 Known as Green/Black SZ, it's one of our Rothiemurchus 2011 chicks ringed on 15th July by Roy Dennis of the Highland Wildlife Foundation.
This year a young pair of Osprey’s raised two young – one male and one female at Rothiemurchus. The male was very much the runt of the pair (weighing just 1138g at ringing compared to the female chick at 1727g).
Green/Black SZ was spotted by watchers at the RSPB and was seen to have quite a ragged tail and wing feathers but this is because his feathers did not grow properly during the summer due to fish shortages (largely due to bad weather).
Young Ospreys face a very tough time when they migrate for the first time. They are fed by their parents up to this point and so this is the first time that they have had to fish for themselves. They also need to migrate to West Africa and there are lots of hazards on the way.
The satellite tagging of Ospreys has shown that adults tend to follow the Bay of Biscay, across the Sahara Desert at the shortest point etc. But young birds often go wrong - too far out into Biscay so they miss land or across the desert for days without finding water and food etc. So to know that Green/Black SZ is at least fishing successfully for himself is a great step for a bird that didn't get the best of starts in life.
He was still fishing at Wentworth today and doing well. If he migrates all the way to West Africa he will stay there until Spring 2013 when he will return to Scotland and hopefully look for his own territory close to Loch Garten or Rothiemurchus.
We’ll keep you updated when we hear more. |
With our extensive 70km network of paths to maintain and patrol, our Rothiemurchus Rangers are out on the ground throughout the year, ensuring the paths are kept to a satisfactory level for all to enjoy.
