No more signals from Fidich since 19th April when transmitter was at same village in Senegal – it dosn’t look as though we will not find out whether Fiddich was accidentally or intentionally killed, and sadly the transmitter has not ben retrieved despite knowing where it was.

On 12th April, Gambian bird guide JJ and Colin from Kantong, who are friends of Tim Mackrill,  made a special over land  drive of over 200 miles along the whole of The Gambia to visit the village where Fiddich’s transmitter has been giving signals.  It was a remote village in Senegal near the Gambia River and unfortunately they were unable to learn much about Fiddich from the villagers. From the data I am pretty sure unfortunately that Fiddich is dead. Today 14th April the transmitter has sent signals again suggesting the bird and/or transmitter have been put outside again.  JJ left his details so may be we will lern more about what happened. It was a tremendous effort by JJ and Colin, and we are very grateful. We really need to know more about the behaviour of the juveniles and why individuals suddenly leave favoured wintering locations and why if they travel inland they seem to run into problems. There are clearly problems for them from competion with adults and probably with the drying up of temporal wetlands.

On 15th March, Fiddich’s transmitter started to give signals from a village 2 km from her recent locations on the upper River Gambia. Sadly it looks as though she has either been caught in fish nets or has been intentionally captured.  I was at Rutland Water when we learnt this so Tim Mackrill has sent details to one of his African contacts to try to find out what is happening and whether anything can be done.

Fiddich’s recent locations

Fiddich is living at the same place on the Gambia River in Senegal, just east of the eastern end of The Gambia – she is ranging in an area of 200 m by 70 mwhere there are large trees beside the river

Fiddich’s location on the River Gambia

Fiddich’s flight to the River Gambia

On 15th February Fiddich st off south in late morning and roosyted that night just north of the N1 road near Malem – Niani; on 16th she arrived at extreme east end of The Gambia and roosted that night in the Niokolo Koba wetland in Senegal – this 460 km from her previous wintering site. On 18th she moved back to the upper River Gambia in Senegal. On 23rd she was back in Niokolo Koba – she flew back to the Gambia river next day and on 25th and 27th was in a wetland of Koina Forest Park in Gambia close to the river. On March 2nd and 5th she was beside the River Gambia just in Senegal

February 2nd to 15th

Fiddich remained in Djoud National Park until 11th February, when she flew north into Mauritania and spent the night NE of the river. Next day she flew west and roosetd in the dunes on the Atlantic coast in the Diawling National Park.  On 14th she flew SE and by 1700GMT was back in her earlier wintering site on the river south of Lac de Guiers

Fiddich has spent January in the Djoud National Park – ranging in an area of 24 square km

January 12th to 27th

This week I received emails from Cecile Bloch, who works on wildlife in the National Park, and Janette Baarman. Amazingly they photographed Fiddich on the very day 20th December that she flew NW to settle in the park.  I wrote to Cecile and she tells me in an email today that she sees a lot of ospreys there but has not caught up with Fiddich again. She sent a photo of typical osprey on perch in the park, that she took recently.

Fiddich photographed in Djoud NP 20th December 2012. Cecile Bloch & Janette Baarman

Very settled in central part of the Djoud National Park in northern Senegal – living in a range of 14.5 squre km

December 29th to January 11th

On 20th Fiddich left her usual haunts and flew in the morning NW to sttle ine the Djoud National Park and has remained there to 3rd January. This is where Rothiemurchus spent a lot of his first winbter and is an excellent area of ospreys

December 15th to Jan 3rd