10 September 2009

Morven was roosting near the railway line south of Loch Olginey at 4.34am, but the next good signal came from Moray, when at 11.11pm she was roosting in woodlands beside Loch Romach, just south of Forres. It was lovely day yesterday - ideal for migration.

07 September 2009

Stan Laybourne telephoned to say that she was sitting on the same fence post, finishing a fish, near Loch Olginey at 3.30pm. She's still feeding up in Caithness and waiting for good weather to start off for Africa.

06 September 2009

7.30pm this evening she was hunting over Lch Calder.

05 September 2009

Morven still in Caithness - unfortunately the poor weather is causing GPS failures - so today's location are only accurate to 1 km - at 3.20 pm she was in a big forest west of Loch Calder and at 11.14pm was roosting of edge of plantation to the south.

04 September 2009

Well, she did not leave Caithness - in the early hours of 3rd September she was at the roost south of Olginey and today at midday she was some miles west of Loch Calder, south of Reay. Dreadful wet day in Moray and overcast and windy through the Highlands.

02 September 2009

A few signals came in last night, and for the 30th August, they showed her roosting at a favourite roost site from last summer between conifer plantations and the railway line, south of the Loch Olginey; and then at 8am and 9am she was perched beside Loch Calder.

Stan Laybourne telephoned this evening. He saw her perched at Loch Olginey at 7.50pm last evening; and at 9.40am today she was fishing at Loch Calder, but after two unsuccessful dives she soared to a great height. It was a beautiful sunny day with light winds and great visibility. Stan followed her with his binoculars until she was a dot in the sky and last seen she was very high up heading for Morven (her namesake - a very distinctive mountain in southern Caithness) - he said her heading was direct for Findhorn Bay.

I was at Findhorn bay this morning and saw various of the local male ospreys, and a passing female (but not Morven) and a passing juvenile. It was a beautiful sunny clear day - ideal for Morven to recross the Moray Firth and head south for Africa. Cannot wait to get the next GPS readings.

30 August 2009

I was starting to get worried because no signals were coming in and I had expected some if she had flown south, where she should have been getting some sun on the solar battery to give us data on her migration. But this evening, Stan Laybourne, telephoned from Caithness, to say that he'd been watching an osprey this afternoon at Loch Olginey, on Morven's perch, and he was sure it was her. He watched her fly off to fish on Loch Calder, and he also saw an osprey perched on the same fence post on Wednesday and Thursday, so it looks as though Morven went back to Caithness and the reason for the lack of signals is that the weather up there has been grey and rainy. I hope that's the case. Last autumn, she set off from Caithness on her migration on 27th August.

22 August 2009

She was on the west side of Loch Calder at 9am, apparently perched at the side of a plantation, possibly feeding. At 11am she was flying SW a third of mile offshore, one mile south of Dunbeath Castle, and at 2.24pm she was at Culbin Forest near Findhorn. I checked her nest in the evning and found her chick on the eyrie calling for food, but not sign of Morven - may be she continued south.

20 August 2009

A few signals came in for Morven last night - disappointingly her transmitter is not working well unless there is steady sunlight - but the three fixes showed that at midday on Monday 17th August she flew to Caithness (the weather improved at this time from rain to sunny conditions). This is the same behaviour as last year when she had no young, so I'm surprised she gone north first before migrating south. She was still at her nest site at 11am, and was 9 miles north of Findhorn flying over the Moray Firth at midday and made landfall between Brora and Loth Point in Sutherland and at 1pm was heading over Glen Loth for Caithness. What an interesting bird - and I hope some of the Caithness birdwatchers see her fishing at Loch Calder or Loch Olginey to confirm her Caithness visit.

(Evening) After writing this I telephoned Stan Laybourne in Caithness and left a message; Stan phoned back later to say that at 3.50pm he saw an osprey carrying a fish across Loch Calder and it flew on to perch on a fence post near Loch Olginey to eat its fish. It was too far away to see colour ring or aerial, but he was sure it was Morven. Thanks Stan. I checked her nest site in the late afternoon and her mate was perched on the top of the dead tree, no sign of the juvenile as it had presumably just been given a fish and was away in the trees eating. An intruder male was hassling the male for a short while.

18 August 2009

18th August. Checked the nest area at 1948 hours and found nothing at the nest or the next door favourite perches. With a bit of searching I found the juvenile perched low in an ork tree at the edge of wood. No sign of Morven.

17 August 2009

Morven roosted on the banks of the River Findhorn on the nights of 1th/14th and 14th/15th August several miles from her nest, but roosted overnight 15th/16th August in the wood close to the eyrie, near where her mate regularly roosts. I would guess she will be off soon. Her mate has been regularly fishing in Findhorn bay and bringing back flounders to the nest.

10 August 2009

Morven was perched on the very top of the dead pine, but there was no sign of the chick, probably perched on edge of wood.

08 August 2009

On 3rd August, Morven's chick was flying near the eyrie, and then flew in and landed heavily on branch beside Morven at the top of the dead Scots pine. Morven's transmitter has restarted and given some locations, all at her nest site.

25 July 2009

Morven on the nest feeding her big single chick with fish, but it still has some days to go before it will fly for the first time.

19 July 2009

We went to the nest site and caught Morven's mate for satellite tracking. Morven herself would not come low enough to get caught in the net which was a pity because I wanted to change her transmitter, which has been rather intermittent this summer.

14 July 2009

At midday, the male perched in the top of the dead tree, mantling at an intruding osprey which was flying overhead. Morven was perched on the nest and then flew up beside the male. One life one large chick was sitting in the nest.

02 July 2009

This evening, Morven was on the nest and then flew to the top of the dead Scots pine next door. Soon I could see that she had one chick, which was stretching its wings on the nest and about half grown.

28 June 2009

Morven has now got chicks in her nest, and her mate 6R has been bringing in fish. I have not yet managed to check how many chicks she has in the nest.

25 April 2009

25th April Everything has been settled at the nest site; Morven is just about ready to lay eggs and the old male has been bringing fish to her and they have built up the nest. Last evening both of them were standing together just above the eyrie in the dead tree.

12th April I was at the nest just after 7am, and Morven was at the nest with the male, and all was looking settled. Later, the GPS signals showed me that at 6am, Morven was still at a roost 2.4 miles away which she used a lot last summer - at the exact same time nearby Beatrice was actually at this nest, but then went home. What a lot of visiting goes on with some of the ospreys before they get down to breeding. The nest was adorned today by a large strip of black baler plastic, and when I checked to see if Logie was back in the evening, the male brought in another long piece of black wrap, and Morven was not worried at all by the flapping plastic. I'll try to remove it from the nest edge with a long pole because plastic in the nest can be dangerous for snagging chicks later in the season.

Morven's last few days - data incomplete because her transmitter was uncharged at times 11th April Morven left early - she was determined to get home - at 6am she was flying N at 52 km/h 102 metres above the sea 5 mile west of Hoylake. She tracked up the coast and at 8am was perched in the middle of Morecambe Bay. At am, she was flyiong NW out of the bay, and an hour later was flying N over Esthwaite Water in the Lake District. At 11am she was skirting the eastern side of Carrick Fell. and heading over Carlisle for the Scottish Border. At 1pm she was flying over Headshaw Loch, SW of Selkirk where Beatrice roosted, and at 2pm she was flying N at 0km/h over Newlands Gardens, Libberton on the south side of Edinburgh. She crossed the Firth of Forth and the last GPS position was at 3pm as she circled between Auchtermuchty and Ladybank. Non GPS signals came in later and at 6.18pm she was in Moray. In fact I may have seen her at Logie's nest at dusk - more news tomorrow and see Blog. The wind today in the Highlands was strong SW with bright skies.