Blue XD left his river area on 28th January and flew to the Atlantic coast passing the fishing village of Diogue at midday and flew on up the coast. Spent his time along the Atlantic coast and then late morning of 30th January drifted south again to the Diogue area. Data for first few days of February not certain but looks like he is around Diogue – need some more data to come in to find out what has happened.
No change
December 31, 2015
Blue XD is living in his normal wintering range and flying from the mangrove swamps each day to the main river. The distance of about 11 km each way
December 31st
Moved back to last year’s winter area
December 15, 2015
Blue XD is now back on a side arm on north side of River Casamanche and fishing in main river
December 13th
Visiting Atlantic coast
November 11, 2015
Blue XD has settled now on the south side of the Casamanche river but is also making 17 km flights to fish at the coast.
November 6th
Blue XD is wintering on south side of River Casamanche
October 27, 2015
Blue XD has decided to move 8 km south from previous wintering sites and is now settled on the south bank of the River Casamanche. He mainly spends the day along a 4 km length of the riverside with occasional moves to a mangrove backwater 2 km inland. His night-time roost is 800 m in from the riverside and he has been using a daily range of 12.5 km².
October 25th – 26th
On the main river
October 5, 2015
Blue XD has moved out to the main stem of the River Casamance, from his usual backwater, and he has been flying 16km out to the Atlantic coast
October 4th – 5th
Visiting the Atlantic coast
September 24, 2015
Blue XD has been visiting the Atlantic coast from his mangrove wintering site – quite busy wanderings instead of staying in the same area, which is his usual winter routine.
September 19th -21st
Arrives at wintering site in southern Senegal
September 18, 2015
Blue XD roosted overnight just north of the Gambian border and set off on the last leg before 10am, crossing the River Gambia east of Banjul between 1004 and 1038GMT. He headed SW and at 11.41 arrived at Kartong and spent time around the mouth of the River Alleheim, a favourite osprey wintering place. After half an hour he left Gambia and flew to exactly the same wintering site as in previous winters. He arrived there at 15.11, took a flight out into the backwater of the Casamanche river where he probably caught a fish and went to a favourite roost tree. His migration of about 5500 kms took 17 days; in 2013 his migration took 13 days arriving at the Casamanche on 22nd September. Last year he also arrived on 22nd September after a 17 day flight, same as this autumn.
Back to his winter home 17th September
Heading for Banjul
September 17, 2015
Blue XD has made leisurely progress across Senegal and last evening was near Kaolack. inland of Sine Saloum Delta.
September 12th -16th
Blue XD crossed the River Senegal midday today
September 13, 2015
The problem with the new GSM transmitters is that there are parts of the world, including the Sahara Desert, with poor mobile phone coverage. So Blue XD has been migrating without us knowing his daily movements until he passed the first masts south of the desert. Anyway we now know he has made a successful journey again. I’ll catch up with details tmorrow but here is his track from southern Spain.
September 5th -13th
