Bienvenue 09
09 is getting closer to home; his latest data shows that he roosted close to the Atlantic coast of France last night, 30 miles south-west of Bordeaux.
After his remarkable fligth from Morocco to central Spain on Wednesday, 09 has made slightly more sedate progress since. On Thursday night he roosted in a wooded valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees, 23 miles east of Pamplona, after a day’s flight of 205 miles.
09's roost in Northern Spain, 22nd March
Next morning he left his roost site shortly after 9am and within an hour he was 20 miles north and approaching the French border. Forty-five minutes later he was in France and continuing to make good progress north-east. At 12 noon he turned to a more northerly heading, passing just east of Bayonne at 34kph at an altitude of 134 metres. He was now 65 miles further west than his autumn migration route and by following this more westerly course, he had avoided the Pyrenees.
He continuined to follow the coastline north for the next four hours and at 4pm he reached Lac de Cazaux, just south of Bordeaux. He remained there for the rest of the evening – and presumably caught a fish before settling down in a forested area half a mile from the eastern shore of the lake. His day’s migration of just 127 miles suggested that he was in need of a rest; and this would have been the perfect place to do just that.
09's migration on 23rd March
09 is following a more westerly course as he flies north, compared to his migration last autumn
The Atlantic coast of France is a great place to watch migration and yesterday two Ospreys were seen at Pointe de Grave, a watchpoint further up the coast. The Mission Migration website is well worth a look and has daily totals of birds seen at various migration watchpoints around France. I wonder if 09 will be seen at one of them as he heads for home? Given his current rate of progress there is every chance that he will be back in Rutland some time on Monday. Watch this space!
09′s epic journey through Spain
Since our last post, 09 has flown an incredible distance of 600 miles in just 21 hours. After leaving his roosting site shortly before 9am on Wednesday morning he headed NNE and left the shores of North Africa at 3pm. He crossed the Strait of Gibralter at a point where it was only 11 miles wide, possibly playing it safe after his recent ocean adventure. As predicted, he arrived in Southern Spain on Wednesday afternoon, eight miles east of Tarifa, just before 4pm.
09 crossing the Strait of Gibralter
View from Tarifa looking across the Strait of Gibralter
This Southern most point in Europe is a fantastic place to watch migrating birds at this time of year and millions can be seen crossing the short stretch of water as they head north towards their breeding grounds. 09 began his long journey through Europe, passing over the village of Palmones on the Bay of Gibralter. John Wright visited Palmones several years ago and many Ospreys could be seen fishing just off the beach and promenade.
On this occasion, 09 decided not to stop and carried on flying north at an altitude of 1400 feet and a steady speed of 30mph. 09 has flown over 75,000 miles in his lifetime but even an experienced adult can still be at risk when migrating. Once again he has survived the journey through Africa, but we can’t forget his near miss at the hands of some strong easterly winds in Western Africa. Although he’s now made it to Europe, he is certainly not out of harm’s way…
After flying 70 miles north of Palmones, 09 decided to stop close to a small lake near La Puebla de Cazalla. This must mean that he had caught a fish and was having a well deserved rest. It’s not surprising after a 350 mile flight!
Having a rest near La Puebla de Cazalla
It would be sensible to think that this was where 09 had decided to roost that evening but we got a shock when we saw this…
Overnight flight
Not only had 09 decided not to roost where he’d stopped at 7pm, but at 6am the next morning he was 225 miles away! This means that he must have carried on migrating through the night. That evening the moon phase was a ‘Waning Crescent’ which means that it was providing only 1% illumination. 09 flew for 225 miles, over the Sierra Morena Mountain range, in virtually complete darkness! How on earth did he navigate? He is obviously in a rush to get back to Rutland. For the next four hours, 09 only flew very short distances but by 10am yesterday morning he was ready to get going again. He headed straight for an altitude of 3700 feet and by 4pm yesterday, with an average speed of 25 mph, he had flown a further 215 miles and was now only 130 miles away from France!
Nearly in France
09 is nearly in Spain!
After spending an evening close to the Barrage Al Massira reservoir, 09 continued on his way shortly before 6am yesterday morning. Now that he is following his Autumn migration route, he seems to be back on track as he stuck to a north-easterly heading and maintained a leisurely average speed of 23 mph.
09's route towards Southern Spain
After 13 hours hours of flying 09 had covered 150 miles and by 7pm he had found another roosting site close to a large lake just east of El Kansera in Northern Morocco.
09's roost site near El Kansera
At 5am this morning, 09 was only 120 miles from the Strait of Gibralter. As he travelled 150 miles yesterday it it is very exciting to think that he could reach Southern Spain this very evening! After flying a total distance of 1625 miles over the past nine days, he has now reached the halfway point of his epic journey. It won’t be long now!
09 is catching up
As 5R(04) and 03(97) were arriving back in Rutland, 09 was still a long way behind. After his arduous flight over the sea and then stuttering progress on Saturday – both caused by strong north-easterly winds in the Sahara – he needed to get back on track. Well, we can safely say he has now done that because last night he roosted north of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Europe is in his sights!
After the rigours of the previous 48 hours, 09 evidently decided that he needed to head inland on Sunday morning. After leaving his overnight roosted shortly after 10am he flew 23 miles south-east. We have received several reports of strong winds and sandstorms in this part of the Sahara and perhaps this explains his initial heading that morning. Whatever the case, he managed to re-orientate himself at midday and over the course of the next six hours he covered another 87 miles almost due west.
We think that Ospreys use certain geographic features of the landscape to help them navigate and at 6pm 09 made a very definite turn north-east. He continued on this course for another three-and-a-half hours, following a spectacular ridge system that runs across the north-western edge of the Sahara. This is a ridge that we have seen various other satellite-tagged Ospreys following before and it seems that it probably helped 09 to get back on track on this occasion. The ridge is one of many spectacular land forms visible from the air over the Sahara. The photo below was taken by John Wright as we flew to West Africa last winter and shows the very ridge that 09 was following.
Ridge in Sahara photo by John Wright
By the time 09 settled down for the night to roost – at around 9:30pm – he had covered a total of 163 miles during the course of the day. The map below shows his day’s flight and this demonstrates very clearly that he had made a concerted effort to head back inland, away from the coast. This also suggests that his initial flight up the coast from Senegal was made more out of necessity than anything else; strong north-easterly winds have obviously made his first few days of migrating very difficult.
09's roost and flight path 18 March
09's flight 17-18 March
Yesterday morning, 09 was already migrating by 8am, and still following the ridge north-east. He maintained a remarkably consistentent north-easterly heading for the rest of the day and by 6pm he was at the southern edge of the Atlas Mountains having already covered 221 miles at altitudes of between 1500 and 3000 feet. These vast mountains present an obvious barrier to migrating birds, but sensing that he needed to press on, 09 continued north-east regardless, passing between peaks that rise to more than 10,000 feet.
09 approaching the Atlas Mountains
By 8pm he was clear of the mountains, but showing no signs of letting up. He continued flying for at least another three hours – and, therefore, in darkness – and non-GPS positions showed that he finally settled to roost just north of a large reservoir known as Barrage Al Massira, having covered 370 miles in fifteen hours of migrating. As you will see from the map below – or if you check out our Google Earth tracking pages -, 09 is now back on his autumn migration route – he passed over Barrage Al Massira at 10am on 11th September last year. Amazing stuff!
09's roost near Barrage Al Massira, 19 March
09's flight on 19 March with his autumn route for comparison
Slow progress
After 22 hours of non-stop flying, including what was clearly a very arduous flight over the sea, it is not surprising to report that 09 made slow progress yesterday. By 10am this morning he was still in Western Sahara, having flown less than 50 miles since he made land on Saturday morning.
We had wondered how 09′s flight through the night and across the sea would affect him and, it is clear from the data the he was very tired yesterday. During the course of the morning, he made only stuttering progress north-west, stopping regularly as he struggled to recover from the exursions of the previous 24 hours. By 1pm he had flown just 30 miles and he made similarly slow progress during the early part of the afternoon. In fact he only continued migrating for another two hours; at 3pm he was perched beside a lake just 13 miles further north. If the lake has water in it – which can not be guaranteed in this part of the Sahara – it must have made a very welcome sight for 09. He remained just north of the lake for the rest of the day, moving a few hundred meteres to roost amongst spare vegetation. Let’s hope that he managed to catch a fish at some point during the evening.
09 beside lake in Western Sahara, 17-18 March
09's migration 17-18 March
At 10am this morning 09 was still at the lake, but I suspect that by the time the next batch of data comes in tomorrow, we’ll find that he has continued north. Watch this space!
09′s Ocean Adventure
09′s latest data has just come in and it shows that at 7am this morning he was in the northern part of Western Sahara, just 35 miles south of the Morocco border. That only tells half the story though. Over the past 24 hours he has made the most extraordinary flight across the Atlantic through the night.
The day started off normally enough. 09 left his overnight roost in the barren deserts of Western Sahara just before 8am and headed north-west towards the coast. By 11am he had reached the Atlantic and for the next five hours he made steady progress north, covering just under 90 miles and sticking closely to the coast. By 6pm he was five miles off the coast at an altitude of 4500 feet and, significantly still heading north – in other words, out into the Atlantic. He continued on this same course for the next three hours and by 9pm – the last data transmission of the day – he was half way to the Canary Islands! We know from various satellite tracking studies, that adult Ospreys often make long sea crossing at night, but 09′s flight across the Atlantic simply didn’t make sense; basically, he was heading the wrong way. By the time the next signal came in, seven hours later he was still over the sea, but now 80 miles due west and just ten miles from the coast. Thankfully, an hour later, he made land having covered 320 miles in 22 hours of non-stop flying.
09's flight across the Atlantic, 16-17 March
The transmission cycle of 09′s radio means that we will never know at what point he changed direction, but it is interesting that the data at 5am shows that he was just two metres above the sea. Ospreys usually fly at a very low level when flying into a strong headwind and so I can only assume that it was strong easterly winds that pushed him out to sea in the first place. It is probably only the fact that he is a master migrator – this is his thirteenth spring migration and in his liftetime we know he has flown the equivalent of three times round the earth – that saved him. A more inexperienced bird may not have corrected his flight path and dropped, exhausted, into the sea. It really does show that there is no guarantee that our regular breeding Ospreys will return each spring. Migration is certainly a very demanding time for the birds, irrespective of how many times they have made the journey between Africa and Rutland.
It will be very interesting to see how far 09 flies today. Will he need time to recover from his long flight over the sea, or will he coninue north? We’ll update you tomorrow evening when we have the next batch of data. Be sure not to miss it!
09's 320 mile flight on 16 March
09 sets new air speed record in Western Sahara
As we followed his Autumn migration last year, it was obvious that 09 was taking the shortest, most direct route across the Sahara. It took him only four days to cross the desert, reaching speeds of 50mph. The GPS positions we received on Tuesday showed that instead of following his previous route, 09 made a distinct shift towards the Mauritanian coast. The latest batch of data shows that he carried on following the coastline and he is now making good progress in Western Sahara, setting a new speed record of 51mph!
09 following the coastline in Western Sahara
After 3pm on Tuesday, 09 continued his journey north and by 7pm he had covered 52 miles when he decided to roost just 3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. By 11am on Wednesday morning he had moved further up the coast and was flying at a leisurely 24mph as he headed north. Two hours later he was really on a mission and had reached an impressive 51mph at an altitude of nearly 1500 feet. As the evening set in 09 had covered 184 miles, the same daily average he covered during his migration last Autumn. On Thursday morning he was back in the desert but then made a conscious decision to head back towards the open sea, presumably to go fishing. By 3pm he was following the coastline at an altitude of over 3300 feet. That evening after flying 202 miles, 09 decided to roost 13 miles inland. So far since his departure on Monday he has covered 600 miles of his 3000 mile journey. What is really interesting is how he is currently 200 miles west of the route he took last September! Where will he go next?
09 is currently 200 miles west of his Autumn route
09 is off!
09′s latest satellite data has just come in and it shows that at 3pm this afternoon he was on the coast of Mauritania. He is on his way home!
Having spent six months on the Senegal coast, yesterday afternoon he decided that the time was right to begin his spring migration. At 1pm he was 19 miles north of his wintering site, following the coast north-east at 53kph at an altitude of more than 3000 feet. He made leisurely progress north-east for the remainder of the afternoon, his route taking him east of St Louis and then over Djoudj National Park, an area I visited with John Wright and Paul Stammers last winter. By 7pm he had covered just under a hundred miles and had crossed the Senegal River (where he may well have caught a fish) into southern Mauritania. He then roosted amongst sparse vegetation in an arid area that looks typical of the Sahel.
Osprey with Garganeys at Djoudj National Park, January 2011
Osprey perched on the Mauritanian side of the Senegal River, January 2011 (photo John Wright)
This morning 09 resumed his migration some time after 9am. Interestingly he made a distinct shift north-west, and by 11am he had reached the Mauritanian coast. This was obviously a conscious decision, because he then followed the coastline north, covering another 63 miles at altitudes of between 300 and 1500 feet before we received the final GPS fix at 3pm. It will be really interesting to see whether he continues to follow the coastline, thereby avoiding the Sahara, or make the shorter, more direct, flight across the desert. We should get the next batch of data on Thursday and then daily thereafter. Our Google Earth pages are up to date with his latest movements.
09's migration north on 12th and 13th March
What has happened to AW?
If you have been following the website over the winter you will know that, following his move to the Ivory Coast in December, AW generally remained faithful to a short six-mile stretch of river in the central part of the country. Then, in early February, he began to spend an increasing amount of time 20 miles away on the northern most reaches of the vast Lac de Buyo. He was spending most days at the lake and then returning to the river each evening to roost. There was nothing in his behaviour to suggest anything was wrong, but worryingly, we have stopped receiving any data from his transmitter.
The last GPS transmissions we received were on 17th February (the last ones shown on our Google Earth pages). The last three positions - for 6am, 7am and 8am that morning - all give exactly the same location: 6.78450,- 7.00117. That in itself was not particularly worrying; as we know from our recent trips to West Africa, wintering birds often spend prolonged periods on the same perch. What is far more concerning though, is that the only data we have received from the transmitter since then, are six non-GPS positions received 24 hours later on 18th February which suggested that AW was still in exactly the same spot. This was confirmed by the transmitter’s activity meter, which also showed that he (or the transmitter) wasn’t moving.
AW's last locations at Lac de Buyo in Ivory Coast
So what has happened? It seems there are two possibilities. The first is that the transmitter has fallen off. The transmitters are held in place with a teflon harness secured with cotton. They are designed to remain in place for five years or more, but when 06(01) returned to breed at Rutland Water in 2003, her transmitter had fallen off; and the last data we had received suggested she had gone down in the North Sea. So there is a chance that the same thing has happened to AW’s transmitter. Perhaps it has fallen off and is lying upside down, depleting the battery? The other possibility is that AW has come to grief somehow. Unfortunately the satellite imagery for this part of the Ivory Coast is very poor but the last positions we received are from what appear to be an area of cleared ground; not the sort of spot you would expect an Osprey to roost in, and certainly not somewhere they are likely to linger for 24 hours. The satellite data shows that on the evening of 16th February AW had been perched – perhaps on a dead tree in shallow water – a few hundred metres out from the shore. It is likely that many of the locals living around the lake are fishermen, and so perhaps AW became tangled in a discarded net? There is also a chance that he was intentionally killed. Living on the Edge: Wetlands and Birds in a Changing Sahel, a fantastic book that highlights the conservation issues facing birds in sub-Saharan Arfica, suggests that persecution is far more of a problem inland, than on the coast. In inland areas people tend to be concentrated around lakes and birds inhabiting these sites are, therefore, more likely to be intentionally taken. We have experience of this with our Rutland Water Ospreys – in 1998, 04(97) was killed by a farmer in Guinea, who only realised the significance of the bird when he noticed the rings on its leg. Once he realised the bird was ‘on a mission’ he took it to the British Embassay in the capital, Conakry. If a similar fate has befallen AW, then it emphasises why our education work in West Africa is so important. I know from various conversations in Gambia and Senegal, that people are less likely to kill birds if they understand more about the incredible journeys that Ospreys and other migratory species make each winter. We know that AW flew almost 4000 miles from Rutland Water to the Ivory Coast. It would be a desperate shame if he has now come to grief at the hands of humans, especially as we tagged him because of the problems we have encountered in Rutland in recent years.
We have been checking the data regularly, in the hope that the radio would suddenly spark back into life, but with almost a month having now passed, that seems very unlikely. We will just have to hope that AW returns, minus his transmitter in a few weeks’ time. Thankfully, 09 seems settled on the Senegal coast, and so, at the very least, we should be able to follow his return journey north over the next few weeks.
09′s getting ready to leave
09′s latest satellite data has just come in and it shows that he is moving around very little on the Senegal coast. He’s has made short forays out to sea to fish, but otherwise has remained faithful to his usual perches, on the same short section of coastline. He’s obviously preparing for his long flight north. The next data should be in tomorrow. Will he be on the move?
09's latest positions in Senegal
