Well Rothes has reached Mauritania. She continued over the sea from 5am on the 28th, hitting land near Tidergit in Morocco at 9am on the 28th. She continued south crossing the border into Western Sahara at 11am on 28th. Not keen to halt much she has carried on south into Mauritania by 2pm on 28th. The latest point I had this morning when I downloaded the data was 10am yesterday (29th) when she was still in Mauritania heading south, but at a slower pace (between 7pm on 28th and 9am on 29th the speed she's been travelling when a reading was taken was 0). So she's obviously finding perches to stop on, but continuing south to find a suitable location to stop for a bit in.
Meanwhile Mallachie is happily moving about in the same place in Portugal.
I know from your comments there's been a bit of concern because we didn't update the map or blog yesterday. I had a bit of a workparty wasp nest situation to deal with which kept me out of the office. Rest assured both chicks are fine.
If Richard has time he'll update the data again this afternoon and stick a bit more onto the blog.
The weekend's data is now input. Mallachie has stayed put but Rothes has spent the weekend heading steadily south. From 10am on Friday (25th) she flew in a south westerly direction passing such places as Souraide, Beintza, Ayllon (North of Madrid) and roosted near to Toledo. Come Saturday she was on the move again flying past Castilblanco and Zafra (can you tell I've been spending quality time on Google maps?!). She roosted on Saturday night near Oliva de la Frontera close to the Potugese border. Then Sunday saw her continuing her journey heading past Paymogo. At 1pm on Sunday (27th) she headed out over the sea from near Faro. From 1pm on Sunday until 5am this morning she didn't hit land, flying continuously down the coast of Morocco (NB there is a gap in the data between 9pm and 5pm so she might have had a sneaky rest for a bit, but the distance on the map looks like she might have just kept going.).
I'll have a look at the data tomorrow to see where she's got to. She wasn't far off shore at 5am and so as the sun came up I'm sure she will have seen the land (if she couldn't anyway with the lights and her osprey eyesight).
Tune in tomorrow for the next update.
Rothes is moving...
I've just entered the most recent data and Rothes has made a move. She left her beloved sturgeon farm yesterday morning (24th) around 9am. Heading south over La Gironde, past Soussans, and to the west of Bordeaux, she continued south near Parnetis-en-Born to the west of Parc Naturel Regional des Landes de Gascogne and on past Uza until reaching an area east of Ondres with an area of water called Etang d'yrieu where she roosted until 8am this morning, possibly catching some fish?
Then it was on again - the latest point that I have for her was 9am this morning (25th) when she was south of Bayonne near the border with Spain.
Meanwhile Mallachie was also on the move - she went slightly east along the reservoir north of Zebreira - so no real change for her. At 10am this morning that's where she was.
Rothes obviously decided to not do anything too strenuous before Richard got back from his holiday so that he wouldn't miss anything. But now he's back let's see where she goes next...
More next week.
I am just back from a week away and I have caught up on the news from Alice that both Rothes and Mallachie are both still in their same respective spots in France and Portugal. I really thought that by the time I returned, they might have moved on a bit by now. Still, the important thing is that both seem to be doing ok and presumably like it just where they are, and are in no hurry to press on. To get back into the swing of entering data, I just took a quick look at the latest and sure enough, Mallachie is still dotting about between the two reservoirs as reported by Alice. Similarly, Rothes remains on La Gironde river and continues to roost at Dr Jones sturgeon farm. Had we known they would stay put quite this long, we could have perhaps popped down to see them. It is all the more autumnal here now and so it presumably will be where they are too, so perhaps we will see a shift in position sometime soon.
I did see some ospreys last week though. I was in New York visiting friends, but as fun as the City was, being from the boondocks, after a few days I needed some space and to escape the throng. So I took the subway out of town to a place called Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a wetland out near JFK airport. Almost the first bird I saw when I got off the train at Broad Channel, was an osprey, right at the moment when it dived into a tidal creek to fish and it caught one! How lucky was that? In all my time of working with ospreys, the number of times I've actually seen one catch a fish are precious few, so I was well pleased. There were several ospreys in the area, seen on and off throughout the day, and the weather was still hot & sunny over there, so it seemed like I'd gone back in time to July here. They are of course not nesting now, but I did see some nest platforms on poles.
If you are ever out there, I can recommend Jamaica Bay - lots of birds, including wildfowl and waders, herons & egrets too, plus bushes full of an array of warblers. It's a perfect oasis to escape to, when the City becomes too much. The highlight was seeing a Lesser Yellowlegs crash-land into a bush (!), in a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of the stooping Peregrine bearing down on it from above at high speed. The falcon missed, but I never did see the wader emerge from the undergrowth, it walked away unseen, embarrassed yet relieved, I suspect.
I can recommend Central Park as a birdwatching hot spot too, especially at Spring and Autumn (Fall) migration times - heaving with various species of warbler and thrush, woodpecker and nuthatch. Osprey-sized Red-tailed Hawks nest on nearby city buildings and hunt the park. I saw one perched in full view, just 25ft above a park path, ravenously ripping up a grey squirrel, prey which presumably sustains them in that location, yet it went unobserved and unappreciated by all the focussed joggers, roller-bladers and dog walkers passing back & forth beneath it. I just couldn't help myself but slip into RSPB warden mode, stopping some of them to point out the spectacle they were missing just above their heads. Most of them seemed appreciative, though it didn't occur to me to think that I'd be interfering with the joggers' timed running routines, oops.
.........anyway, Alice or I will check on Rothes & Mallachie again tomorrow and keep you informed. My thanks to Alice for doing so in my absence.
Data's in - no change from either Mallachie or Rothes (as of 9pm and 6pm respectively yesterday the 22nd).
I'll update again tomorrow.