Bad news came in during the day when locations for the young osprey chick, Moray, suggested that it was dead or unable to move. I telephoned Martin Scott, the RSPB’s Western Isles Officer who lives near Barvas on the Isle of Lewis, and he and some friends when to the latest GPS position I had received, and after some searching found the poor osprey dead in a roadside ditch – it may have been hit by a vehicle – see the Osprey web pages for more detail. Meanwhile, Glen was struggling southwest in Ireland and it was a relief, late in the afternoon, to find that he had reached ideal fishing conditions on Lough Allen in Co Leitrim, and the rain had stopped. Let’s hope he can feed up and re-orientate to the southeast and get back on track via Wales or southwest England.

Nimrod, our new male Osprey, was busy at home in Moray catching fish for his young, despite the poor weather on the nearby coast. Several times he returned to the nest with fish. The female ospreys are much further away in the sun, and today’s data shows that Morven has overtaken Beatrice, and yesterday she reached Africa. Also yesterday, the young Golden Eagles, Angus & Tom, started to range a little further and both were further from their nests than anytime previously, maybe soon they may even start to move outside their parents’ home ranges. Finally, the young honey buzzard had left the Highlands and at midday yesterday was just east of Airdrie, east of Glasgow.