The Flight of Osprey T01 (2000)

Osprey T01 was originally thought to be a female but DNA analysis later revealed that it was a male. It was translocated from a Forestry Commission forest in North Scotland to Rutland Water on 11 July and released on 1 August. Just before release this bird weighed 1495g and had a winglength of 435mm. BTO ring number 1367832.

Bird T01 was probably the most vocal bird while in the pens and was the second of the released birds to leave its pen. It is carrying a battery-powered radio transmitter. It is programmed to transmit for 8 hours on and 96 hours (4 days) off until about, 25 August when it changed to 8 hours on and 10 hours off .

On 3/9 was seen at Rutland Water at 10:00 but was in France by early evening. It travelled 461km in 6 hours (48mph). In the first 3 days of migration it covered 1416km. It crossed the Mediterranean where it is about 300km wide on the afternoon of 8/9. T01's direction and position then took it across the Sahara at one of the widest points. On 10/9 it had flown continuously for 8 days covering on average 345 km per day. On 11/9 several transmissions showed it was not moving during the night and that most of the long flight took place between 12:30 and 18:00 GMT. No movements during the night were recorded.

It reached the headwaters of the River Niger, SW of Timbouctou in Mali on 15/9. Its flight across the Sahara desert lasted 6 days and it flew at least 2100km (1300miles) , presumably without food. It rested at night and flew during daylight hours so its flight speed may have averaged about 30kmph.

After crossing the Sahara progress was less rapid but continuous through Mali. There was also the first significant change of direction away from south. Later came a week-long tour of Guinea involving a flight of 964km before continuing north through Mali to the Sahel region near the Mauretanian border. There a sudden change of direction to the west took T01 to the north-westerly flowing rivers in Senegal.

Eventually, early on 4/10, it was recorded in the Sine Saloum Delta where it spent the day without further movement. Short further movements took it towards the coast near Mboro, from where good transmissions were received until 21/11. It is well worth zooming right in on this cluster of excellent ualitty transmissions .

The total distance covered by T01 since leaving Rutland Water was 7800km in 31 days with no extended stopover.