the Highlands and here at Abernethy, potentially threatening the existence of the reds.  RSPB is supporting conservation efforts to safeguard red squirrels and the link given below is RSPB's response to Scottish Government proposals to set up a programme to prevent red squirrels being displaced by grey squirrels.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Red_squirrel_strongholds_consultation_tcm9-220673.pdf

Yesterday was such a bizarre day! In the morning, there were seven ospreys to be seen from the centre, of which, four were intruders. We hadn’t seen EJ since late the previous night and Odin had not been back to deliver a fish. No doubt, he wants to encourage our chicks to have a go at fishing themselves. Earlier, that morning, we had seen an osprey having a look at Loch Garten for a short while.

By the afternoon we were starting to wonder whether we were at the right centre. Where were our ospreys? Who were these ospreys on the camera tree and in the nest? An un-ringed male (not Odin) landed in the nest and started to make contact calls. Another intruder then appeared in the nest, White TF , who we’ve seen quite a few times, but never close enough to see that it was a female. We could now see the brown bib and much more brown on the head.

The next thing to happen made us wonder whether we had been somehow transported back to April. The two intruders flew around and one landed on the camera tree.  The second one then attempted to mate! They then returned to the nest and looked very much at home.

At 15.38 Odin returned and tried to land on the nest, repeatedly, with a small fish, but, the un- ringed intruder prevented him from doing so. There was no sign of our chicks at this point. Even when we can’t see them, they usually appear fairly rapidly if a fish is brought in. At 15.51 Odin gave up and decided to eat the fish himself. That took all of two minutes!

Just before we closed, Garten and Mallachie appeared at the nest calling for fish. They had to wait until 21.52, when EJ returned with a very small fish. Perhaps she thought there would be less chance of the chicks dropping it!

Today, Odin delivered two fish to the nest, both before 07.00. EJ brought her usual huge fish into the nest at about 10.20. Unfortunately, the same un-ringed male was sat in the nest and he took the fish! EJ looked really confused. Mallachie flew in and pecked the intruder and he flew off. EJ sat and shrieked and mantled her wings, before pursuing and dive bombing the intruder. Odin suddenly appeared in the sky, display calling, with a fish. Rothes is now sat happily eating the fish he brought. The intruder must have thought it was his lucky day!

We wonder what will happen next!!!!    

Well August is upon us and we can once again report that all is well at osprey central. Well apart from a slight mishap where Mallachie managed to drop a fish that EJ had very kindly brought in for her. Suffice to say EJ was not best pleased about this situation and spent quite a few minutes peering over the edge of the nest wondering how on Earth the fish had managed to get stuck there. Mallachie, bless her soul, spent this time food soliciting as if she had done nothing wrong. Well we all live and learn.

Apart from that it has been your typical osprey centre day, a few fish, a couple of intruders, a couple of fleeting glimpses of Odin and three happy chicks. The red squirrels have been up to their usual antics, the juvenile woodpeckers have been showing well and we've even had a few glimpses of the young redstarts. So you see we're not all about ospreys here (ok so we are mostly), there are lots of other things to see and enjoy.

So just a quickie to keep you all updated, hope your all grand out there in internet land and if you are up in the area drop in and see the sisters before they're up, up and away!

PS. Thanks to David & Liz, and Loonylynne - all webcam viewers who have visited us in the past few days.  Thanks for dropping by.  -  Richard

PPS Oh, and welcome to your fellow blogger JulieQ, known to many of you, late of Caper-watch 2009 and now working in the Osprey Centre shop on Sundays until the end of the season.  Welcome Julie, and thanks for helping out.  -  Richard

The first movements of Rothes and Mallachie have now been posted - see the tracking page.  Alice and I (well, Alice really - remember her from last year?) inputted some data earlier this evening and it seems to have worked!  On the map, you can see the Osprey Centre, in the native pine forests near to Loch Garten and about 150m from the Centre ,you can see where the nest is, on a drier knoll of moranic material out in an extensive area of forest peat bog.

Rothes can be seen to have ventured around a bit, towards Loch Garten itself  and towards the township of Tulloch.  Rarely do we see adult ospreys fish in Loch Garten, despite the close proximity to the nest.  Two reasons for that, a) there are hardly any fish in the loch, just some stunted jack pike, and b) because the water is very brown and peaty, like tea without the milk, and so seeing what few fish there are in there is very difficult.  So adult ospreys just head out towards the nearby River Spey, other local lochs better for fish and of course the fish farm near Aviemore. 

Just been to collect my visiting nephew from the train station, and from the platform, I saw an osprey stack, above the fish farm which is unseen behind the railway station - three ospreys all circling the waters below.  Anyway, over the years, once young from our nest fledge, at first they do not know any different, so we do sometimes see instinct kicking-in and our juvenile ospreys circling Loch Garten attempting to fish there.  Before long though, they soon either realise that it's not a good spot or notice their parents ignoring the loch and venturing further.  We can expect to see this from Rothes and Mallachie in days and weeks to come.

In case you wondering why we do not stock Loch Garten with fish, to make it a good spot for ospreys to hunt, well, it is because the loch is part of an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) a UK Governmanet nature conservation designation, in this case, on account of the lochs natural characteristics as they are, albeit poor for fish.  To stock the loch would potentially irreparably alter the natural ecology of the loch ecosystem, counter to its status as an SSSI - tempting though it is!  Sadly, there is enough ecosystem change and damage going on the world over, so why would we want to add to that?

As I've mentioned the subject of designations, the Abernethy reserve must rate as one of the most heavily conservation designated places on the planet, and for very good reason.  It is SSSI, NNR (National Nature Reserve), SAC (Special Area for Conservation), SPA (Special Protection Area), NSA (part of a National Scenic Area), it includes a RAMSAR Site, and is part of the CNP (Cairngorm National Park).  That surely leaves you in no doubt what so ever how ultra important and precious Abernethy is for nature conservation.  More on that anon.

Anyway, meantime, it's been a busy day at the Centre, with as many as six ospreys viewable on site at some points today, our family of five plus an intruder.  All good learning experiences for Rothes, Mallachie and Garten, to see intruders coming in about the nest and to see them repelled by Odin and/or EJ - all good stuff for them to be witnessing, soaking up and storing, as part of their steep learning curve to help equip them, in their lives ahead.