Blue XD was ringed as a two-year old male at Rothiemurchus Fishery on 12th August 2000 and I refound him as the breeding male at a nest near Carrbridge in 2002. He bred there each year until 2009; then his mate failed to return from Africa in 2010 and he moved to nest A11 to pair up with Green J. He has bred there each year since and is regulalrly seen fishing at Rothiemurchus Fishery as well as on the River Findhorn near Tomation and at Lochindorb. His transmitter in 2013 is one of the new GSM/GPS Microwave Telemetry models which send data to the mobile phone system, and in sunny conditions can collect GPS at one minute intervals. This photo was taken on 31st July 2013 by Neil Macgregor.
Blue XD fishing at Rothiemurchus July 2013 Photo by Neil MacGregor
Autumn migration 2013
Last autumn he left his eyrie at 0730GMT on 10th September and migrated to the outer marshes of the River Casamanche in southern Senegal. He arrived there at 1530GMT on 22nd September after flying 5455 km in 13 days. This is a very fast accurate migration considering that the direct distance is 5060 km.
