Jules

Having spent 17 days stopping-over a few kilometres to the north-west of the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, Jules (Blue JV3) resumed his migration yesterday and flew direct across the Bay of Biscay to Asturias in northern Spain.

Jules spent most of his 17 day stop-over in Brittany to the north-west of Gulf of Morbihan, favouring two locations near Auray (red circles indicate areas with 50% of GPS fixes)

During his stop-over in Brittany Jules spent long periods perched in marshes beside the River Auray

Over the past week Jules had continued to frequent his favoured spots along the River Auray, but when yesterday dawned bright and sunny he took the opportunity to resume his migration. A gap in the satellite data means that we do not know the exact time of his departure from Gulf of Morbihan but it must have been fairly early because at 13:23 local time he had flown 149 km and was flying south-west across the Bay of Biscay at an altitude of 250 m. At 14:35 he was crossing the Saint-Nazarie Canyon where the sea bed drops from a depth of around 100 m to over 4000 m. Interestingly at this point he had climbed to an altitude of 1051 m, suggesting that he was able to exploit some kind of lift; perhaps weak sea thermals which sometimes develop over the Bay of Biscay in autumn. You can read more about this in chapters 2 and 3 of my PhD thesis here. Unfortunately the GPS fixes are not of sufficient temporal resolution to determine whether Jules was soaring over the sea, but the change in altitude certainly suggests it.

Jules climbed to an altitude of 1051 m during his Bay of Biscay crossing, suggesting he may have been able to exploit some form of lift over the sea

Jules was flying with a light east-north-east tailwind and during the course of the afternoon this turned almost due east. Such winds have the potential to cause migrating ospreys to miss the north coast of Spain, but Jules compensated by changing his heading at 15:28 and flying almost due south for 67 km. At 17:12 he turned back to the south-west and continued on a constant bearing to the Spanish coast, flying at altitudes of between 194 m and 76 m. He finally reached land at Aviles in Asturias in northern Spain an hour after sunset at 22:07 local time having flown 515 km from Gulf of Morbihan, 500 km of which was over the Bay of Biscay. Having arrived in the dark he settled to roost in trees on the outskirts of Aviles.

Jules flew 500 km across the Bay of Biscay from Brittany to Asturias

This morning Jules was still at his overnight roost at 08:13 local time but an hour later was perched near Embalse de la Grande. He remained there until at least 11:30, suggesting he may well have caught a fish. By 13:04, the final GPS fix in this batch, he had resumed his migration and was 31 km south of Aviles heading towards the Cantabrian mountains.

You can check out Jules’ latest locations on our interactive map.

While Blue DF flies south through Senegal, Blue JV3 is continuing to stop over near the Gulf of Morbihan on the Brittany coast. Blue JV3 refers to the bird’s colour ring on his left leg, but those of you who follow our Facebook page  will know that we asked for suggestions for a name for Blue JV3 to use in our updates. We very much enjoyed reading all your suggestions but in the end by far the most popular name was ‘Jules’ after the French novelist Jules Verne (i.e. JV), most famous for his adventure novels including Around the World in Eighty Days.  It seems fitting therefore that Blue JV3, or Jules as we will now refer to him, is stopping-over in France. Thanks to Janine Pannett for the great suggestion.

Having arrived on Saturday 16th September Jules has spent most of his time in a 40 km² area stretching from the west end of Gulf of Morbihan north to a short section of the River Auray, north of the town of Auray, and then across to his favoured roosting area in the forested banks of the River Bono north of Plougoumelen.

Blue JV3 has tended to favour two areas to the north-west of Gulf of Morbihan since arriving on 16th September. The red shaded areas include 50% of GPS fixes since he arrived

Blue JV3 often roosts beside the River Bono

In recent days Blue JV3 has spent most afternoons beside the River Auray

It will be interesting to see how long Jules remains at Gulf of Morbihan. Another of our satellite tagged birds, Nimrod, stopped-over on Ile d’Oleron, a small island situated just to the south of La Rochelle in autumn 2008, 2009 and 2010. In each year he favoured the same forested area in the south of the island and fished along the coast once or twice a day. In 2010 he spent a total of nineteen days on the island, thereby constituting almost half of the total days (40) it took to migrate to its wintering site in Guinea-Bissau. Don’t forget that you can check out all of Jules’ recent movements on our interactive map.

After a fast start to his migration at the end of last week Blue JV3 spent much of yesterday at the Gulf of Morbihan on the Brittany coast and was still there at 12:57 local time today.

The previous batch of data had shown that Blue JV3 was just north of Leamington Spa at 08:45 on Saturday morning having left his overnight roost near Leeds soon after first light. Over the course of the next four hours he made fast progress south and at 12:52 was approaching Southampton at an altitude of 698 metres. An hour later he was high (854 m) over western Isle of Wight and he then made a two-an-a-half hour crossing of the English Channel, making landfall to the east of Cherbourg. Once in French airspace he changed his heading to south-west and flew direct across the sea to St-Malo. He eventually settled to roost for the night beside the Rance Estuary, just north of the village of Saint-Suliac at 22:01 local time having flown an impressive 584 km from South Yorkshire.

JV3 roosted beside the Rance Estuary in Brittany on Saturday night

On Sunday morning BLue JV3 had already left his overnight roost at 08:00 and was flying purposefully south-west. Four hours later at midday he was perched on the edge of a forested area to the east of the Gulf of Morbihan having flown 122 km. Interestingly he went no further and instead made only local movements during the course of the afternoon. At 17:18 he was perched in the estuary and was still there an hour later: suggesting he was eating a fish. He then headed off to roost in a wooded area 18 km north-west near the village of Leran.

This morning Blue JV3 flew back to the Gulf of Morbihan and appeared to be fishing at both 10:56 and 11:57, the latter being the last GPS fix in this latest batch of data. This vast natural habour would be an excellent place for a stop-over and it is possible that JV3 will linger here for a few days. His change of track through Brittany certainly indicates that he made a conscious decision to head there. Many ospreys have a favourite stop-over site that they visit on each migration; it seems very likely that this is a place Blue JV3 has visited before.

You can check out Blue JV3’s migration on our interactive map.

Blue JV3 has remained around Gulf of Morbihan since arriving there at lunchtime on Sunday

JV3’s migration 15-18 Sept

On Wednesday evening this week Roy Dennis and Frank Law caught and satellite tagged another adult male osprey at Rothiemurchus Fishery in Aviemore. Unlike Blue DF who was colour-ringed as a chick, this new male was unringed and, as a result, we can not be sure if he is a breeding male at one of the local nests, or a youngster yet to establish a territory. Nevertheless this is really excellent news because it means we will be able to follow a second male on its autumn migration, and, assuming the bird survives the winter, collect a great deal of valuable information on its movements once it returns to Strathspey next spring.

Roy preparing to release Blue JV3 after tagging him

The new male, which Roy colour ringed as blue/white JV3, had put on a great deal of fat in preparation for migration and, like Blue DF, set off on migration the morning after being tagged. It had an excellent first day of migration, taking advantage of a north-westerly tailwind and flying 420 km before spending the night beside the River Calder between Leeds and Wakefield. We do not know the exact time that Blue JV3 left Starthspey but at 12:28 (BST – times shown on the map are GMT) he was 11 km north of Pitlochry and two hours later he passed over Edinburgh at an altitude of 1240 m. He crossed into English airspace at around 16:00 and then maintained a south-easterly course along the eastern Pennines before skirting around the east side of Leeds and then settling to roost for the night in trees beside the River Calder.

JV3 spent the night of 14th September beside the Rover Calder near Leeds

This morning Blue JV3 resumed his migration at dawn and headed powerfully south passing over Barnsley and then Sheffield before skirting around the west side of Derby at an altitude of 536 metres. By 08:45 he was approaching Leamington Spa had already flown 158 km from his overnight roost. It will be fascinating to see how far south he is when the next batch of data arrives.

You can check out Blue JV3’s migration on our interactive map.

By 08:45 this morning Blue JV3 had already covered 578 km, having left Strathspey just 24 hours earlier.

Our thanks to Julian Orsi and Rothiemurchus Estate for allowing us to catch and tag Blue JV3.