Great news, Mallachie has made a successful channel crossing, phew!
She left HM Prison Hewell yesterday morning at 5am and made tremendous progress. She dropped down through Worcestershire, through Gloucestershire in to Hampshire, out over The Solent to Isle of Wight then headed out to sea, making for the French coast.
Her route was approximately as follows; Fackenham, Bishampton, Southam north of Cheltenham, Kemble south west of Cirencester, West Kennett, Totton in Hampshire, Brading on the I.o.W - (new RSPB reserve there), then out over the sea at 3pm yesterday. Her crossing took her a couple of hours until she reached the Normandy coast of France. She roosted last night near a place called Fonguesemare, but was on the move again at 5am this morning, the last fix on her that we have for now.
It is a relief to know that she has safely made her first serious sea-crossing and reached France. Perhaps she will now progress down towards Bordeaux and meet up with Rothes. Now that would be amazing. We shall see. Talking of Rothes, yes she is still in the same general area, La Gironde. She has made a few trips out - across the river and back, back down to that nuclear power station again, yet always returning to Dr Jones' sturgeon farm to roost.
Here on site, having said yesterday that White TF had gone, well he was back again this morning, seen by the trickle of visitors that we are still getting amidst packing up the Centre an' all. In answer to your collective questions from your blog comments; yes it is all a bit bleak here right now. The packing up is all a bit sombre, so White TF's re-appearance lifted us a bit. The weather is horrible with 36 hours of non-stop rain, causing localised flooding in the area and, with all the dampness, the midges are absolutely hellish. However we all went out for an end-of-season meal last night and a jolly good time was had by all. The blog page will continue even after we have closed. Alice and I will be doing it. We will get daily data on the birds until sometime in October, by which time we hope they will have reached their winter quarters in West Africa somewhere. After which, the data will become weekly. And the final answer to a question in the comments - yes I do have to the toilets at some point! Compost anyone? It would make good grow-bag content. Perhaps we should consider a buy-your-own-back scheme! Hmmm, maybe not.
There's a tinge of sadness amongst the team today, as David Anderson leaves us tonight. He's away to a new post, working at Gartmorn Dam in Clackmannanshire. It is a council run nature reserve with important populations of over-wintering wildfowl. The RSPB are in partnership with Clackmannanshire Council to run a project there over the winter months. His contract is for five months so he will be there until the end of January. So we say goodbye and good luck to David and our many thanks to him for all his efforts at Loch Garten this season. The rest of the team are here with me until next Friday.
Mallachie's latest movements should up-date on the map later this evening but I've run out of road today now, so have not up-dated Rothes movements, which are only very slight anyway.
Have a good weekend.
Great news - thanks Richard. And you and the team have a great weekend too.
OMG fantastic, what was that I was saying about her plodding. Thank you Richard
Excellent news Richard ... that's one hurdle Mallachie has overcome. You are welcome to your 'composting' chores!
That is terrific news. Did not expect that. Thank you Richard.
wow, that is wonderful news Richard, thanks so much. What a relief she has crossed the channel. I think most of us are "scared" from Desher last year.
I was only saying the other day I thought she was taking it slowly. Again, shows what I know.
Go Mallachie, and of course Rothes
Well that was a surprise. Mallachie in France already. She certainly speeded up after she 'escaped' from prison and left the country PDQ. I hope that Interpol are not on to her and the French gendarmes leave her be.
Seriously though thanks to you Richard and all the team at LG for a great season.
Oh My Richard, how relieved you and the team must feel that Mallachie has crossed the chanel safely.
I am over the moon that we haven't had a 'Deshar' incident.....
Fingers crossed that she will now quickly fly dwn and join Rothes although I suspect that will be highly unlikely !! Apart from anything else I would think that that 'IF' they did recognise each other they wouldn't want to team up.....To many memories of nicking each others fish !!!
As to all the other news, I wish David Good Luck in his new job, it sounds lovely.
And sorry to hear about the weather and Midges....it is two of the reasons we left Scotland to live here in France. We wanted 9 months of good weather not 9 months of bad !!!! and only 3 months of summer.
As to the compost......Naaahhhhhhh thanks....:-(
Great news Richard.
Think I'll manage without the compost though.
Try to stay dry, weather looks to be atrocious near LG.
Amazed that White TF is still 'north of the border', maybe he didn't keep up with the French lessons and is waiting for you to pack him away for the winter along with the cameras.
A new form of osprey hibernation instead of migration?
That is such good news, thanks Richard. Quite brought a tear to my eye knowing that she made a good crossing of the Channel and didn't hang a right like poor Deshar.
sorry, I forgot to wish David well in his new job:)
What fantastic news Richard! What a little star she is! Thanks as ever....... Looking forward to see where she heads next.
Oh cool! I've just had to expain to my son what a "jailbird" is! Thanks again, as always. After seeing the "compost duty" photo when I was reading back over last year's blogs I was determined not to add to your pain when we visited LG. Sadly my son couldn't "hold it in for the sake of Richard" and just had to pee...so very sorry about that!! Hope you get a break away from it all at the weekend. Take care.
And goodbye David. You were responsible for some wonderful webcam viewing over the summer with some of us even declaring our love for you. Thank you. You will be sorely missed. Take care and enjoy your new role :)
Oh wel done Mallachie, we knew you could do it and how quickly she has, maybe she will have a little rest now, and then perhaps head off to where Rothes is, thats just me wanting the fairy tale.
But so pleased she has made the crossing.
Fantastic news that Mallachie has reached France, that is one worry over, her first big sea crossing! Wouldn't it be amazing if she found Rothes!!!
At least the rain and the really bad midges have come at the end of the season Richard....could have been worse!!
As to the toilets...GOOD LUCK you need a medal to do them as well as a GAS MASK. Could they not get proper toilets installed for next year, I'm sure someone could do it for you if you pleaded !!!! They are a bit basic to say the least.
Glad you all had a nice meal last night, you certainly deserve it, and I'd like to join in wishing Dave all the best for his new post.
Thanks again for keeping us up to date!!
Richard : I have to got to go to the Video page to get to this Blog as there is no September 2009 as yet on here.
Brilliant news on Mallachie's major water crossing .. Wow she has made excellent progress and could well be with Rothes or even overtake her to Africa