Update on Osprey chick satellite tracking Harness

As we mentioned last night, our Osprey chick Blue 44, has acquired a slender thread hanging down his chest from the satellite tracking harness he is wearing. We have spoken in detail and shown pictures and video to Roy Dennis, the expert who tagged him last week, who was very reassuring.

Roy tell me that the dark thread is in fact, not one of the sewing threads ( which were white) but a frayed bit of the harness material itself, from the short excess piece at the front of the harness. Roy left this small excess and glued the end of it to prevent fraying and he suspects either the chick or his mum have pecked off the glue and allowed the end to fray.

The good news is that this cannot fray any further, past the double stitching at the chick’s chest centre so it is not a threat to the stability of the harness. The harness itself cannot come adrift, or be lost due to this fraying. This is not unlike a loose thread on your own clothing, which only goes so far, then disintegrates.

Roy assures me that the thread will fray finer and finer and then break off and is not a risk to the bird- the fine threads will not be strong enough to entangle as they will easily break.

Though it may look a bit unsightly, the thread will be only a very minor inconvenience to the bird and not pose any long term problems.