Loch Garten osprey diary

Introducing our LTV... and some news on the chicks...

Alice Macmillan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:56:00 GMT

Right then, this weeks data is in - this week thanks to our LTV (that's Long Term Vol if you were wondering).

Rothes is still in the area around Varela in Guinea Bissau. She's had a flight out over the sea but is seemingly keeping to a pretty localised area. Mallachie is also not showing any inclination to move to a new area - the area around Jarreng Tenda and Ba Faraba Island in The Gambia is good enough for her.

Below is the first post from our LTV Douglas - we decided we couldn't let him be outside all the time...

Hi all,

I’m the current long term volunteer at RSPB Abernethy NNR and will be helping out in this wonderful Highland location until April 2010, which I’m sure will come around all too soon.

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know about some of the work undertaken and the wildlife on offer throughout the winter season on the reserve.

Since starting my placement on October 7^th,as well as black and red grouse I have been lucky enough to see three male and several hen Capercallies, these magnificent birds are a target species for conservation on the reserve and indeed throughout Scotland.

So far, my work has included heather burning, wetland construction, deadwood creation, deer fence maintenance and salmon counting on the river Nethy (note from Alice as one of you asked about this - we do this by walking downstream and counting the fish, not by electrofishing), all done under the expert guidance of the enthusiastic team up here.

As my experience increases, the team have given me more responsibility for individual tasks and I would like to relate a magical experience I had on the hills just the other day. I had been asked to assess repair work needed on a section of deer fence high on a hillside and as I approached the top, a Golden Eagle rose no more than 30 feet in front of me! Now I have seen these birds before but usually just a speck in the sky, this was a mature bird and I was close enough to see the golden brown nape feathers and powerful talons and beak. I did manage a picture on my point and press camera but the one in my memory bank will stay with me forever, truly a magnificent bird.

There have been great flocks of fieldfares and redwing feeding on the rowan and hawthorn berries in the area, fattening up for what I am sure will be a very cold few months ahead.

It’s another day in the hills for me tomorrow, this time with the wardens, and I am sure I will be seeing and doing things that will appear in my forthcoming writings. Cheers for now… Douglas

Brrrrr it's cold....

Alice Macmillan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:18:00 GMT

Sorry not to write this update earlier - trailer wheel brake issues and a salmon count - and since it was such a fantastic day, frosty and sunny (-8 degrees C last night) it seemed justifiable to download the latest data later on - as I'm writing this at 4.30pm it's nearly dark...

Anyway I've put the data in for Rothes and Mallachie. The points I'm getting are 9am and 5pm each day. Rothes has stayed put in the area between Varela and Nhiquim - she's taking it easy and enjoying the winter sun?

Mallachie meanwhile is in the same area of the Gambia, but dodging about a bit more - she's roosting in different places (unlike Rothes who may almost have picked her favoured tree...).

Anyway so both are moving around. The next update will come through next Saturday and I'll update you all again next Monday.

On the reserve front, our Goose Roost Watch yesterday was very successful (sort of...) Richard's written a bit about it below:

The Goose roost-watch on the shore of Loch Garten last evening, was a spectacular success, attended by no-less that 85 people, a simply magnificent turn out, including ten children and many local people amongst them, and out-numbering the geese by…………….85! Yep, a complete blank on the goose-front, which was just a tad humiliating for Alice and I, but nevertheless, it was a wonderful evening. The loch was glassy-calm, giving perfect reflections of the Craigowrie hills beyond, the sunset was superb and the light at the gathering gloaming was just stunning. Add to that the frosty conditions, (which dropped to minus 8 degrees C later last night), and it all made for a beautiful hour or so at the loch side, bar the geese of course. But pah! Who needed 'em? Well, if I'm honest, one or two would have been good, to at least have had the event live up to its billing.

There were a mixture of other wildfowl including a few each of goldeneye, goosander, mallard and wigeon, plus assorted large gulls wafting in to roost. Just no geese. Yet there are, as I was vainly attempting to impress on the gathered throng last night, (some would say clutching at straws, maybe), many hundreds if not over a thousand greylag geese in the Strath right now, somewhere. Earlier in the day I had passed Loch Pityoulish a few miles away where 250+ were loafing, but who clearly opted to stay put rather than shift to Loch Garten. The bright, moonlit evenings of late might not have helped the situation either, as in such conditions, the geese can remain feeding out in fields, as moonlight enables them to be alert for predators.

But hey, we had a fun time (he says optimistically), and we are grateful to all who made the effort to come along, just sorry it was a disappointment. Alice skillfully disarmed any pending rebellion, with pacifying cups of tea & coffee, and the banter was good, and it really was a stunning end to the day, in contrast to the thrashing rain we had last week - though we did at least have geese on that occasion! What is it they say? Never work with animals and…..geese.

Anyway, that's all for now - more next week.

No new data yet...

Alice Macmillan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:19:00 GMT

I've checked again for new data today (Friday 6th) but there's none available yet. It's looking like it'll become available tomorrow - as that's 7 days into November. Unfortunately I don't have access to a computer at the weekend - so it'll be Monday before I can get hold of it. Monday morning it'll be the priority job (unless something more urgent turns up...).

In the meantime, if you are around this Sunday it's the last of this year's Goost Roost Watches at Loch Garten - if you're in the area come along - it's looking like the weather will be better than last Sunday. It's on between 4 and 5pm - no guarantee of geese, but we had some last time even in the torrential rain. If we're lucky we might get to see and hear them whiffling as they come into land.

Have a nice weekend.

That's all folks...

Alice Macmillan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:41:00 GMT

...for a few days at any rate.

Well the last of the hourly data is in (thanks to the volunteers). The latest point I got for Rothes was 12 noon on Saturday (31st), and for Mallachie it was 2pm. The data shows both of them to have hung around their respective patches - Rothes near Varela and Mallachie near Sotokoi.

I'll check for new data regularly until I find out which day we'll be getting it through. In the meantime I'll not write any new blogs until I have some data to write about. So there'll be a bit of a gap in blogs for a little while.

The Goose Roost Watch went better than Richard and I expected - there were actually some geese and people. There was also quite a lot of rain - fortunately we didn't get the flooding they got over in Aberdeenshire...

I'll update again soon...

A quiet end to the week...

Alice Macmillan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:12:00 GMT

Well Rothes and Mallachie have stuck with where they were for the last 24 hours or so. As of 11am this morning (30th) Rothes was still near Varela, and Mallachie was between Jareng Tenda and Dasilami (latest point 10am this morning).

Tomorrow is the 31st of October - so the last day we will get hourly data. I'll update again on Monday, but I won't get any of November's data until a week has gone by (I don't think). I'll check every day until I know for sure what day the data becomes available - so you guys will get it as soon as possible.

Enjoy your trick or treating tomorrow and if you are coming to Sunday's Goose Roost Watch at Loch Garten (4-5pm) I'll see you there.

Have a nice weekend.

Settling down?...

Alice Macmillan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:48:00 GMT

Well the latest data from Rothes and Mallachie shows them both to have stayed in the same areas as the last update. The data is for up until 10pm yesterday (28th) for both of them, with Rothes still near Varela and Mallachie near Sotokoi. They are both making short flights in their local area, but not doing anything dramatic (at least not caught by the tracking devices!).

Here at Abernethy it's been a dry sunny day (from what I could tell looking out the window - it's been an office day for me today...). The weather's due to get wet again tomorrow though I think.

If you are in the area on Sunday afternoon (1st November) between 4 and 5pm, Richard and I will be at Loch Garten for the first of our 2 Goose Roost Watches. There's several 100 geese in the Strathspey area at the moment, with more still arriving from the north. We can't guarantee geese on the day, but Richard will have scopes and his expertise and I'll bring the tea and coffee... Bring waterproofs and warm clothes if you plan to come along (just in case...). There's another one on the Sunday after (8th).

More tomorrow.

Not much change...

Alice Macmillan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:46:00 GMT

Well I didn't get much new data through today - just one new point for Mallachie, and 4 new points for Rothes.

Mallachie was still in the Gambia close to Jarreng Tenda (this was at 5pm yesterday - 27th).

Rothes headed north into Senegal close to Cap Skirring until 11am yesterday, then headed back into Guinea Bissau for 3pm (the latest point I have) close to Catao Butame, E of Varela.

Hopefully I'll get a bit more data tomorrow.

Deadwood creation (for those of you who were asking) is where we go into the areas of the forest that have been identified as not having much deadwood in and create it. Basically we use chainsaws or a hand winch (which is heavy to carry about and hard work - which why the volunteers usually end up using it...) and make an intentional mess. By using a winch we end up with uprooted trees, with a chainsaw we can fell them close to the ground or higher up, ringbark them (to make them die but still be standing) etc etc. It's all about getting a bit of variety.

Deadwood is important in the forest because it supports lots of invertebrate species and birds etc. A few facts I got off Richard: Abernethy is the top ranked site in Scotland for saproxylic (living on deadwood) beetles (with 144 species recorded); at least 90 saproxylic species of conservation concern have been recorded on Abernethy; 35 species of deadwood dependant lichen and 16 species of deadwood dependant fly have been recorded on Abernethy; also at least 12 species of bird including goldeneye duck, redstart, crested tit, wryneck, swift, treecreeper etc (off the top off Richard's head) nest in holes in trees (or nestboxes!) and dead trees are more likely to have holes in. So you can see it's pretty important to have deadwood in a forest. It's also good fun to create it (though tiring...).

I'll update again tomorrow.

Sotokoi...

Alice Macmillan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:35:00 GMT

Well Mallachie has hung around Sotokoi in The Gambia for the last 24 hours or so. She roosted there last night (26th) having spent the day there and up until 11am this morning (the latest point I have) that's where she was. Looking at the satellite picture you can see it's an area with lots of water channels (and I assume that may still be the case at this time of year) and so should be good fishing. It'll be interesting to see if she sticks around there any longer or moves on somewhere else.

Rothes meanwhile had another quietish day - she hung around Varela yesterday afternoon, then headed NW to near Sucujaque - right near the border with Senegal. She spent last night there and as of 8am this morning (27th) that's where she was.

Meanwhile here at Abernethy it's been raining nearly all day. That didn't stop me and the vols heading out to create some more deadwood. They were winching and I was chainsawing. When we got back to dry off I set them onto satellite data entry (so you can thank them for tonight's map) and I created a map of the deadwood we've done so far this winter - we've covered much more than I had thought - and it's looking good. We'll be back out again tomorrow (unless the pickups have floated away!).

More tomorrow.

The Gambia.

Alice Macmillan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:24:00 GMT

Well Mallachie didn't stick around close to Rothes for long. After that 5km close flyby and change of direction back to the north, that's where she continued heading. On Friday it was back into The Gambia by 4pm passing by Soma, Kunjo and Sanka Lang - where she roosted on Friday night (23rd). On Saturday she was back into north Senegal by 10am, though only briefly - being back into The Gambia by 11am. She crossed the River Gambia passing Potodi and Palaka, then roosted on Saturday night near Sotokoi. Sunday saw her give up the move move move mentality for a restful day - staying close by Sotokoi near the river all day and roosting there again. The latest point I have for her is 7am this morning when she was in the same area.

Rothes meanwhile had a very uneventful weekend movement wise - she barely moved away form the Varela area in Guinea Bissau. Though she did head out over the sea briefly for a couple of hours yesterday (26th).

Thanks to this week's short term volunteers who entered a lot of the data today (I did some too - so if there are any mistakes when the map gets published you can blame me!).

More tomorrow.

5km....

Alice Macmillan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Well it got pretty exciting at about 3pm yesterday (22nd).

When the map updates this evening at around 8pm you'll see (assuming I put all the data in right...) that Mallachie continued SW in the morning till getting close to the coast of Senegal, and then turned S to follow the coast. At 2pm she was close to Kaboukoute in Senegal. She then continued S across the border into Guinea Bissau - coming to be within about 5km (or even less than that) to where Rothes was hanging around near Varela.

So that's pretty exciting... The data for Rothes has a gap between 12noon and 4pm for yesterday though (so potentially she had headed off out into the sea miles away from where Mallachie got to at 3pm - but I'm not planning on believing that - as she had been pretty settled the last while in the area near Varela).

Mallachie though didn't hang around in Guinea Bissau. Instead she headed E and slightly N back into Senegal, inland along the river. At 11am this morning (23rd) she was close to Badjikounda. Rothes stayed near Varela - the last point I have for her was 10am this morning.

I'll update again on Monday. Have a nice weekend.

100km...

Alice Macmillan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:38:00 GMT

...is about all that's separating Mallachie and Rothes.

Since 12noon on the 19th Rothes has mainly been dodging about the northern part of Guinea Bissau, with a brief hop into Sengal. On the 19th, 20th and 21st (last night) she roosted close to Varela - maybe becoming a favoured area? That's where she was at 6am this morning (22nd).

Mallachie meanwhile has continued her migration. She continued SW and reached The Gambia at 11am on 20th (Tuesday). She then turned more to the W and followed the Gambia River downstream, roosting close to Jarreng Tenda on 20th. Yesterday saw her continue SW back into Senegal. Last night she roosted near Djinaki (which is where she was at 8am this morning, the latest point I have for her).

So this morning it was only about 100km between them - will they get closer?

For those of you asking about frequency of updates - it's my understanding that we'll get hourly data and so daily updates until the end of October. From November the data fixes will be reduced to twice a day, with the data available for download once a week - and so weekly updates - probably on a Friday, with missing data added in on Mondays. At some point in the spring the data will go hourly again for a bit, then over the summer it'll be back to twice a day. This will continue for up to 3 years.

More tomorrow.

Mallachie's in The Gambia...

Alice Macmillan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:09:00 GMT

I'm afraid this is just a brief update as I've only just got back to the office after a pretty busy day.

Mallachie's most recent point is for 10pm last night (20th) when she was close to Jarreng Tenda in the Gambia. So she's still progressing south.

Rothes was still on the Guinea Bissau mainland, close to Varela, which is pretty close to Senegal. That was also at 10pm last night.

Please accept my apologies that I haven't entered any of the data in today - I just looked on google maps to see where the last known points are. As such the map won't get updated tonight. I'll make it a priority tomorrow.

More tomorrow.

Barkiel...

Alice Macmillan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:24:00 GMT

I didn't get much new data to enter today. Just 2 new points for Rothes - she was still on the mainland of Guinea Bissau, and headed N towards Sancatuto (as of 12noon yesterday, 19th).

Meanwhile Mallachie continued SW through Senegal passing over the Reserve de Faune du Ferlo Nord. At 5pm yesterday (the latest point I have) she was about 50km ish from the border with The Gambia.

Apologies for the failure of the map update yesterday - it should all get updated tonight by about 8pm ish.

More tomorrow.

Into Senegal...

Alice Macmillan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:05:00 GMT

Well Mallachie has travelled a fair distance this weekend. When we left her on Friday (with data up to 6pm on Thursday, 15th) she was in the north of Mauritania. Over the last three days she has headed S, passing Zouerate in Mauritania and heading into Western Sahara and past Choum on Friday and roosting near Atar back in Mauritania. Continuing S on Saturday she past Akjoujit, roosting nearby. Sunday saw her journey S continue, roosting S of Mal. Today (19th) she entered Senegal (just) - she was close to Belkindi at 11am this morning. She's pretty close to Reserve de Faune du Ferlo-Nord to her S and Reserve Sylvo-Pastorale des six Forages to her SW - perhaps she'll pay them a visit?

Meanwhile Rothes has had a less travelled weekend, spending most of Friday and Saturday on Ilha Caravela. Yesterday, though she headed N onto Ilha de Jeta, before heading onto the mainland and Cachalame, where she roosted. Today she continued on N to close to Igim, which is where she was at 10am this morning.

Thanks to this week's short term volunteers who put the data in for me while I sharpened my chainsaw after this morning's deadwood creation session.

More tomorrow.

Limited data...

Alice Macmillan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:22:00 GMT

...so not much to report.

When I downloaded the data today I only got 3 new points (all for Mallachie). So I can't tell you all anything new about Rothes, though I'm sure she's doing fine on one of those islands off Guinea Bissau. Mallachie's 3 points are for 2-4pm yesterday (15th). They show her continuing in a SW direction through the northern part of Mauritania.

Sorry I can't tell you more than that - but it does mean I'll have extra data to input on Monday - so you can look forward to Monday's update.

Have a good weekend.