jsb Sandy: I was intrigued by your question, when I saw it on the 29th. I will offer my guesses.... a) my heart hopes that Rothes will return to Speyside....but that is selfish of me, because I want to see him/her again near LG and find out how his/her adult life pans out. But ........ b) My strong instinct held since 2011, tells me that he/she has bonded with the Gironde estuary in France and if he/she were to find a mate on the flight path north, or Rothes may already have met a potential mate, however unlikely that is, as I am not aware of young couples flying north together, he/she could settle on French soil or treetops in this bird case. The LPO have put up platforms on the peninsula, to the west of the fish farm, which is convenient, but since that happened this year and their location is unlikely to have been covered by his/her limited exploration of Charente Maritime/Aquitaine areas. They may well not be discovered. But the 'lacs' in question are close enough to have been over-flown by Rothes, but not recorded on the GPS Argos tracking on GE, because only a few points are logged. So I shall plump for the French possibility, which if it came about would set the Faune/LPO people in a spin.
Sandy: I was intrigued by your question, when I saw it on the 29th. I will offer my guesses....
a) my heart hopes that Rothes will return to Speyside....but that is selfish of me, because I want to see him/her again near LG and find out how his/her adult life pans out. But ........
b) My strong instinct held since 2011, tells me that he/she has bonded with the Gironde estuary in France and if he/she were to find a mate on the flight path north, or Rothes may already have met a potential mate, however unlikely that is, as I am not aware of young couples flying north together, he/she could settle on French soil or treetops in this bird case. The LPO have put up platforms on the peninsula, to the west of the fish farm, which is convenient, but since that happened this year and their location is unlikely to have been covered by his/her limited exploration of Charente Maritime/Aquitaine areas. They may well not be discovered. But the 'lacs' in question are close enough to have been over-flown by Rothes, but not recorded on the GPS Argos tracking on GE, because only a few points are logged.
So I shall plump for the French possibility, which if it came about would set the Faune/LPO people in a spin.
Thanks for your thoughts on the matter, jsb. I totally agree that Rothes has bonded with the Gironde, and I reckon she now considers it home. I differ slightly from you in the fact that I also hope that she makes her permanent home at the sturgeon farm. If she returns to Speyside it could take her years to find a mate and a suitable nest site due to the competition in the area. There's no guarantee, of course, that she'll have any greater success in France but it would seem fitting somehow that she continues to rewrite the infamous osprey rule book. Let's hope her malfunctioning transmitter allows us to find out the answer.
Sandy: I just left l'Etang du Ravior after two days of watching O2 and 8Z in France. There was plenty of evidence of many osprey in the Forest of Orleans. So there could be possibilities of meeting osprey in the Gironde as well. Each town in the Valley of the Loire has a large bridge spanning the river, on the one at Jargeau on Friday afternoon, an osprey flew down the river above the bridge, which was carrying heavy traffic, without a care in the world.
I could easily fit in a visit to the Gironde, later this year, should she decide to become a resident, so I am really happy either way.
ChloeB & Tiger's Osprey Data Site
Sat track schedule.
LG May 8, data (2pt) every 7 days. SWT every 3 days from Mar16
Does anyone have a clue where Rothes is? I have not been reading the threads as much this year, due to other pressures. If as I assume nobody knows, maybe now is the time to see if the French Faune/LPO, can keep a look out. I shall make contact in the next couple of days, but shall wait a bit, to give time for replies to this.
Latest is on Roy's site.www.roydennis.org/.../index.asp
Mike Latest is on Roy's site.www.roydennis.org/.../index.asp
This is Rothiemuchus not Rothes. Unfortunately a lot of people now call Rothimurchis Rothie and is is very easy to confuse Rothes with Rothie.
The thread for Rothimurchus is here
ChloeB and Tiger's data site ? Link to the Important Loch Garten Links
Tiger Mike Latest is on Roy's site.www.roydennis.org/.../index.asp This is Rothiemuchus not Rothes. Unfortunately a lot of people now call Rothimurchis Rothie and is is very easy to confuse Rothes with Rothie. The thread for Rothimurchus is here
Yes, which rather gives the lie to the theory that ospreys should be "named" for ease of identification. Of course we should be calling them white PJ and blue AE! ;-))
Sandy Tiger Mike Latest is on Roy's site.www.roydennis.org/.../index.asp This is Rothiemuchus not Rothes. Unfortunately a lot of people now call Rothimurchis Rothie and is is very easy to confuse Rothes with Rothie. The thread for Rothimurchus is here Yes, which rather gives the lie to the theory that ospreys should be "named" for ease of identification. Of course we should be calling them white PJ and blue AE! ;-))
Index to Important Threads
ChloeB No, just Rothes and Rothiemurchus without shortening :))
No, just Rothes and Rothiemurchus without shortening :))
Agreed!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
I dont particularly like the "shortening" of Odin to OTM. I was very confused at first wondering what the acronym was. Rothes and Rothiemurchus it is for me too.
Thank you, COOKY. I'm with you on this one.
Hi,
Not knowing that this thread existed I started a new thread 'Rothes- keeping a watch out', but it seems sensible to reply on this one. We live near the favourite french spot of Rothes & shall be visiting every few weeks (or more often as time allows) to see if he is in the area. We can also ask the fish farm workers to let us know if they see an Osprey in the area. We are members of the LPO, but we are doing this for our own interest, it may be that other people are keeping an eye out.
We had a walk around Mortagne today & saw a Wryneck sitting in a tree. We'd had one in the garden previously but it's always a treat to see them.
Noisette~ Thank you for keeping us upto date with Rothes, it would be lovely to know she/he is ok, I hope he has gone back to its favourite fishing spot and you will get news for us soon. :)
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
Noisette: Just putting your thread on here. Rothes - keeping a watch out.
I had read it already and was very interested in your input, many thanks.
LPO/Faune websites for Charente/Maritime and Aquitaine (Gironde) have not shown much action recently, in the last 15 days in CM there have only been two sightings and they were on the Isle d'Oleron. (But, I bet you knew that :O) )
Oh, by the way do you know about the two new platforms, over by Lacanau?
I read on the forum about new plateforms being put in to the west of the fish farm, but the other side of the Gironde? That's a fair way off! However lots of Ospreys come through on migration so maybe they'll get some takers. We were hopeful about Rothes nesting here because we saw 2 Ospreys together close to the fish farm during his time here in 2011 & we thought it might be him & his partner. We'll keep looking!
Noisette - it would be great to have first hand info about Rothes if she/he settles in France, but I must be honest and say I can't help hoping she will return to Scotland! However, enjoy your Ospreys!