Hi all,

As we’ve entered a new year I thought now might be a good time to provide an update on the whereabouts of the various tagged ospreys from other sites in the UK.

I know many of you are avid followers of ospreys in general as well as our own famous female & her partner so hope this proves to be of interest to you…

As a former member of the Lake District Osprey Project team I have to start with the two chicks that I helped to tag last summer.

Since the new year (and up to 12th January) the aptly named chick “12” has been sunning himself in the southern part of the Gambia. He had a brief trip into Senegal on the 3rd & 4th but otherwise seems quite happy with the fishing where he is.

More worrying news regarding chick “11” who had settled on the coast of Mauritania. He was last tracked on 2nd January but since then only two weak signals have been received from his satellite transmitter on the 6th. This could be due to a technical fault with the tag itself or something more sinister, but we must remember that the life of migratory species such as Osprey are fraught with danger, particularly for birds in the first years of their life.

Moving on to the Loch Garten birds, Rothes continues to enjoy the island lifestyle on the Ille de Unhocomozinho off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. She’s been settled there for over a year now.

The fortunes of her sibling Mallachie remain unknown – last tracked on 28th November 2009 near a tributary of the Gambia river.

Finally Red 8T, a 2001 male bird is to be found around last year’s wintering grounds in southern Senegal.

I’ll try to provide further updates from time-to-time or when/if there are any significant movements.

?For further news of the Loch Garten birds go to http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/lochgartenospreys/index.aspx

For further news of the Lake District birds go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/ospreywatch

Another useful website is Roy Dennis’ Highland Wildlife Foundation site: http://www.roydennis.org/osprey/

You can find news on various Ospreys that he has been involved in tagging as well as information about all sorts of highland wildlife.

Jonathan