More fantastic news! Blue 44 has overcome the first major obstacle on his journey to West Africa, successfully crossing the English Channel yesterday morning.

He left his roost site of the previous night on the North Kent Marshes between 7 & 8am. Heading SSE he flew over the South Downs National Park, reaching the East Sussex coast shortly before 10am. Continuing on the same course, he crossed the English Channel in approximately 3 hours, covering a distance of just over 100km (60 miles). 

He made landfall in France at around 1pm, to the east of Dieppe in Normandy and carried on flying inland. His last known position at 2pm put him approximately 30km (20 miles) to the SE of Dieppe.

We’re all delighted that Blue 44 has made such good progress – in the four days since leaving Lowes he has already flown over 800km (500 miles), which when you think how limited his flying forays were prior to departing, is an incredible achievement! We now wait with excitement to see what route he takes as he makes his way through continental Europe and on into Africa. 

We are due to receive more data tomorrow which will update us on his movements over the remainder of yesterday and today.

As always keep an eye on the tracking page for the next update!

Jonathan

Visitor Centre Assistant Manager

p.s. – after receiving yesterday’s data we contacted our colleagues at the RSPB’s North Kent Marshes reserves to see if there had been any osprey sightings in the area over the past couple of days. As it turned out there had indeed been a reported osprey sighting, however there was no mention of rings or a transmitter. Could it have been Blue 44? – I guess we’ll never know!