Information on the last days for Beatrice are on my blog. She died because she could not catch fish in the swollen rivers caused by a long period of heavy rain.

Beatrice roosted in woods south west of her previous position on 13th March but the weather stayed overcast and raining. In consequence the battery was low and this transmitter could stop working at anytime – it’s now into its 8th year of transmitting which is amazing. Nevertheless I’m hoping that when some good days of sun occur the battery will restart. I’m also hoping she has found good fishing places in the Basque country in this appalling wet weather – she should have stayed in southern Spain.

Beatrice left the estuary after midday on 7th March and by 1pm was beside the small River Urumea, near Urumea. She has stayed there and roosts in wooded hills west of river. It is still raining, so let’s hope she is catching fish in this quiet area. Forecast for sun on Friday.

March 7th – 9th

Batrice flew 14 km west to the harbour at Pasaia at midday on 4th March; stayed in that area and roosted at night in wooded hills. Wet weather

March 3rd – 6th

Aitor Galarza reports that Beatrice has been seen in the Txingudi estuary  –  I think this morning but no further details yet. Weather reports sunny spells this morning but rain around for most of week

Txingudi estuary

Later message from Aitor: Beatrice was seen and photographed by Itziar Gutierrez last evening in the estuary. I thank her for the photo below.

Beatrice fishing over estuary at Irun Photo: Itziar Gutierrez

This estuary is about 70 km west of Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve where the young Scottish ospreys are being released by the Urdaibai Osprey Project. Aitor has sent me this photo of the nest they have built at Txingudi estuary as part of the osprey restoration project in the Basque Country.

Osprey Nest Platform

Beatrice’s transmitter is not giving full number of GPS locations due to low battery – cloudy wet weather. But today’s first data shows that she has moved 92 km SW and last evening 2nd March from 1800 to 2000 hrs was on the Spanish side of the River Bidaso, just downstream of Ermita de San Miguel and some 5 km SE of Irun in the Spanish Basque Country.  Clearly the fishing at Adour is not working out this year and she moved to find another place. The Bidaso is a smaller river running out into an estuary between Irun and Hendaye.

I emailed Aitor Galarza at Urdiabai osprey project today about Beatrice – he replied “Weather was extremely bad on Thursday and specially on Saturday with very heavy rain that caused flooding of rivers in all the North of Spain. Yesterday weather was Ok but rivers were still muddy”    So it’s not surprising that Beatrice is trying to find better fishing opportunities.  May be she should not have set off so soon – her earliest previous arrival at River Adour in spring was March 3rd.

Move from Adour to Irun

Fishing and roosting location River Bidaso

On 27th and 28th February Beatrice ranged much more than normal around her stopover site, in fact an area of 18 km². Possibly the River Adour is more flooded than usual and she is looking for easier fishing sites.

February 27th – 28th

On 25th February Beatrice set off North East and passed over Aranjuez at 13:00 hours, flying at 49kph at an altitude of 1286 m. An hour later she was flying to the south-east of Madrid and stopped for the night before 6 PM in a forest north-west of Atienza after a day’s flight of 241 km. Next day she flew NNE and passed over Soria before turning north over the River Ebro and then NNE to the west of Pamplona. She crossed over the Pyrenees at one of her regular places and reached her favourite stopover site in France after flight of 331 km.

February 25th – 26th

Beatrice left her wintering site at 11am on 23rd February; she flew noreth past Herrera at 3pm and roosted overnight in open farmland SE of Cordoba. Nextr morning she flew on north after 9am, passed over the Sierra Morenaat midday – wonder if she has seen an Iberian Lynx on her journeys – more than me I bet. At 3pm she was flying NNE west of Cuidad Real but an hour later flew west, possibly in rainy weather, to settle for the night at the Torres de Abraham reservoir.

February 23rd – 24th