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Sat-nav ospreys begin perilous journey
Last modified: 23 August 2011
Loch Garten has been the home of British ospreys since 1954
A young, female Scottish osprey, which is being tracked by satellite, has embarked on a celebration zig-zag-tour of Britain and a flypast of RSPB reserves before heading for Africa for the winter.
Last Wednesday morning (17 August) the three-month old bird, christened 'Tore', was still at its parents' nest at the RSPB Loch Garten reserve, in the Highlands. But by Thursday afternoon, the bird completed a flypast of the RSPB's nature reserve at South Stack, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, after passing through Dumfries and Galloway and flying over the Isle of Man.
Journey across Wales and England
After roosting overnight in North Wales she headed across the Midlands and East Anglia to the RSPB's Minsmere reserve on the Suffolk coast. Staff at Minsmere saw an osprey with an attached aerial, proving beyond doubt that it was Tore. The latest update revealed that Tore had skirted south-east London and the RSPB's Rainham nature reserve, en route for the Channel coast near Portsmouth.
The journey of Bynack, Tore's brother, has also been followed using satellite technology. Worryingly he headed from Scotland over the North Sea, sparking considerable alarm. However, he has since reappeared near Bruges, in Belgium.
'The satellite technology is fantastic, but it can cause our hearts to leap into our mouths when these birds take a wrong turn'
Caroline Rance, an osprey information officer at Loch Garten, has been following the reserve's osprey stories. She said: 'Ever since they hatched Tore and Bynack have become stars of the reserve. Visitors to the reserve and the website have been following their fortunes.
'The satellite technology is fantastic, allowing us to follow their travels in detail, but it can cause our hearts to leap into our mouths when these birds do something unexpected like taking a wrong turn.'
Mistakes
Juvenile ospreys don't travel with their parents to Africa, so they have to work out the journey for themselves. Caroline Rance added: 'This can lead to mistakes, sometimes with disastrous consequences.'
Over the next few weeks, the ospreys are expected to arrive in West Africa, where they will spend their first year brushing up on the fishing skills. Ospreys don't normally return to Scotland until they are about three years old, but sometimes the birds make partial migrations to spend the summer in southern Europe or northern Africa.
The osprey was once widespread throughout Britain, but declined through persecution and by 1916 the bird was extinct as a British nesting bird. In 1954, ospreys recolonised the UK at Loch Garten and, although the birds have since spread, the Scottish Highlands remain the bird's UK stronghold.