Our Osprey satellite tracking device has already proved its worth this season in helping us to locate our errant chick Blue 44 and reassuring us of his welfare and movements. This meant that not only were we sure he was alive but AWOL , but that we can now chart exactly where he went when he was missing- check out the webpage map at

http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/osprey/

 Our many friends and supporters originally raised enough money to satellite tag two chicks, but since we only had a single chick hatch here at Lowes this year, the decision was made to look for another bird locally to do as well. We are now very happy to announce we have successfully tagged a second chick born on one the SWT Angus reserves. This chick was hatched a couple of weeks later than Blue 44, to two birds who are first time parents. It is a male, a single chick and has been given the Darvic ring “Blue YD”. We will be able to follow this chick and it will provide a useful comparison and contrast to our Loch of the Lowes chick. We will begin posting data on this chick once it begins it’s migration, to help protect the nest site location, for the birds welfare.

 

Some important points to remember about satellite tracking:

• The transmitter is preprogrammed by the manufacturer to collect hourly data but only ‘talk’ to the satellite to transmit it every four days until the 15^th of August, then every two days until the end of October ( by which time they will hopefully be in Africa).
• It takes some time once the data has been downloaded from the satellite to process it and turn it into a visual image, so the data will be in retrospect. We will be posting the information about the birds movements at least twice a week, rising to three or four times a week during the peak of migration.
• We will not post the birds position at every single hour as this will clutter the map too much- but we will post as many points per day as are accurate ( satellite data points vary in quality) and best represent the birds journey.
• All the details will appear on the map, along with some very basic info on the birds’ location, altitude etc, but for more details, the Blog will host discussion of the data.
• You will need to zoom in on an area to appreciate the detail of an individual birds journey.
• Please bear with us whilst we get used to the huge technical challenge of learning the best way to handle this complex data- especially for an old Luddite of a ranger like me!