Whilst her elder sister Rothes still lingers north of Bordeaux, Mallachie presses on. She is now north west of Madrid, just west of a small town called Tinosillos, along the Rio Arevalillo river. Her route to this, her most up to date position (7am this morning, 8th September), took her on a south westerly bearing from near Pamplona towards Logrono, then to Aranda de Duero where she appears to have picked up the course of the Rio Arevalillo. Fishing en route perhps? Good progress from her again, yet Rothes remains settled in La Gironde.
Packing up here continues (we're almost there), but Malcolm called to say that he saw an osprey on site very briefly this morning. No satellite tag aerial was seen, so presumabaly not the one of Roy Dennis' that was tracked to near us here on Sunday. Is White TF playing games, was it him, again?
As the dust begins to settle on our season just passed, I can report that our total visitor numbers this year, from opening on 1st April to closing on 6th September, topped 40,000, just. 40,114 in fact, 12.5% up on last season and only the second time in the past decade that have we passed the 40k mark. Our thanks to any of you out there reading this, who visited, and we know that many of you did. Similalry, our thanks to those of you out there who joined RSPB this season. Some of you did so on-line, but here on site we signed up 560 new memberships this season, that's approximately 1,100 new members, supporting our work here at Loch Garten and throughout RSPB. This has been a brilliant achievement by the team, who have worked hard at sharing their passion and enthusiasm for ospreys and other wildlife, with all our visitors, hopefully sparking & firing-up an interest and care for birds and the environment among many. Many thanks indeed to all of you who have joined RSPB. And to those of you who are not members, I would just say, please do consider joining. We need all the help we can get to support our invaluable & vital conservation work. Thank you.
And finally............in this our 50th Golden Anniversary year of showing and sharing ospreys with people here at Loch Garten, we achieved a very fitting golden finale to our season. On 4th August we were re-audited by VisitScotland for the Green Tourism Business Scheme and just days before closing for the season word came through that we had retained the award of the Gold standard in the scheme, for the third consecutive time, first in 2003, again in 2005 and now 2009.
I've asked Claire, David, Malcolm, Debbie and Ian - Team LG 2009 - to prepare a sign-off post for you later this week.
Congratulations to you all. What a wonderful end to the season. We'll miss you but will be waiting for you in March. Happy Christmas
Well done to all the staff at LG on a fantastic season.
Mallachie is doing really well and pressing on down through Spain. Long may the good news continue.
Great achievement Richard, Well done.You deserve it. I'm quite choked.
Oh and thanks for the update on the girls too.
Congrats on the Green Tourism award to all of you.
Congratulation to all LG on the Green Tourist Award,you all must be thrilled at how mallachie is progressing
Well thank you Richard and team. What a list of achievements this season:
Let's not forget this "vintage" year.
3 healthy chicks
40k+ visitors (enough to fill a leading premiershipfootball stadium, all in 5 months and in the Highlands!)
560 new members and no doubt more converts to follow
AND a Gold award in your Golden Year.
Take a bow you must all be very pleased.
On another matter I dug a bit deeper into GE today. I had no idea you had to enter so many co-ordinates. I niavely thought that they uploaded automatically to a central server and relayed to various hubs and centres like the military ones do.
No wonder this involves a lot of detail work, especially if the ospreys are very mobile. Well done and thanks.
Have a break "you lot up there". You certainly deserve it!!
Good news all round, birds are safe, the team are brilliant, and the figures for this year are great and you have a Gold Tourism award. What an end to a great year! Congratulations and well done Richard and Team LG!!! Thank you for the update. I think you deserve to go and open a few bottles of "Bubbly". WONDERFUL!!!!
Richard, Claire, David, Malcolm, Debbie and Ian where do I start. Very many congratulationson on all your achievments this year. You deserve your success in all that Richard has highlighted and also for all that work that goes on in the background. Visiting LG is always a pleasure, not only for the birds etc., but also for the team of knowledgable and pleasant LG staff.
Thank you for update on Mallachie. I can only admire her for her drive and stamina on such a journey. I know how I would feel after driving the equivalent journey !!!
It will be interesting to see where Mallachie goes next. She is not too far off the route Beatrice took to her winter quarters in southern Spain. It would be great if she wintered in Spain but we shall see.
Congratulations to all at LG ... 40K visitors ... gold tourism award ... lots more RSPB memberships from LG and the website (like me who can't visit in person!) ... a wonderful season. Mustn't forget our wonderful osprey family ... isn't Mallachie doing well :))
My most warm and hearty congratulations Richard and Team :) What outstanding success, the Gold standard in the Visit Scotland Business Scheme - three consecutive times. Thank you all for you dedication to the Reserve, the Ospreys, and us.
LoL, you wall paper fans !!!! Mallachie on your desk top every time you boot up. Bet I did it first!! I have my avatar as wall paper on my desktop but just recently, cos it was the last image I culled from the STILL camera I have her on the nest looking over her shoulder with the aerial very clearly showing. Was thinking of changing back to my avatar this evening but somehow can't yet do it .
There is always three ways of doing anything on your computer so for those who want to try:
start - control panel- display- desktop - browse to where you keep your pics or photos - click (or double click, not quite sure off the top of my head) and it will appear in the list for your desk top - highlight and apply (if necessary 'stretch' it)
Then take a look at your desktop :) I don't think I duplicated someone's else's method but aplologies if I missed seeing that.
Well done to all the LG team and thanks for an exciting, roller coaster 2009. See you all again next year.
Thank you so much for keeping us up to date with Loch Garten ospreys and congratulations on the Green Tourism award - well deserved. We will look forward to next season's osprey antics and of course will follow the girls on the remainder their migration (if Rothes ever decides to leave France).
Best wishes to all the team.
Congrats to you all for your Gold award in your golden year. Hope you, you staff & volunteers have a good Christmas & New Year, you can all be proud of your efforts this year, Hope to see you next year, until March God Bless. God speed to EJ, Odin & their girls.
Alan: it would be so marvellous if Marvellous Mallachie did winter in Spain. I'm willing her to stay. Surely it's south enough.
Oh yes, someone mentioned 'notifications' - I'm getting them twice for each posting. Still, that's better that the 8 or 10 that I was getting.