The boat cruise yesterday gave people the first chance to see the Osprey Platforms installed in the summer by Peter Kent and his band of willing volunteers. Peter and I had the idea of trying to attract Ospreys to breed in the Tamar Valley after a bird called Tore, ringed at the RSPBs Loch Garten eyrie, spent several weeks exploring the valley in autumn 2011. (Unfortunately Tore is thought to have died in its west African wintering area). However, Peter’s […]

The OspreyWatch cruise on 2nd September is now full. Phone or email to be put on the waiting list and if we get enough people we may be able to arrange another trip. There have been no local reports of Ospreys so far but it’s still early days. There has been one at Tamar Lakes last weekend and another at Drift Reservoir and at Frogmore Creek on the Kingsbridge Estuary in Devon yesterday and Monday.  

Less than a month since leaving our shores Tore has reached her probable wintering area in West Africa. She cut across Mauritania and into the Gambia but has edged just a wee bit north from Guinea Bissau,  and is now in Senegal, appearing to follow & explore a river system. She is close to Marassoum, on the Soungrougrou River, her last fix 3pm yesterday, 9th October, was in an area of  riverbank-side woodland called Foret de Diognere.

The latest news is that Tore has made it to Africa! From her previous last reported point, she has travelled down through Extremadura, into Portugal on 23the September at 9pm, down through the Algarve to the coast near Faro, before heading out to sea, at night, making landfall on the Moroccan coast at c.7am at Larache. She then kept going, passing Souk-el-Arba-du-Rharb, then west of Meknes, overnighted just south of Tadla, passing Ouarzazate at 2pm on 25th September, her latest fix […]

After a three week stay on the Lynher/Tamar estuary Tore, the Loch Garten bred Osprey, continued her southward journey on the 18th September. She was at Wacker at 8am, headed over Millbrook and Maker around 9am and crossed the Channel into northern France, coming ashore near Saint Brienc, west of St Malo. She continued SE during the day and roosted near Nantes. On the 19th she continued  to the Gironde estuary near Bordeaux before changing to a SW bearing, cutting […]

One of the young Ospreys that fledged from the nest at the RSPBs Loch Garten reserve has frequented the lower Tamar and River Lynher since the end of August. Called ‘Tore’, she is fitted with a satellite tracking device and her progress from Scotland is being monitored on a daily basis. You can follow her by clicking on the link http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/lochgartenospreys/b/lochgartenospreys/archive/2009/07/06/tore.aspx I saw her from the car park at Wacker Quay on the afternoon of 8th September, perched in a […]