After a slow but steady flight through France, Blue DF has quickened his pace considerably in the last 48 hours and at 18:40 this evening he was flying south through the Castile and León region of north-east Spain.
In Wednesday’s update we reported that Blue DF was approaching the Atlantic coast of France, but the weather was clearly poor for migration because by 17:15 when he stopped at a series of small lakes near the village of Chevallon he had only flown 133 km during the course of the day, with several stops en route, perhaps during heavy rain showers. At 18:28 he was fishing in the lake, and then spent the rest of the evening perched in lakeside trees, presumably eating his catch. He eventually flew off to roost in a wooded area 1.5 km south.
Blue DF spent all of Wednesday afternoon beside a series of lake near the village of Chevallon in western France before roosting nearby.
Next morning he was back at the lakes at first light, and didn’t resume his migration until just before 11:00 local time. At 13:45 he flew low over the Girone estuary at an altitude of 72 m, before passing to the west of Bordeaux and then east of Arcachron Bay at a higher altitude of 450 m. At 18:10 he arrived at Etang de Soustons, a lake 35 km north of Biarritz, and spent half and hour fishing in the lake. He then flew to a wooded area to the west and remained there for the rest of the evening having covered 239 km during his day’s flight.
Blue DF roosted in a wooded area to the west of Etang de Soustons in south-west France on Thursday night.
Blue DF was back at the lake at 09:44 and then spent an hour perched 3 km to the south, perhaps eating a fish. By 11:21 he was migrating again and over the course of the next few hours made good progress south, passing 13 km to the east of Biarritz at 13:23 and then crossing into Spanish airspace at an altitude of over 1105 m at 15:23. An hour later he passed over Pamplona and by 18:40, the last GPS fix in this batch, he had flown 237 km and was still heading powerfully south-west towards central Spain.
Blue DF was flying south through northern Spain this evening.
Don’t forget that you can also check out Blue DF’s migration on our interactive map.
