Having arriving in Morocco just 11 days after leaving the Scottish Highlands on his first migration south, Carr has obviously taken a liking to life in North Africa. After reaching northern Morocco on 11th September, Carr travelled another 400 km next day, flying at altitudes of up to 2000 metres as he headed south. By 18:00 local time he was passing to the east of Marrakesh and that evening roosted on a wooded hillside in the northern foothills of the imposing Atlas Mountains, at an altitude of just over 1200m.
Next morning, as the sun rose, Carr may well have been able to look down from his roost site to Barrage Lalla Takerkoust, a 2 km-long lake, 12 km to the west. It was no sunrise, therefore, that soon after first light, he headed straight there. He remained beside the water for the rest of the day, and, what’s more, he’s still there a week later.
A look at the spread of Carr’s data points over the last week shows that he has spent most of his time on the shores of the lake, and must be catching fish on a daily basis. He has made one or two longer exploratory flights locally, but returned to Barrage Lalla Takerkoust on each occasion. Stop-overs like this can be very important for young Ospreys like Carr because it will enable him to refine his fishing skills and also put on body fat prior to his crossing of the Sahara. We wonder how long it will be before he sets off across the desert?
Don’t forget you can follow Carr’s migration on our interactive map.
Carr also features in our latest podcast. Click the link below to listen.