The Flight of Bird S07 1999

Osprey S07 was a breeding female of unknown age, caught on Forestry Commission land, near Nairn, 13th August 1999. BTO ring number 1367815. White ring, with black letters HN on right leg.
Wing 517 mm, tail 227 mm, weight 1585 g.

This female had been breeding at nest number 56 since probably 1989 and her mate had been with her throughout these years - he was ringed as a chick at nest 7 in Morayshire on 4 July 1987. This had been a very successful pair, rearing 19 young in the last 8 years. Single young were translocated from this nest to Rutland Water in 1998 and 1999 and both migrated successfully. Nest number 56 is an artificial Osprey eyrie constructed by Tony Hinde (Forestry Commission Forester) in 1986. This bird is the mother of S08 and of the Rutland Water juvenile, number R06.

S07 was the second of the satellite-tagged birds to reach Africa in 1999 and complete its migration. The easterly deviation betwen 19 and 22 September is of particular interest. Only 150km were moved during the daylight hours of 21/9. However, the bird flew 800km SW in the 34 hours up to 18:00 on 23/9, followed by another 307km during 24/9 before roosting, perhaps at an oasis.

The time between leaving Scotland and arriving in Guinea-Bissau was 27 days and the total distance travelled was 5741 km.

From the end of September, S07 stayed in the Bijagos Archipelago. An unlikely location was recorded on 10/10 - 280km SW, out over the Atlantic, but the bird seemed to have returned to the islands that evening. Successive accurate locations indicated that S07 used the same roosting site for several nights.

No reliable locations were received from 18/12/99 until an inaccurate one on 13/3/00 indicated that the bird was probably still in the Bijagos Archipelago. No useful locations were received after that.

Map produced using DMAP software