Yesterday she arrived at Gamaches, on the River Bresle at 1700GMT and roosted overnight there. Today (8th) she remained in that general area until 1400GMT when the weather was improving. She is close to the coast for a rather easterly crossing of the channel. Her mate Blue XD crossed yesterday
April 5th to 8th
Green J was on the Gironde coast on 2nd and 3rd of April, near Lac de Leon; on 4th she flew north-east to Bergerac and roosted just NE of the town overnight. Today she was heading north before 0900 GMT and by 16:00 hours had flown 192 km north and was north-east of Poitiers – flying strongly north at 35 km/h. She might catch up her mate Blue XD at this rate
April 3rd – 5th
Green J departed her night roost site sometime after 0700 GMT and 2 hours later had crossed the border into France and was flying ENE at 54 km/h near Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She should get a good journey up through France today.
April 2nd
Green J left her wintering site on 31st March and flew NNE from the Gabriel y Galan reservoir and headed for Salamanca and then after 220 km she roosted overnight by a small river south of Villarramall. Today, 1st April, she continued NNE and then north-east along the southern edge of the Cantabrian Mountains and at 1300 GMT was flying east to the south of Bilbao. At 15:00 hours she was 3 km south of Urdaibai estuary, where we are helping with the restoration of breeding ospreys to the Basque country. Our friend, Aitor, who is running the project reports 2 colour ringed adult ospreys from Scotland in the estuary today. Beatrice reached her roosting site for the night at 16:00 hours near Elgoibar.
First two days of migration 31st March and 1st April
Green J is still wintering at the Gabriel y Galan reservoir in Extremadura – ranging in an area of 12 square km, and roosting at night in the gorges below the main dam. She should be heading north soon.
March 8th – 20th
Green J was ringed as a single chick in nest G07 in Easter Ross on 10th July 1991. I identified her as the breeding female at nest A11, near Carrbridge, in 1997, and she was probably there from 1994 or 1995. She has bred every year since then and has had a total of at least 23 chicks. One of her chicks was the very first chick translocated to Rutland Water and her young have contributed to the Rutland project as well as to the Andalucian and Basque osprey recovery projects. In 1999, she was the first osprey to be satellite tagged and we proved over the next three winters that she lived on the Gabriel y Galan Reservoir in Extremadura, and did not travel to Africa. An old osprey, like Green J at 23 years of age, is particularly interesting for understanding the behaviour of ospreys at the end of their breeding life. Last summer, the new GPS satellite tag showed that Beatrice returned to exactly the same location in Spain and we could see how she had settled at Gabriel y Galan reservoir.
Close up of Green J
Green J’s autumn migration 2013
Range at Gabriel y Galan Reservoir February 18th – March 12th
