Bird Cams Around the World

We last seen Millie do a U-turn and head back to the Senegal-Mauritania border. She seems to have settled here as today’s download showed she hasn’t moved from this area. On the 14th September she roosted 13km north of Richard Toll, on the Mauritanian side of the border in what looks like a dry area. She remained there until 10.00 GMT the following day before flying 10km south to a body of water on the north side of the River Senegal, still on the Mauritanian side of the border, just north of Richard Toll.

On the 15th she returned north to roost at the same spot as the previous night, before returning south to the same body of water on the following morning of the 16th. Millie remained in this area all day, and roosted here on the night of the 16th and stayed here until 18.00 GMT on the 17th Sept when she returned north to her previous roost site of the 14thand 15th.

It looks like Millie might become as reliable as Breagha, moving up and down between a roosting and feeding ground.



Breagha hasn’t changed, and is still cruising around his usual haunts. And who can blame him, it looks like a great place to be if you are an osprey...look at all that water!

Millie and Breagha
Jen Clark Jen Clark 22 Sep 2014 4:12 PM

Downloading information from the osprey’s trackers is like waiting for exam results. I have to refrain from hiding behind my fingers as I wait for the points to pop up on the screen, hoping to see that there has been movement from our birds. There is a sigh of relief as the data comes through showing that the bird has moved, even if it isn’t very far, which is often the case with our boy, Breagha. And although his movements aren’t as exciting as the current year’s osprey chicks as they pass from country to country, passing over large bodies of water, risking their young lives as they go it alone for the first time, he is at least safe and that is really what we care about.

This was the case with today’s download, as we downloaded Breagha first, hoping not for the unexpected and thankful to find out that he is still doing well, no change to his usual pattern. I could show you the map but it looks not much different to the one in the last blog. He is still spending time in Senegal by the River Casamance.

Millicent is up next, her download a little bit more nerve-wracking as she is the more unpredictable of the two...or so we might presume. In fact, she hasn’t changed her routine since the last download. She is still on the Mauritania-Senegal border just north of Richard Toll, on the Mauritania side of the border. Her pattern hasn’t changed, spending her days on the same body of water on the north side of the Senegal River at Richard Toll, and going to an arid, drier region about 10km north of here to roost in the evenings. At 18.00 GMT on both the 18th and 19th Sept she spent time on a tributary to the Senegal River, hopefully catching some fish but whether they are as tasty as a trout from the Spey, I cannot say.



We can only guess as to how Druie is getting on and hope that she too has found a safe place to settle in Africa.

..........And now the latest on our ospreys. Both Breagha and Millicent haven’t changed their location since the last blog. Breagha still on the River Casamance in Senegal and Millicent on the Mauritania-Senegal border north of Richard Toll. Millicent did however take a trip across the border from Mauritania into Senegal to do a spot of fishing on the Senegal River on the 21st September.

A few have asked about Druie’s whereabouts and why we haven’t recorded and reported on her migration. The reason for this is that although Druie was ringed along with Millicent and Seasca, she was not fitted with a tracker. 2009 was the last time we had three chicks to ring – Rothes, Mallachie and Garten – and those of you who have been following our birds for a long time will remember that Garten, the youngest, was also not fitted with a tracker. Since then we’ve either not been able to ring the chicks (2010) or we’ve only had two chicks to ring and tag (2011-2013). So this is the first year in a long time that we’ve had three chicks to ring and tag, so it is understandable that some are unsure of why Druie lacks a tracker. There are a few reasons why we don’t put a tracker on chick number three but the main reason is the size difference at that stage in their lives. We have a very short window when we can ring and tag these birds. They must be big enough and robust enough to fit with a tracker but not yet old enough to be preparing for fledging. This window is usually when the birds are 5-6 weeks old and at this point, the youngest bird usually isn’t developed enough to fit with a tracker. If we waited for the little one to catch up, the older chick could be starting to flap and could attempt to fly before ready if we approached the nest. And so this is why we haven’t reported on Druie’s whereabouts because we simply do not know. And sometimes it is good to have a bit of mystery.

Mike is back from his holiday on Tuesday so the tracking will be back in his capable hands then. So the next update will be Tuesday instead of Monday.

Millie and Breagha, still going steady

Jen Clark 9 Oct 2014 2:56 PM
A quick blog today to update you on our birds.

Over to Mike:

“The latest update again shows that Millicent has stayed in the very small area that she has been in over the preceding week. She does seem to have a favoured roost site on what appears to be part of the irrigation canals around the rice paddies. She must have found a good spot like Breagha and will hopefully stay there.

Breagha on the other hand has been quite active over the last three days, expanding his normal area to around 10 sq. km. On 6th October he travelled about 13 km and was recorded as perched about every two hours.”