Our young Angus born Osprey Blue YD continues to consolidate his territory along the Senegal coastline this week with a few exciting exceptions. One of his favourite fishing haunts appears to be the southern and western shoreline of the sandy peninsula Lange de Barbarie, a designated National Park noted for its diverse bird species where he can fish in safety. He is also returning to the same roosting site in forested scrubland which lies behind the sandy coastal strip.   One deviation from the norm is a daytrip he took inland close by the industrial settlement of Roa, with a large dam.  

Cast your mind back just a few short weeks to the area of southern France where our other young Osprey Blue44 was spending so much time this autumn. You will remember we were able to make contact with the rangers working in this area, who were so wonderful in helping track our boy down and take photographs of him for us. They also gave us great insight into their area and why a young osprey might choose to sojourn there, as well as the increasing incidents of other European ospreys doing so. We have just received this lovely photo of this team- and we’d like to send them all a big hello and thank you yet again for all their generous help!

On the photo, from the left to the right : Paul Lesclaux (from Réserve Naturelle du Courant d’Huchet), Mathieu Moulis and Stéphanie Darblade (From Réserve Naturelle de l’Etang Noir).

We should remember , whatever fate has befallen Blue 44 that he and his transmitter have taught us so very much and rewritten the books on what young Scottish ospreys do on migration- his contribution to our understanding of these birds in a world context , in a few short months, has been huge- thank you Blue 44 for teaching us so much so far.