The Flight of Osprey T02(2000)

T02 clearly made a false start to its migration, as its westerly progress led it out to the end of the South Wales peninsula. It turned back east, almost finding its way back to Rutland Water. On the afternoon of 28/8 it may have flown out from the south coast and perhaps then returned to England before making a successful crossing of the Channel to Le Havre on 29/8. The crossing must have taken it about 4 - 5 hours.

From 03/09 transmissions indicated no further movements and gradually became less frequent and less accurate. Its position was close to the town of Nogent-le-Rotrou. Attempts were made by local ornithologists to locate this bird, but without success. We assumed that in all likelihood the bird was dead. The last transmission from there was received on 3/10.

Then on 8/10 came an astounding series of transmissions, consistent with a gentle movement south through central Spain. Transmissions were received for four more days as the bird flew due south acoss to Morocco and down through the Atlas Mts.

From 12/10 locations were less reliable and less frequent but all seemed to be coming from an area west of Erfoud, south of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco - an unlikely location for a stop-over. Maps indicate small rivers running down from the Atlas through the area and petering out in the northern Sahara. The maps also indicate several palm groves. A snippet of information found on a website: heavy rains and flooding at Erfoud, 23-24 May 2000.

During the winter there was a gradual reduction in the quality of transmissions, but they were received intermittently until 4 February. Then more good quality regular transmissions were received from the same location, indicating that the bird is moving around within a very small area. During 2001 poor quality transmissions have continued to come from the same area.

Patrick Bergier sent us a description of the area:

The overwintering area is located in the region called "Tafilalt" between the towns of Goulmima and Tinjdad,close to that later town, and some 75 km to the WNW of Erfoud. In the Tafilalt, the Osprey is only known as a migrant noted in spring from 28 March through 7 May, and in autumn from 17 September through 10 October (of course we know that the Sahara can be crossed); we have no record in winter. The closest place where overwintering regularly occurs is at a large lake in semi-desert area (Barrage Mansour Eddahbi, near the town of Ouarzazate, 30°55N-6°55W).

Basically, the region physionomy near Tinjdad is hilly bare ground, with light steppe. Not a place for an Osprey !! But Tinjdad is watered by the Todra wadi (a small river that flows from the High Atlas Mountains, often dry or with only little water along most of its course), and there are some palmeries along this wadi. After several years of drought, it has been raining a lot in Morocco since this autumn, and the region might well have been watered, with a lot of water in the wadis. (Unfortunately, I have no recent information about this region).

If this is a case, it is very possible that an Osprey overwinters in this area, but this remains an exceptional case.

Joachim Hellmich visited the exact spot

In early 2001, Joachim Hellmich of the International Foundation for Conservation and Development of Wildlife, Desert Ecology Research Station, visited the area where the Osprey locations were clustered. He was accompanied by a Berber and Arabic speaking colleague.

On 18 February they visited the exact location given by the satellite (at 03:00 that morning) of the Osprey. The point is on a rocky slope overlooking a dry river bed, a "wadi", with no water. The picture on the right shows the terrain. Joachim says that nearby there are three villages. They asked the villagers if they had seen an unusual large bird of prey, "tamda" in Berber, and received contradictory information. Several persons seemed to have seen the bird recently, but doubts arose when other people mentioned the bird hunting pigeons.

Four days later they went to two places where, according to local people, there was water. A "lake" turned out to be a series of small ponds in a 150m deep valley, what remained of a periodic water course. Frogs were present, but no fish. As these ponds were under large palm trees and among dense thickets, they seemed not suitable for an Osprey.

Later they visited a water reservoir, the "barrage de Akerrouz", approximately 1.7km long and 200 m wide with steep slopes on both sides. The guardian who lives permanently at the foot of the dam had not seen a large unusual bird but he said that abundant fish of a size between 20 and 30cm were in the water. Boulders on the slopes and at the shores provide perches, as do some palm trees at the end of the reservoir (shown in the picture on the left).

Unfortunately Joachim did not see the bird but he thinks that this place could provide a means of survival for Osprey T02. However, this reservoir is about 15km NE of the cluster of accurate locations we received for T02.