Last night, it was really interesting to see that Nimrod had carried on south through Senegal and The Gambia, and today traversed much of Guinea Bissau. I had been away to give lectures on ospreys in Keswick and Durham, and was wondering how Nimrod was getting on, so it was the first thing to check on arriving home. This afternoon, I visited the 201 Squadron at RAF Kinloss, who fly Nimrod aircraft, to do some photos about the RAF linkup with our Nimrod and to explain the project to one of the crews.

The male ospreys regularly fish Findhorn Bay from March to September, and the Nimrod aircraft, landing and taking off from nearby Kinloss airbase, are a common sight to them. These are also the planes that helped so magnificently with the sea eagle and red kite reintroduction projects, by transporting the respective chicks from Norway and Sweden. I can remember many great trips with the RAF collecting our birds, when the Nimrods were coming home after working over the northern waters.

Both Morven and Beatrice are staying put in their respective locations in Mauritania and southern Spain, and it’s looking likely that both are at their wintering sites – so we have a real scatter of wintering sites from Spain to Guinea Bissau.