12th May.  All progressing normally at the nest. At 1pm today we checked the nest, using our usual technique for osprey monitoring: a mirror on top of an extendable aluminium pole. This scientific study is carried out very carefully under licence from Scottish Natural Heritage.  When we arrived, the male was incubating, and Logie was eating the remains of a fish - from the size of her crop she had already eaten much of it. At this time of the year, the male does all the hunting and brings one, sometimes two, fish a day to the nest. He eats the first half, including the head, usually on a perch near the eyrie tree; then he flies to the eyrie with the fish for the female and she takes the rest of the fish to a favourite perch to eat, while the male starts his turn at incubation.

We found that Logie had laid a full clutch of three eggs. As we departed, the male bird returned to the nest to incubate, and Logie went to finish her fish.  Earlier, I had checked a new nest which a friend had found a few miles away. There the male bird was also incubating and the female was eating a fish.  I need to go back and check from a distance with a high powered telescope to see if the birds are ringed - this is possibly a new nest occupied by the female ousted by Logie on 23rd April.

Throughout the winter she has remained in a very small area of this tropical island; perching mainly in one big tree in coastal woodland, not far from the sea. Once or twice a day, she made flights of up to a kilometre to catch fish in the South Atlantic Ocean.

See below for details of her autumn migration and wintering - this table will now give her return migration. The satellite radio is working well and giving hourly GPS fixes of her location, and also details of her altitude in metres above sea level, and if she is flying, the direction and speed . 

The first leg of her great migration was 221 kilometres and she flew for just over 6 hours at an average of 36 km/h. The weather was ideal for starting her migration; clear conditions, rising pressure and light winds 16 km/h from the west. The temperature up to 79F.

The map shows her first day's migration - compare the more direct heading northwards for home, compared to the autumn migration (yellow line).  

13th March migration - 348 kilometres

It's interesting she was flying during the day at over 3000 feet above the land - not sure why - to get a view?, avoiding harassing birds or fires, or just for a change!

 Logie's roost site  13th - 14th March on Senegal River

At 4pm, she was still nearly a 1000 metres above the surrounding land, and had crossed the highway from Kiffa to Aleg, near El Ghayra. She continued flying strongly northwards at 1400 metres at 50 to 78kms/h, passing over broken ground containing villages, small lakes, date palms but mainly semi-desert. At 6pm she was heading for Matmata, and by 7pm she was roosting at 330 metres altitude in remote rocky country, 80 kilometres SW of Tidjikja.  Her total day's flight was 313 kilometres.

At 1pm she had climbed to over a thousand metres and had passed to the east of Ksar el Barka. At 2pm, she had crossed the plateau  and was flying over sand deserts and big dunes.  Now she started to speed up and had flown 61 kilometres north between 3pm and 4pm. At 5pm, east of Chinquetta and was flying at 79km/h north at 224 metres. At 6pm she had regained height again over the next plateau of rocks and for the next two hours was at 1830 metres. Between 7pm and 8pm she had passed over a series of cliffs to roost in sandy deserts to the north at just 278 metres. Her roost site was 47 km west of Ouadane and 66 kms west of the amazing Richat Structure in the Mauritanian deserts. Her day's migration was 339 kilometres.

Roost site on 15th -16th March - how very different to Isla Roxa and her nest site in Scotland

There was  a break in the sequence of transmissions, and at 5 pm she was 157 kilometres further north, flying NNE at 70km/h at an altitude of 1594 metres; she had passed 50 kilometres east of the huge iron ore mine at Zouerat. At 6pm, she was continuing to fly fast at 69km/h and heading NNE. She was not far from Western Sahara and had crossed her southwards track. A GPS fix for 8pm (received next morning) showed she had flown 23 kilometres north and was roosting in a vast open stony desert (and was still in the same place at 0600GMT next morning).   Her day's journey was 258 kilometres. 

How do we get such accurate locations?

Several people have asked how we get our data so quickly

Tiny satellite radios, called PTTs, have been designed and manufactured in recent decades for carrying out research on wildlife. We use radios, made by Microwave Telemetry in Columbia, USA ( www.microwavetelemetry.com ). Each PTT has a unique identification number supplied under our conservation agreement with Argos CLS, the French Satellite Tracking company based in Toulouse, France ( www.cls.fr/welcome_en.html ). The newest radios have GPS technology so that the positions of the bird are extremely accurate (within 18 metres), and they also record speed, altitude and course. A solar panel keeps the battery charged.  

The radio is attached to the bird’s back by a lightweight harness, like a tiny rucsac, and is programmed to take GPS readings at hourly intervals and then at intervals of between 1 and 10 days to transmit data. CLS Argos have satellites which circle the earth, mainly collecting information from ocean weather buoys, and they pick up the signals. We can connect to their website and database, and extract our data using dedicated passwords. It’s possible to open my laptop on my desk and receive information transmitted an hour earlier from Africa. Then I load the data into various different files and download one set of coordinates into the fantastic GoogleEarth mapping system ( www.GoogleEarth.com ) – it’s all very amazing.

The radios are expensive (Logie's radio was funded by Talisman Energy in Aberdeen) and for each day's data we pay a monthly charge to CLS Argos.  Donations to our conservation studies would be very welcome for this and future projects. 

At 6pm she was flying at 53km/h at an altitude of 1964 metres, way above the land surface, and within half an hour or so she was descending to a roosting area just 8 kilometres short of the Moroccan border. Here the land slopes into Morocco and there are a scattering of bushes - on one of which she probably roosted. Her day's flight was 305 kilometres and she had light tail winds, clear skies and hot sun.

At 1pm, she as flying at 62 km/h, heading just east of north at an altitude of 1543 metres. An hour later, she was 63 kilometres further north, flying at 47 km/h at 1391 metres, so she was continuing a fast high altitude migration (for an osprey). At this time she would have seen the Anti Atlas mountains ahead of her, sunny skies were clear with light westerly tail winds drifting her to NNE.

At  3pm she was 59 kilometres further north in MOROCCO, flying 64 km/h just east of north at 1464 metres; an hour later she was heading for ranges of hills called Jebel Bani, south of Assa. At 5pm turned along the southern ridges and was travelling at 86km/h, NNE at 704 metres. Soon she  crossed into ALGERIA. By 6pm she was roosting on the south-east slopes of the ridge, facing the desert. Her day's flight was 344 kilometres (215 miles) over the deserts, but nowhere to catch fish.

Logie's track leaving Mauritania, crossing into Western Samara & Morocco, and finally before dusk into Algeria. During the day she crossed her autumn track (yellow line).

Ouarzazate is an important Moroccan town to the west of the lake; a busy place for travellers and known as the 'door of the desert'. It's close to the Atlas mountains and the Draa valley; and lies at 1160 metres above sea level. Last night high clouds had extended over the mountains; and today the weather at the lake is partly cloudy, clearing to sun later, with light west winds 16km/h and temperature of 68F/20C.

See Pertti Saurola's website for details at   www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/zoology/satelliteospreys/index.htm

At 2pm, she was 42 kilometres further north, flying over farming lands near Oulad Ougal and was again gaining height to 1050 metres. Over the next two hours she travelled 102 kilometres N and was flying between 1793 and 1115 metres. She then dropped down to roost about 15 kilometres SE of the city of Khouriba, the centre of phosphate mining.

Her day's migration, see map, was a dog leg to avoid the highest mountains of the High Atlas, but she still covered 243 kilometres. The weather was cloudy in places and the wind light. The forecast for 21st is cloudy with showers, with light variable winds, temperature 12C. 

She is about 370 kilometres from the Straits of Gibraltar so she might cross there on 22nd March if the weather is good. Fernando Gavilan emailed last night to say that it was very rainy today at the Tarifa raptor migration watch centre and just one osprey and some other raptors crossed the Straits into Spain, but on 19th there were several thousand black kites and 4 ospreys. It would be exciting if some of the migration observers identify Logie migrating in Spain.

She is now 125 kilometres from the Straits of Gibraltar.  

At 11am she was over the sea just north of Cabo Negor heading parallel to the coast towards Ceuta; she was flying at 42km/h NNW at 56 metres over the sea. The wind drifted her east and an hour later she was out in sea 36 kilometres east of Gibraltar and had travelled another 58 kilometres. She was flying at 63 km/h to the NNE at just 17 kilometres over the sea. This was a hard crossing of the Straits and thank goodness there were no yellow-legged gulls to harass her. At 1pm she had reached the Spanish coast just north of Fuengirola and had changed heading to north and was flying at 82 km/h and gaining height into the hills.

Later note:  John Cortes of The Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society writes" The 22nd saw relatively low passage - as it was so windy we suspect that, like Logie, quite a lot of birds passed well to the east of Gibraltar.  We did have about 200 Black kites, and a variety of other species, including 5 Marsh Harriers, 7 Egyptian Vultures and some Black Storks and White Storks - and 2 Ospreys."  While Luis Barrios, Director of Fundacion Migres, which monitors raptor and stork migration across the Straits to Tarifa and Cazalla, reports "a very poor day for passage - just 3 black kites, 2 short-toed eagles and an Egyptian vulture. This compares to 1220 migrants on 20th, 321 on 21st and 173 on 23rd, mainly black kites. Single ospreys on 20th and 23rd."          So Logie crossed on a very poor day for raptor migration from Africa to Europe.

At 2pm she was in the hills of SPAIN,  north of Marbella.  She was over Cerralba,just south of Pizarro flying N at 40km/h at 404 metres. By 4 pm she was flying over the waters of the reservoir lake, Embalse de Conde de Guadlahorce. One of three lovely lakes in the mountains about 25 kilometres SW of Antequerra. She was probably fishing over the lake, because at 5pm she was perched on a hillside of olive trees on the south side of the reservoir and may be was eating a fish. She roosted about 500 metres north in woods above a bay inlet.

The day's migration was 281 kilometres.  The weather at Marbella was light rain, cloudy with light SW winds; temperature 47F/8C; (the winds at Gibraltar were 50km/h). The forecast for her location tomorrow is clear skies and sun.

It's great that she has got back to Europe after another successful crossing of the Sahara Desert. She has still has at least 2300 kilometres (1425 miles direct line) to go before reaching her nest here in Moray. That's about 8 - 9 days in good weather, but there is a very cold wet and windy weather system over the UK and France. Here near her nest, it's been very cold, with strong NNE winds and frequent snow showers today.

This is the reservoir lake of Embalse de Conde de Guadalhorce, where she was almost certainly fishing at 4pm, and probably eating a fish perched on hillside above the lake at 5pm, and then her roost.

From  our later data, Logie departed from the site about 9.30GMT.  A fisherman's website reports that this reservoir is very good for barbel, carp, nase and pike - a good feeding site for ospreys.

 Fernando's photos from today - Embalse de Conde de Guadalhorce. Right photo is roosting area

By 6pm GMT she had passed over the Sierra Morena, and was flying NNW at 33km/h over wooded hills about 25 kilometres south of Cuidad Real. She had not yet stopped to roost. Her day's flight at this time was 217 kilometres.  She was flying over areas that I know from visits to Andalusia - I wonder if she saw an Iberian Lynx on  her travels - a beautiful animal I failed to see in the Sierra Morena.  At 1900GMT she had stopped to roost in a wooded hill top two kilometres further north.

The weather forecast (today 25th) is sunny with clouds & light N winds, but cloudy and rainy with stronger N winds in North Spain.

Logie's migration to Bay of Biscay on 25th 26th March

After reaching the Bay of Biscay coast, there has been a series of cloudy, rainy days with westerly winds, and she has decided to wait for better weather before heading north. Logie has been on the coasts north and east of Bilbao in northern Spain. Most days she has been around the estuary of the River Mundaka which runs into the Bay of Biscay, from Guernica. It looks a very good place for fishing ospreys. As soon as the weather improves she should head north and I'm pleased that I can now update regularly the rest of her migration.

Either later this evening or tomorrow morning I will fill out the details of her sojourn on the Basque coast.  The weather there this evening is still rainy, with heavy showers, overcast and light west winds.

Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve - Logie's movements on 31st March

The Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve is located in the Euro Siberian region, on the Bay of Biscay coast, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Urdaibai covers an area of 220 km2 with around 45.000 inhabitants, the 80% of them concentrated in the towns of Gernika and Bermeo. The territory is characterized by a hydrographic basin that ends creating a great salt marsh and a coastal landscape with high sheer cliffs and capes. The craggy inside countryside is occupied by meadow land, oak groves, leafy woods and specially by fast-growing conifers. The coastal landscape is covered with cantabrian woods of holm oak and strawberry trees, along the edges of the Mundaka estuary. In Urdaibai have been described 615 species of vascular plants, 318 species of vertebrates, 245 of this species are birds. Along with the rich Basque culture, the site has a particular interest, since it contains various remnants of the prehistoric, roman and Middle ages. The economy leans heavily on metallurgy, fishing/ maritime activities and forestry, and on the exploitation of local resources (arable and cattle farming). There is also a tourist trade, centred mainly on the local beaches, the historical towns (Gernika) and the natural environment. The area is implementing a management and land use plan and a development plan including socio-economic aspects and promoting sustainable activities such as quality tourism, agriculture and forestry.

Big news at home is that a male osprey was on Logie's nest at 11.30am and was almost certainly her mate from last year, although I did not identify his colour ring before he flew off, almost certainly to fish.  It looked as though he had just arrived from migration - in excellent bright plumage but looking very empty and hungry. The male in the next nest also arrived today. 

Today, there was a 'pair' of ospreys on Logie's nest - the female, green ring 5B, was from the next door nest and the male, red 7J, was a bird I ringed as a chick about 20 miles away in 2001.  Another male was displaying with a fish over nearby forest.

Urdaibai Biosphere reserve  - photo by Aitor Galarza

Jose Mari Unamuno of the Elaia Bird Migration Centre watched Logie fishing in the estuary on 1st April. He said she was shy and harassed by yellow-legged gulls, but in the end landed on the mud and ate the fish. He sent several photographs and I enlarged one , which is shown below, of Logie eating a fish in the estuary at low tide.

There were no ospreys on Logie's nest yesterday or today.

She actually stayed put - may be she sensed how bad the weather was further north. In the morning she was in the north roost, and during the afternoon and evening was in woodlands at the SW side of the estuary, inland from Mureata.

Then at 6pm, I received the following email from  Aitor Galarza, warden of the reserve, along with the enclosed photograph of Logie eating a fish.

Hi: Great and beautiful! Logie was eating at 12:00 on the muds of the right part of the estuary (Kanala). She begins shouting when I approach to her although she couldn´t see me because I was inside the wood. I could see the transmitter and the white ring with AN. I have taken some  pictures that I send you. When I left her, at 12:30 she continued eating. She seems to be comfortable in our small estuary. I dream with ospreys nesting here one day.
Yours   Aitor Galarza

Aitor: Thanks very much for the photograph and the red-hot news of Logie. 

After looking at the photograph, she looks quite hungry to me, obviously the migration journey has already been long and arduous; but the heavy rains last week would have made it more difficult to catch fish in the estuary. Richard Gallagher mentioned the problem of murky water when rivers run high, in his email, and we see the same in Scotland when heavy rains turn the rivers Spey and Findhorn brown and the fish are hidden.  So she needs to feed up now, ready for the next stretch home once the weather improves.

At 5-6am local time she was at the south roost, then at 7am in the estuary (presumably fishing); at 9 am she was at the north roost in the forest. An hour later she was several kilometres NW of the estuary flying SW at 39km/h at 450 metres, presumably gaining height. Because an hour later she was 24 kilometres SE near Madalena and at midday was skirting the western slopes of the Pyrenees, flying at 35 k,m/h at 634 metres near Altzola. An hour later she had flown into FRANCE, and was flying NE at 58 km/h near Monte Aldura.

By now she had cut the corner and was turning northwards; at 3pm she was near Saint Jean-de-Luz flying NNE at 33km/h and had levelled out at an altitude of 52metres following the coast. She was 22 kilometres further on an hour later inland of Penon. At 5pm local time she was flying NNE at 33km/h near Vielle-Saint-Girons and the last signal at 6pm was at Mimizan, when she was flying N at 40 km/h at 123 metres altitude. She still had at least an hours flight before dusk.

After 11 days at Urdaibai, her day's flight was at least 196 kilometres and she made a perfect circuit of the Bay of Biscay coast, with no attempt to fly across the sea. The weather in Spain was getting cloudier with rain in the Pyrenees, while ahead of her France was in clear skies. Now to see how quickly she gets back home. Still dreadful cold snowy weather in Scotland and an afternoon check of six local nests found no ospreys.

The next signal was at 11am and she 55 kilometres further north and had passed Cap Ferret, and was flying north at 53km/h into a light NE wind. An hour later she was perched at the south end of a coastal freshwater lagoon called Etang de Carcaus, and at 1pm was flying at 36km/h NNE at the top end of the lake. An hour later she was perched overlooking coastal dunes, and then she was north of Montalivet-les-Bains, before heading north over the sea between Cordonan Lighthouse and the mouth of the river Gironde.

She reached the north shore at 4pm and turned NW to follow the coast north. At 5pm she was perched in a coast forest plantation, and an hour later had moved a further 1.5 kilometres north to a night roost in a conifer plantation beside a track about one kilometre from the sea. She was on the peninsula west of Tremblade, and south of Ile d'Oleron. During the day she had flown 170 kilometres north in poor conditions with a light to fresh NE wind - poor conditions for migration.

Last evening, after the rain cleared for a while, we checked Logie's nest and found the new male red/white 7J eating a big fish on a branch above the nest. The nest showed signs of building so he seems to be in occupation, because Logie's mate has also not yet returned to Scotland. This male was first seen at this nest on 1st April, with a female green/white 5B but she is now at her last year's nest with her regular mate. So another osprey season starts - but rather slowly in the cold wet snowy weather.

Logie's migration route through Spain and France to 8th April

A signal at midday local time gave a position 2 kilometres east of the island suggesting Logie was migrating to the mainland coast. The weather has improved in France and several contacts reported by email that she should find better  conditions into Brittany.

Here in Scotland, Logie's mate from last year, colour ring black 6R, arrived at their eyrie today. At 7pm I found him on the old nest, presumably after getting rid of the intruding male - red 7J.   BUT there was a female beside him soliciting for food - and after watching for fifteen minutes I could see that it was an old female with just a metal ring on the right leg. This appears to be the old female, from another local eyrie, which lost its long time mate in the winter 2006/2007.  She is definitely over 15 years old, and possibly an ancient bird approaching 30 years of age. It would be really interesting to know her ring number, because she lost her colour ring a long time ago. 6R was too busy renovating the nest to bother about fish. It's about time Logie got home!

She stayed on Ile de Re all day yesterday, visiting several parts of the island before roosting for the night about 1 kilometre SW of the previous evening's night time roost. This was just north of the shellfish farms. Viv Leigh emailed in to say the weather wasn't too bad though cold 9C; and that the fish pens are mainly for oysters and mussels. I was worried she might have got into trouble in a fish farm, but she would not bother shellfish!

She left the island just before 10am local time, when she was flying NE towards the mainland at 54km/h, just 26 metres above the waves. The wind being fresh westerly.  An hour later she was perched on oyster poles on the low tide shore at Sainte-Anne. At midday Logie was 15 kilometres north, flying NW over Revroc at 41km/h and had gained height to 305 metres. At 1pm local time, she was 23 kilometres nearer home, flying due north at 65 km/h and was at an altitude of a thousand feet. Another correspondent, Elaine Clark , emailed to say it was a fine sunny morning but had turned windier with some hail showers. At this stage, Logie was 330 kilometres south of the tip of the Cherbourg Peninsula.

At 2pm, she was 35 kms NNE flying north at 69km/h; an hour later she was near Beaupreau, flying NNW at 37km/h at 590 metres altitude. Just before 4pm she passed low over the river Loire near Saint Florent-le-Vieil. She reached her roost before 6pm and had flown 211 kilometres during the day. She roosted in a line of trees in farm land just 2 kilometres SE of Segre.

I received an email at this time from Steve Nuttall, with a photo of Logie's roost area on Ile de Re; he said it was a glum cool day with rain forecast in La Mayenne. He had seen an osprey once near his home - at a lake at Fontaine-Daniel - Logie passed 6 kilometres to the east of this lake at 9.45am.

She was near Sainte Andre-de-Massei at 11am flying NNW at 62km/h; and an hour later near Campandre-Valcongrain circling over a ridge of hills. At 1pm, Logie was 3 kilometres south of Bayeux  flying NE at 84 km/h at 108 metres altitude. She cossed  the French coast just east of Port-en-Besin on the Normandy coast and at 2pm (3pmBST) she was kilometres over the English Channel flying N at 61 km/h at 930 metres (again she crossed a coast at high altitude - to avoid gulls?). An hour later she was 66 kilometres further on in mid Channel flying NNE at 52 km/h just above the waves. At 5pm, she was 62 kilometres further on and was flying at 75 km/h just 13 metres above the water. The SW winds were pushing her on but also drifting her north-eastwards.

Logie finally arrived in ENGLAND at 5.45pm, arriving just about over Brighton west pier, at 6pm she was flying N at 40km/h above Keymer, south of Burgess Hill. At 7pm Logie arrived at Ardingly reservoir, and at 8 pm was perched in trees on the west side of the North Arm of the reservoir. Her day's flight was 360 kilometres.  The weather had been grey and partly cloudy, 10 kilometres visibility and fresh SW winds of 24km/h. She had done well to cover such a distance in gloomy conditions and the wind had drifted her east of her northwards track.

David Plunton saw two ospreys near Winchester at 10.15 am today and Nick Bond posted a sighting of an osprey over Littlehampton, so it appears other ospreys were crossing the channel.

Logie now has 780 kilometres to fly to reach her nest and it appears she will travel up the eastern side of the country. With luck she'll reach home on Monday - but it's fresh north winds, rain and snow showers up here - but at least the intruding female was not at her nest today.

 Logie's track across France and the English Channel  12th April

It looks reasonable weather for migration, light winds, some rain showers, but gloomier in the north. If she leaves after fishing she might reach Yorkshire by dusk, passing west of London, and near Rutland water about 1pm.

Logie's mate - Black 6R - eating a fish above nest at  0837am

There will be no more updates of Logie's position until late evening transmissions from the satellite

My monitoring of osprey nests today found 10 adults back at 11 nests so it is a slow start to nesting.

The weather yesterday was variable, rain showers, cloudy at times, which may be why she did not head north. Further north there was more rain, and even snow in Scotland. 

Logie's travels around Staines and roost near Virginia Water

An email just in this morning from Sue Halket, explains Logie's delay yesterday. "I am not surprised that Logie didn't fly far yesterday. We had horrible conditions with thunder, lightening and hail storms. I wondered during the day if she would fly in such conditions and vaguely looked for her flying through as we are to the west of Heathrow".

Logie was still at her roost at 8 am and then, at 9 am, was perched on the south bank of Virginia Water, presumably fishing. At 10 am, she was flying NNW at 32 km/h, north of Englefield Green and at 11 am, she was as below!

Oops!  A GPS position at 11am gave Logie's position as flying NW at 22km/h at 500 feet over Terminal 4 at Heathrow airport - hope she got clearance to cross the runways safely! She must have been fishing in the reservoirs to the south and is now heading north.

Google picture of Logie's position at 11am - remember Google pictures are not today's images so this may not be exactly what she saw as she headed across the airport!

At midday, she was flying WNW over the northern outskirts of Maidenhead, and then crossed the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames.  At 1pm, she was flying SW over Sonning Common, at 439 m altitude. An hour later, she was perched on a wooded island beside the Thames, just below the road bridge between Goring and Streetley.  At 3pm, she was flying SE near Lower Basildon, and then at 4pm was flying back NW, back and forth along the river.  At 5pm, she was perched in woods besides the Thames, south of Goring, and an hour later had flown south, perched, again by the river, near Beale Park.  She roosted overnight in woods on the eastern side of the river.

At 10am, she was on her migration once more, and was flying west at 33 km/h, near West Hagbourne, before passing over Didcot power station.  At 11am, she was flying west near Eynsham, and then went over Chipping Norton to be near Little Rollright at midday, when she was circling at 245 m.  She then turned west, and at 1pm was perched in a field just south of Barton-on-the-Heath.  At 2pm, she was flying west at 62 km/h, east of Evesham, and had climbed to 1334 m altitude.  With rain showers during the day, she was probably finding the flight difficult, and at 3pm, was perched in a wood beside the A441, north of Redditch, a little south-east of Rowley Green.  Awaiting further signals!  The forecast at the moment for the Midlands is rain showers with south-easterly winds.  During the last two days, Logie has covered a distance of 188 kms.

Latest news: see below.

Logie's journey on 14th and 15th April

7.30pm Logie is still at the wood near Rowley Green, south of Junction 2 on the ring road below Birmingham. I telephoned a friend in Birmigham and he told me it was pouring with rain at 7pm so I can understand why she has stayed put. The forecast for tomorrow is better. The nearest places for Logie to fish early tomorrow are the Bittell reservoirs, 2 miles NNW,  or possibly Earlswood Lakes 5 miles ENE. Hope she is seen on her way north tomorrow. 

Logie's roost site evening 15th April

"I went up there for a look around this morning between 6.15 and 8.00. If the fix from yesterday was correct she was on a ridge in a patch of oak bluebell wood which belongs to the Methodist Church. The Weather got progressively foggier the longer I was there and I didn't see her, if indeed she was still there. Still damp, overcast and misty here (10.45am) but visibility is gradually improving". 

The first data came in at 5pm and showed that Logie did indeed move position late last evening and roosted beside a small lake with trees about a kilometre SW of the last position. At 11am she was perched at the south end of Lower Bittell reservoir, and then spent the afternoon on farmland and trees about a kilometre to the SW, between the railway line and the motorway.

Just after I got this data, an exciting email came in from Mary & Jack Lindsey, with news that they had seen and photographed her at Bittell reservoir in the morning:

"Thanks to your itinerary, we were able to take a chance and get to Lower Bittell reservoir at 7.30 this morning - just in case! We didn't expect much to happen as it was even foggier there than at home. Our delight was worth everything when, at 10.25ish Logie appeared!!!!!! We only saw her intermittently for about 10 minutes, then presumed she had either caught something or moved out of sight, so we left to get warm!

Have attached a couple of pics Jack took. She was a long way off, and it was very poor photo weather! At least the aerial is visible in one. After all her trials, the gulls wouldn't leave her alone. I took a bit of (very amateur!) film, but it's too long to e-mail, I'm afraid. It was marvellous to see the bird we've been following for so long". Their two photos are shown below.

 Thanks to Jack & Mary for the great photos -  being mobbed by gull on right

A signal at 6pm showed that Logie had moved south, to the west of Alvechurch. After fog in the morning; the weather is partly cloudy with a 9mph NE wind. Hopefully, she'll fish in the morning then head north!

At 9am, she was 17 kilometres NW of Bittell reservoirs flying WNW at 59km/h between Stourton and Wollaston; an hour later she was 31 kilometres further NW flying at 74km/h WNW at 519 metres just NW of Iron bridge, near Telford. She passed Shrewsbury and at11am was 41 kilometres further NW flying at 48 kms/h about 5 kilometre NW of Oswestry. By midday Logie had passed into North Wales and was now flying north at 51km/h at 270 metres two kilometres SW of Mold in Flintshire. She was flying strongly to the NW through the morning with a fresh east wind, up to 30km/h.

At 1pm Logie was flying over the centre of the Dee estuary at 638 metres above sea level, flying N at 85km/h about 2.5 kilometre from Caldy.  She then flew up over Liverpool Bay, being 17 kilometres west of Southport at 2pm, flying strongly N at sea level; and hour later still at sea level she was flying at 39km/h N 7.5 kilometres SW of Walney Island. She then came ashore and at 4pm was flying N at 35km/h near Hallthwaites in the southern Lake District. She now turned NE and an hour later had flown a further 21 kilometres and was just S of Little Langdale flying SSE at 57km/h. At 6pm Logie was perched beside a small river and pools east of Skellwith Bridge just south of the road to Ambleside. Then she flew 6 kilometres SE to perch on the west shore of Lake Windermere. An hour later she was 400 metres further south along the shore where she roosted, due west of Hawkshead.

Her day's flight was 280 kilometres, the first part coping with a strong easterly wind, may be it was the wind which drifted her NW or she may have wanted to pick up the track of her autumn flight over the sea to the Lake District. No more data until tonight.

Logie's flight 17th April

Just in case she flew extremely fast northwards I checked her nest at 5pm, when her mate was eating a fish and an intruder female was sitting in a tree near the nest. But no sign of Logie. We returned at 8pm and stayed until dusk, still the intruder female was near the nest and landed on it on one occasion. Logie's mate flew off to roost on a dead tree some distance away at 8.50pm, and the intruder roosted near the nest tree. Logie will have to oust this female as soon as she arrives home.

Intruder female at Logie's nest

Long distance digi-pic using Nikon Coolpix and Swarowski scope

Logie's movements on 18th and 19th April

Up in Moray, it was a sunny day but with a cold easterly wind; the male and the ringed female were at the nesting site, although the intruder female was mainly perched on a high tree rather than the nest. Attempted matings were taking place but they are still not acting like a settled pair. Not far away is another nest which at present only has a single male, so when Logie gets home, the intruder female could move there, or may oust Logie if she doesn't arrive soon. Logie could then move there to find a new mate.   

Actually data came in this morning to show that Logie had left after midday as the weather improved at last and the wind turned to south-east. At 1pm she was NW of Dumfries, heading for Fourmerkland Tower, flying north at 68km/h. An hour later she was 38 kilometres further on near Leadhills flying N at 85km/h at 1211 metres altitude, and at 3pm she was just east of Airdrie flying NNW at 55km/h. At 4pm she was flying north at 30km/h just west of Airdrie and an hour later was circling and gaining height just west of Comrie, in Perthshire. At 6pm to 8pm she was perched by the river Tay, two kilometres downstream from Loch Tay. An hour later she was roosting 5 kilometres away just 400 metres NW of Castle Menzies, near Aberfeldy. She had covered 186 kilometres.

Once the signals came in early this morning, we rushed to Logie's nest and found four ospreys circling and skirmishing over the site - she had arrived just as we did. After checking the birds with my binoculars, I suddenly saw the distinctive short radio aerial and identified Logie positively - here she was back home after her epic journey - to the exact tree she left on 4th August last year.

Logie's flight 22nd -23rd April

There then followed a period of continual skirmishing - Logie, the 'new' female and the male tried landing on the nest - and sometimes talons flashed between the two females. Logie looked fit (although her plumage was quite faded from the glare of the African sun) - just as well, because there was no way the male was going to feed her in this excitement. Sometimes even a third female joined in at aerial circling - often all three birds would drift away high in the sky and then return. Logie did show real ownership several times when she landed in the nest, crouching down with spread wings and trying to frighten off the intruder female, but once or twice even her mate dive-bombed her and sent her packing. Other than the fighting ospreys, it was a lovely calm morning and three sand martins flew by - a sign of spring at last. We watched the excitement until 10 am and then had to leave. I will be back during the day and it may take several days to sort out the hierarchy at the nest - will Logie regain her nest and mate, or will she have to find new ones?  More news late this evening and tomorrow. On the way home, we called in at Logie primary school, who have been following her travels and from where Logie gets her name, to tell the children of her safe return.

This evening Logie was perched on the nest, the male on a perch in the next door tree - otherwise all quiet as the sun went down at 9pm - will check nest site to see if Logie is in control of her old nest and do a complete update in the morning.

Later the signals came in and showed that Logie was in continuous flight all morning until at least midday - usually within 600 metres of her nest. Finally at 1pm the signals showed she was perched on her nest, and this was also the situation at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm, so she had won back her nest. But what an extra effort after flying back all that way; it shows the advantages for adults to be back early. Now she needs to build up condition to lay eggs, and at 9pm she looked well fed (her crop was full), so her mate must have caught an evening fish.

Now that Logie is home, I will update this page occasionally with key happenings - when she lays eggs, when her eggs hatch, how many young there are, etc etc - and then in mid August, assuming everything goes as planned in osprey lives, we will follow her migration back to Africa on a daily basis - she will probably leave later than last year because of her delay, but will she stop over in the Solway?  Will she follow the same route back as she did last year? What pitfalls will she encounter on the way back, and will she winter on the same island?  We may even try to follow her by land and air on that journey back!!   but either way, we'll definitely follow her progress here.

Her migration from West Africa lasted 43 days and she flew at least 3619 miles (5803 kilometres) in 27 days of active migration; she also spent 16 days waiting out the bad weather. Her best day's flight was 215 miles, and her shortest just 26 miles.

We have been amazed by the incredible interest in Logie and her migration via this Highland Foundation for Wildlife website, the BBC World on the Move programme and the media in general.  We have really enjoyed reading the incoming emails and been very moved by some of the stories you have submitted - we've also been grateful to those people who have sent in sightings, information and sometimes photographs all the way from the Straits of Gibraltar to Scotland. Thanks so much for the emails - we have tried to answer them all and still have some to catch up on.

Logie's story has been so interesting, and incorporates so many aspects of ospreys' lives and migrations to and from West Africa, that following her return to Africa next autumn, we are planning to publish a book on Logie. It will also include comments, stories and information sent in from observers and followers of Logie. If anyone has any special comments or feelings about her and her migration, please email me.   We would love to share your thoughts on this bird.

Finally, a very big thanks is due to Talisman Energy Ltd in Aberdeen for their funding of the GPS transmitters (and the good news is that we will have new transmitters on several more Moray ospreys this autumn); also to Logie Primary School, to the local landowners who have helped with the project and to the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol for including Logie in the World on the Move series, which continues right into next autumn's migration. And a big thanks for the GoogleEarth programme which allows us to illustrate bird migration in such a graphic manner,

Donations to this project. Thanks very much to those who have sent in donations to help our osprey tracking project - if you have enjoyed Logie's migration and would like to help fund this project and further studies, we would be very grateful for any donations to help with the costs of transmissions from the satellite tracking stations, associated osprey fieldwork and maintaining the website.  We are also looking for additional larger funders for satellite radio equipment.  To all those who asked, we're sorry that we don't have facilities for credit or debt card donations, but see our donations webpage for how you can help.  Donations

NEW OSPREY BOOK DUE OUT EARLY JUNE.  Roy Dennis has written a new book on Ospreys - called 'A Life of Ospreys' which is being published by Whittles Publishing, Caithness. It's a comprehensive study of the lives of ospreys and osprey watchers, of their history (recent and ancient), their ecology, migrations, reintroductions and wintering of ospreys in the British Isles and abroad, with many photographs, illustrations, maps, line drawings and scientific data. Full details will appear as publication approaches - it will be available countrywide but specially signed individual copies will be available for purchase from Roy Dennis - email roydennis@aol.com if you would like notice of when they will be available and would like to order an inscribed copy.