Sat nav Boat of Garten ospreys start perilous journey

A young female Scottish osprey, which is being tracked by satellite, has embarked on a celebration zig-zag-tour of Britain before heading overseas.

Tore has already made a flypast of RSPB reserves en-route to Africa for her first winter.

The three-month old bird was still at its parents’ nest at the RSPB Loch Garten reserve by Boat of Garten a week ago.

But by Thursday afternoon, she had a bird's eye view of the RSPB’s nature reserve at South Stack, on the Welsh island of Anglesey.

The young bird had earlier passed through Dumfries and Galloway and flew over the Isle of Man.

After roosting overnight in North Wales she headed across the Midlands and East Anglia to the RSPB’s Minsmere reserve on the Suffolk coast.

Staff at Minsmere saw an osprey with an attached aerial, proving beyond doubt that it was Tore.

The latest update has revealed that Tore has skirted south-east London and the RSPB’s Rainham nature reserve, en route for the Channel coast near Portsmouth.

The journey of Bynack, Tore’s brother, is also being followed using satellite technology.

Worryingly he headed from Scotland over the North Sea, sparking considerable alarm. However, he has since reappeared near Bruges, in Belgium.

Caroline Rance, an osprey information officer at Loch Garten, has been following the reserve’s osprey stories this summer.

She said: “Ever since they hatched Tore and Bynack have become stars of the reserve. Visitors to the reserve and the website have been following their fortunes.

“The satellite technology is fantastic, allowing us to follow their travels in detail, but it can cause our hearts to leap into our mouths when these birds do something unexpected like taking a wrong turn.”

Juvenile ospreys don’t travel with their parents to Africa, so they have to work out the journey for themselves.

Ms Rance added: “This can lead to mistakes, sometimes with disastrous consequences.”

Over the next few weeks, the ospreys are expected to arrive in West Africa, where they will spend their first winter brushing up on the fishing skills.

Ospreys don’t normally return to Scotland until they are about three years old, but sometimes the birds make partial migrations to spend the summer in southern Europe or northern Africa.

The osprey was once widespread throughout Britain, but declined through persecution and by 1916 the bird was extinct as a British nesting bird.

In 1954, ospreys recolonised the UK at Loch Garten and, although the birds have since spread, the Highlands remain the bird’s UK stronghold.

To follow the osprey journey visit: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/lochgartenospreys/index.aspx

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