The relative behaviour of our two young ospreys over the past fortnight has been starkly contrasting.

FR3 hasn’t ventured beyond the confines of the bolons (creeks) to the south of the Gambia River which have been home for the past six weeks. The area around Bulok appears to be the favoured location, with occasional forays towards Kafuta (where FR3 was spotted by Chris Wood and Fansu Bojang on the afternoon of 8th December) and Faraba Sutu. One brief excursion was made towards Sotokoi (NW of Kafuta) between 3 and 5pm on the 6th.

On the other hand FR4 has been off travelling again and is currently in the Delta du Saloum Biosphere Reserve in Senegal! Heading west from the Baobolon wetlands on 30th November, our young osprey followed the Gambia river downstream towards its mouth near Banjul, before heading north along the coast and over the border into Senegal.

Having covered more than 100km (62 miles) in a little over a week FR4 has spent the latter half of the period exploring the expansive mangrove fringed lagoons, channels and islands of the Saloum Delta, which also incorporates the Niumi National Park to the south in Gambia. This protected area covers over 76,000ha and is a National Park, Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage site.

You can find more information about these internationally important wetlands on the RAMSAR website

The next update will be on Friday as the tags are now on a six-day transmission cycle. In the meantime you can view all of the data on the Tracking page

Jonathan