The Flight of Osprey S18 in 2000-1

This Osprey was a male, and thought to be three years old . In 2000 he became the new mate of bird S06 at a nest on Strathspey Estates near Boat of Garten . They had three eggs which hatched. One of their young was translocated to Rutland Water and is number was T04.

S18 was caught at Aviemore fish farm on 12 August 2000 when its satellite radio was fitted.
Its wing length was 458mm and weight 1470g . It has a black/white colour ring on its left leg, numbered 8X and BTO ring number 1367816. Bird monitored by Roy Dennis.

Autumn 2000

S18 remained feeding its young at the nest for 20 days , while its mate S06 headed south.

It then had a very fast and direct start to migration, travelling 1380km in the 3 days from 1-4/9. Its route to the west through the Navarre on 4-5/9 avoided the need to fly over the highest parts of the Pyrenees. Its flight SW through Spain and Morocco was more leisurely.

Through NW Africa S18's route and timing was remarkably similar to that of T08. After its arrival in the Sine Saloum area it made only small movements. It was near the village of Toubakouta. At this time of year there would have been wet areas all around Toubakouta (including to the east).

S18's autumn migration took 22 days in which time it covered 5317km.

Winter and spring 2001

After arriving in Sine Saloum in September, S18's wintering position was remarkably stable. We received a series transmiissions allowing us to track its movements with great accuracy - for example we can see that it moved 18km SW to a new position on 21 November. After that it moved only distances less than 10km until it began to migrate northwards in mid March 2001. Between 18 and 27 March S18 moved a distance of 2562km - nearly 285km per day.

By 28th April hewas back in Strathspey. There he found that his mate from last year, S06, had paired with the young bird from Norway, S09. They had laid 3 eggs and started incubation.

S18 evicted the young Norwegian male from its nest site. It then stayed at the nest, and helped to raise to flying stage, a single chick which was probably not its own.

In 2002, S18 was back at the nest by 3rd April. That year he reared two young with his mate S06.