Our young osprey Blue YZ seems to be making habit of taking dramatic routes on her first migration and worrying us all. If you have been following the interactive map ( see link to your right on this page) you will already know she left her sojourn location in Spain over the weekend and headed south. It seems the instinctive call of Africa overrode the attractions of wintering in southern Spain, though it did prove a very useful rest stop on route.

After a textbook crossing near Gibraltar, she has then made it across the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Instead of sticking to a safe coastal route , she has headed almost due south inland into the heart of Algeria, into desert territory- a very inhospitable place for an osprey. She is now over 500km from the coast , and she roosted overnight on Wednesday on  a rocky plateau  amongst sandy dunes.

 

 

It is not at all impossible that she can survive this desert  crossing- if she has the energy reserves and stamina. However, this route is very dangerous and complicated by things such as potential for sandstorms etc.

We will update you as soon as the next batch of data comes in , in the next 24hrs , which should tell us if she has made if safely- keep all your fingers, arms and toes crossed for our young bird- she’s going to need all the help she can get!