Amid the first whispers that adult Ospreys are mobilising and beginning to migrate northwards, (A tweet from France this week told of an ” Osprey was spotted today north of me at Saint-Lyphard, Loire-Atlantique, moving north” ) , our young bird Blue YD also seems to have caught itchy feet syndrome.

From the 09/02/2013 to the 12/02/2013 he continued to act as a creature of habit, flying his regular triangle between the villages of Goumel, Dado and Doue and paying frequent visits to his favourite copse of tall trees South of Doue from which he surveys his kingdom.

Then on Monday the 13^th he commenced on an impressively long flight at very high altitude in a South Westerly direction back out towards the coastline.  He flew at a little under 2000 feet and at a speed of 40 km/hr.  When we last got data from  him at 15:00 on the 13th  he was following the course of the river through the heavily populated city of Ross Benthio.

We have all been speculating about whether the adult birds leaving on spring migration might bring a change in our youngsters behavior, and it seems this has been observed by other naturalists working in the area:

According to the blog post ornithondar.blogspot.co.uk young Ospreys capitalise on the moving adults to take over the now vacant prime territories. They begin to move in February to:  “get closer to the Senegal River and its tributaries, large coastal lagoons, the Estuary and coastline. These strategic locations and much more generous resources shallows of the hinterland, are fiercely defended from September to January by adults who have appropriate, sometimes for several seasons, and they tend to return each winter” (Frédéric Bacuez, 2013). Our young Osprey certainly seems to be following this trend.

Won’t it be fascinating to watch what Blue YD does over the coming months in Senegal?