Ringing Date: 27th July 2008
Nest Location: North Scotland
BTO Ring Number: GF53494
Satellite Radio Number: 21250
Sex: Male
Measurements: Wing 297mm
Weight: 1092g
General
As a continuing part of our honey buzzard project, we fitted a Solar PTT100 satellite transmitter to one young honey buzzard this year from a nest on private land in the North of Scotland. This is a partnership funded by Forestry Commission and the Highland Foundation for Wildlife. We are most grateful to the owner of the forest for his great interest in the honey buzzards, but we wish to keep the locality confidential so the starting locality for tracking purposes will be my office.
The nest contained two chicks and on Sunday 27th July, Bob Moncrieff climbed to the nest and lowered them in a bag to the ground. Moira Hickey and I measured, weighed and ringed them, and fitted the transmitter to the larger chick, before they were returned to the nest. Both chicks had full crops and were in excellent condition, while the nest held plenty of full wasp comb and grubs. The smaller chick GF53493, weighed 867 grams with a wing of 238 mm.
Annual Movements
Chick 21250 started her first migration on 25th August 2008. She journeyed through Scotland and England fairly slowly and crossed the English Channel on 21st September. She continued through France and Spain and crossed the Gibraltar Straits into Africa on 30th September. However, she never made it past Morocco and we continued to receive signals from the same location in the Anti-Atlas mountains until the end of the year. We do not know whether she died of natural causes or was shot or killed in some other way.
To view details of Chick 21250’s movements click on the following link: Chick 21250 2008
Reproductive History
Chick 21250 did not reach breeding age during our studies.
