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.
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.
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.
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!).
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!).