Bird Cams Around the World

Breagha is taking things a little easier .....
19 hours ago by Mike H

Breagha is exploring around the Senegal/Mauritania border whilst Oighrig and Caledonia are not moving very far.

BREAGHA

Breagha has taken a breather in his long distance travels and has only really done some local travelling around the Senegal/Mauritania border.

On 15 October he started by travelling S crossing into Senegal at around 11.00 GMT turning westward at 12.00 GMT essentially following an unnamed (at least I cannot find one) tributary of the Senegal River. At 14.00 GMT he entered the Oiseaux de Djoudi National Park , changing direction at 16.00 GMT before coming to roost at 18.00 GMT. A modest day of travelling with only 92 km covered.

On 16 October he left the roost between 06.00 and 08.00 GMT travelling SW until at 10.00 GMT he was travelling NW before crossing back into Mauritania just N of Maka at around 11.00 GMT. He travelled through the Diawling National Park and at 12.00 GMT he began flying over a large expanse of what appears to be an estuarine/flood plain/marsh area and over lake Tianbrank at around 15.00 GMT. At 16.00 GMT he had changed direction again and was heading NE inland to finally roost at 22.00 GMT. A similar distance covered of around 90 km.

At 10.00 GMT on 17 October Breagha was S of the roost near the coast and was flying SW. This was the last recorded data point for this download so is he going to continue S or loop back and continue to explore the Mauritania/Senegal border?

OIGHRIG

No changes to report as he is still travelling locally around the area to the NW of Joal Fadiouth.

CALEDONIA

A similar story to Oighrig with no significant movement from his favourite Rio Guadalquivir site. The fishing must be good!

The next update will be on Monday.

BREAGHA TAKES A ROUND TRIP TO SENEGAL ……and mustard....
1 hour ago by richard thaxton

The latest data download tells the following about our birds:

BREAGHA

We left him travelling S on 17 October and he continued in this direction passing near Tianbrank Lake and exploring the wetland area from 14.00 GMT before coming to roost around 20.00 GMT. He travelled some 65 km in the day.

On 18 October he left the roost between 06.00 and 08.00 GMT to continue spending the day exploring the local area. He was recorded stationary on many occasions so presumably this was a fishing day. He eventually went to roost at around 22.00 GMT.

Initially on 19 October he continued to explore the local area but at 12.00 GMT he was heading S crossing into Senegal at around 15.00 GMT. Finally, having travelled 105 km, he roosted at 16.00 GMT some 20 km SE of Louga.

He left the roost on 20 October at around 08.00 GMT initially travelling S but then was heading N at 10.00 GMT to follow the coast crossing back into Mauritania N of St Louis. He was still travelling N towards Tianbrank Lake at 16.00 GMT (the last data point). Another 100 km covered this day.

OIGHRIG

He has not moved far from the area NW of Joal Fadiouth generally being recorded within a 2-3 km range of where he has been roosting. On 19 October he was on the coast at 10.00 GMT and again at 10.00 and 16.00 GMT on 20 October.

CALEDONIA

She continues to stay in her favourite area on the Rio Guadalquivir and was recorded mostly in two roost areas of trees on the E bank. On 18 October she was travelling W of the Rio at 13.00 GMT and in a similar position at 09.00 GMT on 19 October so she may have gone much farther although she was back at the Rio within two hours on both occasions.

Next download is on Thursday.

Meanwhile here on the Rez, the winter thrush arrival has ramped-up from a steady trickle to a veritable torrent! Redwings and fieldfares have been pouring in over the past week or so, and at the weekend the skies seemed full of the sight & sound of 'em - the chattering calls of fieldfares and the thin seeeeep calls of redwings. Just marvellous. This, together with the simply stunning autumn colours - the best I've seen, I reckon, (but I probably say that every year!), made it a glorious, if a tad damp weekend, here in Strathspey. When out for a walk yesterday, mustard, was the word I'd use to describe the scene - the birches, and aspens a mix of Djon, English, French and wholegrain in their mix of yellow, ochres and browns, and these together with the reds, oranges and copper tones of the rowans and bird cherries, the autumn colours really are fantastic this year. Any of you that know Grantown-on-Spey will know the drive over the Spey Bridge through a corridor of beech trees, equally spectacular in their autumnal tones too.

We've had some very still evenings lately too, making Loch Garten glassy smooth with some wonderful reflections. There are not many geese about just now, just a few wigeon, teal and goldeneye, plus 20-30 goosanders arriving at dusk to roost on the loch overnight, often arriving just after the darkness, but their whooooosh, as they plane-in and plough the water's surface is audible in the silence. Where ever you are, it's a great time of year out there, be sure to get and if you can, and enjoy it.

With ospreys gone, winter work has begun......but osprey news too.
1 day ago by richard thaxton

The osprey latest is as follows:

Breagha seems to be favouring Mauritania

BREAGHA

Breagha seems to have settled for the moment in the extreme SW tip of Mauritania near the Senegal border and 10 km WSW of Tiguet, Senegal. He has moved very short distances and has visited the Tianbrank Lake area at 14.00 GMT on both 21 and 22 October and at 14.00 and 16.00 GMT on 23 October. Tianbrank Lake appears to be a large expanse of water very rich in wildlife including pelicans so the fishing must be good.

OIGHRIG
Oighrig has not moved far from his spot NW of Joal Fadiouth. He appears to favour a roost site in sparsely wooded landscape 2.5 km SSW of Ndianda where he has roosted on 20, 21, and 22 October. He is regularly recorded near an unnamed river slightly to the S of this roost. He broke this pattern on 23 October and roosted further N some 2 km NNW of Ndianda after spending most of the day in the area of the river.

CALEDONIA

No significant change in Caledonia's activity. Most of the recorded data shows her on a short stretch of the Rio Guadalquivir although she was over the Rivera de Huelva 2 km NNW of the Rio at 09.00 GMT and flying N but she was back at her favourite haunt by 11.00 GMT.

The next update will be on Sunday.

Oighrig is doing more exploring

4 hours ago by Mike H

OIGHRIG

Oighrig has shown the most activity over the last three days moving around 20 km per day exploring the area around the fishing town of Joal-Fadiouth in Senegal. He has roosted inland each day but at different spots.

He was around the coast on 24 October at 10.00 GMT and 08.00 GMT on 25 October. On 25 October he roosted 1.3 km W of Keur Kaba at around 20.00 GMT which is SE of his ‘normal range’.

On 26 October he set off in a WSW direction and was over the coast on the S tip of Joal-Fadiouth at 10.00 GMT travelling N along the coast until he stopped at 12.00 GMT on the coast N of the town before turning E to go inland. He stopped again between 14.00 and 16.00 GMT then travelled NW to come to roost at 22.00 GMT.

BREAGHA

He has continued to explore the area in the extreme SW corner of Mauritania and has only appeared to travel within a radius of 6 km from his roost area. He appears to be using Tianbrank Lake for fishing as he has been recorded in the area on 24 October between 12.00 and 14.00 GMT, 25 October between 10.00 and 14.00 GMT and again on 26 October between 14.00 and 16.00 GMT.

CALEDONIA

Recordings still show her spending her time on the small stretch of the Rio Guadalquivir with occasional short excursions near the Rio.

The next download will be on Wednesday.

Flocks of thrushes and osprey news
34 minutes ago by Mike H

There have been masses of berries on the rowan and other trees this year and the thrushes are out in force around the reserve and surrounding villages. In Aviemore it is mostly redwings and blackbirds that are taking part in the feeding frenzy but there are also some fieldfares in the flocks. I am desperate to get out with the camera and take some photos but do not appear to have much time at the moment. Hopefully the weather will be good over the weekend when I might find the odd hour or two to get out. I also hope the thrushes leave some berries for the waxwings but somehow I think this is wishful thinking.

So what of our Ospreys? Breagha and Oighrig continue to explore their current areas and even Caledonia appears to have ventured further than the Rio Guadalquivir!

BREAGHA

On 27 October he stayed mostly around the previous night’s roost area visiting Tianbrank Lake between 12.00 and 16.00 GMT.
On 28 October he travelled N from the roost area then NE stopping at all the recorded times and finally roosted overnight at around 18.00 GMT inland in a sparsely wooded area. He travelled 43 km over the course of the day.
He set off around 08.00 GMT on 28 October retracing his previous day’s journey and at 10.00 GMT was travelling S. This was the last data point downloaded for this day.

OIGHRIG

Oighrig moved to the coastal area on the N outskirts of Joal Fadiouth on 27 October. At 10.00 GMT he was near a ‘coastal lake’ and industrial area and at 14.00 GMT was flying N just off the coast. He roosted overnight in a heavily wooded area N of the town. ( Note: the Google map below does not show this as an obvious wooded area because the Google maps were recorded in the dry season rather than the current wet season.)
28 October was a busy day although he did not travel very far. Much of the time he was exploring the overnight roost area but did visit the coast at 10.00 GMT and between 12.00 and 14.00 GMT he was 5 km inland to the east of the roost near a river before returning to the wooded area at 20.00 GMT to roost. There were no recorded movements in the limited data available for 29 October.

CALEDONIA

She was again recorded around the Rio Guadalquivir for most of the time but at 11.00 GMT on 28 October was 7.5 km from the Rio and flying N over a lake on the E outskirts of San José de la Rinconada. This is an area she has visited on previous occasions. Caledonia was back at the Rio roost site by 13.00 GMT.

The next data download will be on or around 7 November as the data monitoring changes to weekly downloads and less data points per day. So keep your eyes open for a blog on 7 or 8 November

Breagha and Oighrig are still touring their chosen areas
1 day ago by Mike H

Apologies to those of you who were eagerly awaiting the latest instalment in the travels of our Ospreys. The data download did not appear on 7th or 8th November but on Saturday, 9th November. So Saturday appears to be the weekly download day until next April/March. If so this is not the most convenient day of the week to sit at the computer for a few hours as weekends tend to be allocated to other activities! I expected the downloads to be on a Friday so I will check again next week to see if this is the case. Whatever the day turns out to be rest assured that we will make every effort to deliver the updates as quickly as possible.

The thrushes have left the Aviemore area having stripped the berries from most if not all the trees. They really are the locusts of the avian world! I failed to find any Redwing to photograph on Sunday so was somewhat disappointed.

So winter is here. There has been snow on the Cairngorms for a little while now with the first skiing this weekend and we had sleet at the low levels briefly on Thursday. With winter comes the change in data tracking information and now the downloads are weekly and for only two data points per day. As you all know this means that we are not able to give the same information regarding our bird's travels as they can move great distances over the period of eight hours between data points.

Both Breagha and Oighrig have been quite active over the last week but Caledonia has appeared to take it easy again.

BREAGHA
Breagha has stayed in the extreme SW corner of Mauritania but has been doing more travelling around the area.
On 30 October at 08.00 GMT he was some 21 km NE of the overnight roost, back at the roost between 12.00 and 16.00 GMT before travelling S 21 km to the Tianbrank roost site where he stayed overnight. On 31 October he set off N retracing the previous day's journey and again was back at Tianbrank to roost. He returned N the next day and spent 2 – 8 November exploring this northern area of his current range travelling up to 15 kms on some days.

OIGHRIG
He spent 3 – 5 November travelling 137 km SE and E of Fadiouth but most of the recordings show him around the coastal and inland areas to the N of the town of Fadiouth.

Oighrig has been exploring
3 days ago by Mike H

OIGHRIG
He has been busy over the last week having travelled at least 200 km exploring the area between N Joal-Fadiouth and the Gambia border. He must have set off on 11 November and at 17.00 GMT was 50 km SE of Joal-Fadiouth flying SSW over the Delta du Saloum NP. On 12 November he was further S and at 17.00 GMT he was some 6 km S of the town of Missira and 4 km N of the Gambia border. On 13 November at 17.00 GMT he was back at the point where he was on the previous morning but on 14th at 09.00 GMT he was 9 km E and by 17.00 GMT was 24 km further E and 14 km SW of the town of Toubakouta. By 17.00 GMT on 15 November he was 75 km NW and back to his ‘normal’ area N of Joal-Fadiouth. On this journey he was recorded most times as stationary near wetland areas so perhaps he was exploring new fishing areas for future reference.

BREAGHA
He appears to have settled into a strange routine. At 09.00 GMT on 9, 11-13 and 15 November he has been about 20km NE of his current overnight roost spot but back at this area at 17.00 GMT. The Google Earth and ArcGis Explorer maps for the area are not easy to translate but do not look like wet land areas. They are largely open expanses amongst more wooded areas so perhaps they are small lakes which are not showing as such because of the mismatch between timing of the maps and seasonal changes. I do not have access to any more detailed maps which help.

CALEDONIA
She appears to have stayed around the Rio Guadalquivir where the fishing must be good. At 16.00 GMT on 10 November she was flying N over the Rio near the La Cartuja Olympic Stadium in N Seville and on 13 November at 08.00 GMT was flying SSE over the Rivera De Huelva some 2 km NW of the Rio. Perhaps she had roosted overnight on her old haunt of the Huelva. The weather in the Seville area is around the mid-teens for most of the day and dry so there appears to be no incentive to move very far.

We are now on weekly downloads on Saturdays and the next blog update will be on Monday, 25 November.

Not much movement this week.....
richard thaxton 25 Nov 2013 1:33 PM

The latest on our birds from data downloaded by Mike (thanks Mike), is as follows;

The maps included with this report look at the wider area around where our Ospreys are residing. The tracks have also been left off as they are not meaningful now that there are only two data points per day. As you all know, the birds could have travelled great distances in the eight hours between data points.

BREAGHA

There is a kind of pattern to the movements of both Breagha and Oighrig. Breagha is still in the extreme SW corner of Mauritania and seems to be spending late afternoons (17.00 GMT) in a common area which is perhaps his roost site and most mornings (09.00 GMT) over the lakes which could be fishing trips. There are always exceptions and on 21 November at 09.00 GMT he was around 10 km NE of this area (travelling SW) over what we now believe (thanks to Sue C – see last blog comments) is likely to be a lush wetland area with a number of small stretches of seasonal water.

OIGHRIG

Around 270km further S on the Senegal coast, Oighrig’s reports are similar although he appears not to have moved much further that a 3.5 km area in his favoured spot N of the town of Joal Fadiouth. In the late afternoons (17.00 GMT) he is some 3-4 km inland and in the mornings at 09.00 GMT he is closer to or on the coast. So again this looks like a roosting and fishing pattern

CALEDONIA

She is still around the Rio Guadalquivir river 6 km NE of the centre of Seville and 3 km E of Santiponce although this week less of the sightings are on the river banks. She did make a trip S on 18 November and at 08.00 GMT was flying S over the Rio and close to La Cartuja Olympic stadium but she was back in her usual area by 16.00 GMT. It looks like she must also have made a trip to her old haunts on the Rivera de Huelva on 16 November when she was flying NW towards this area.

The next download will be on 2 December.

Breagha is exploring...........
14 minutes ago by richard thaxton

....whilst Oighrig and Caledonia are not so active. The latest inforamtion we have on the whereabouts of our young ospreys is as follow

BREAGHA

Breagha is exploring his new location in Southern Senegal some 20 km N of the border with Guinea Bissau. Most of the data points are in a small area within 3.5 km S of Cachouane which is near the mouth of the Casamance River and some significant tributaries. Presumably this is a good fishing area with plenty of water and woodland. One or two excursions have been a little further afield. This is an area that both Rothes and Malachie explored in October 2009.

OIGHRIG

His recordings place him in his now usual area N of Joal Fadiouth with most of the location near the coast.

CALEDONIA

He has apparently not moved far from his favourite Rio Guadalquivir haunt with just a few excursions S down the Rio towards N Seville and one short hop to another favourite spot NE of the Rio site.

My thanks to data-Mike for the information. The next download will be on Monday, 16 December.