Osprey S09 was a three-year-old
male from Norway. It was caught by Roy Dennis at a fish farm on the Rothiemurchus
Estate, near Aviemore on 24th August 1999. Ring number
Stavanger 212964. Ringed as chick at nest near Gulsvik,
Busterud, Norway (60,27N 9.60E) on 13th July 1997 (details
from Olav Runde, Stavanger Museum on 24th August 1999). A
blue ring with white letters XB, was added to the left leg.
Wing 476mm, tail 203mm, weight 1415g.
This young male was with
other adult breeding males fishing at the fish farm. Occasionally
Scandinavian birds join the Scottish breeding population and
it was interesting to find that this bird returned to
Scotland in 2000 rather than returning to Norway to
breed.
Autumn 1999
Regular
transmissions showed this bird moved slightly south then east in Scotland until 3/9/99. Then came
a long period moving around the Morecambe Bay area.
From 21/9, S09's flights through England and then
across the Channel were in a south-easterly
direction, perhaps influenced by westerly winds.
For several days it based itself in an area W of
Rouen before moving on through western France on a
route similar to S10's. It probably crossed the
Pyrennees where they are 2000m high, before flying
quickly south to Andalucia.
S09 took a westerly
route through the Sahara desert. He flew 241km
during 14/10 and 327km on 15/10 to cross the
Senegal river. A further 200km south were covered
during daylight hours on the 16/10 and then 322km
on 17/10 to arrive at the Atlantic Coast in
Guinea-Bissau. From leaving Cumbria to its arrival
in Guinea-Bissau, S09 covered at least 5273km in a
total of 26 days.
A further small
movement south down the coast was recorded on 23/10
after which it moved only small distances during
the winter.
Spring 2000
S09s
transmitter was switching on every 2-3 days as the
bird began to return slowly northwards. After
9/4/00 its radio moved to a 10-11 day cycle and
only very poor quality transmissions were normally
received. However, it became clear that S09
returned to Scotland and spent the summer there.
On 14 April 2000
Roy Dennis reported that S09 had been attracted to
the nest of S06.
He was able to see his radio antenna and read his
colour ring. Interestingly, S09 visited the area of
this nest soon after capture in August 1999 and two
of his intermittent signals on 4th and 26th July
2000 were from this site. However, S06 mated with S18 in 2000.
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