The Tweed Valley juvenile osprey FK8 spent the whole winter in the Portamao region of Portugal. She explored this area extensively and made good use of the water courses and landscape to hunt and roost. She has not wandered far from the region since arriving there after her long migration journey in November 2014.
On 28th February and 1st March 2015, she had a change in behaviour and crossed into Spain and made a journey of about 120 miles to the east along the coast of the Gulf of Cadiz and took up a roost there overnight. The sudden change in behaviour was quite exciting as she was not far from the Strait of Gibraltar which is a known migration funnel for raptors as they journey north. Could it be that she witnessed movement of passage birds and became curious about taking a closer look? Was she herself deciding to take a trip further south and to cross the Strait and move on down into Africa to complete the migration typical of most ospreys, or would she get caught up in the general migration drift of other birds moving through and decide to move northwards as they will be doing?
It is interesting to speculate why she suddenly became motivated to leave the region where she overwintered and we will be watching closely to see where she travels to next.
A days movement in November, hunting and fishing along the watercourses in the Portamao region of Portugal.
28th Feb to 2nd March 2015. On the coast of Spain and exploring the Rio Guadalquivir, Donana.
Flamingo’s on the Rio Guadalquivir. This is the habitat FK8 is investigating and some of the birds she may well be encountering on her journey.
The red dots and yellow circles show the route and roosts of FK8 along the coast of Spain.
The yellow marker at Rio Tinto, Huelva shows the approximate area that Tweed Valley bird CL9 was photographed last summer (2014). This was a year old bird which had fledged from the Back up nest. We had assumed that it had made its way there from Africa but perhaps it had overwintered in Spain or Portugal just like FK8.
The data from 2nd March shows that FK8 is still on the move and has explored the region of the Parque Nacional de Donana.
Will she continue south or stay in the area?
Photo taken in the Parque Nacional de Donana – the area where FK8 was exploring on 2nd March.