Blog
There are 9 blog posts dated November 2009
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
latest
Not a huge amount to report this week on each of the kite's whereabouts...
Let's start with Sunday. We got some info through on Red Rocket, Merkinch Primary's kite and also Phoenix, Daviot Primary's well travelled youngster. Red Rocket was in the Strathrusdale area between 12th and the 14th November then after a period of low tag battery voltage, popped up again on the 22nd in woodland to the north of Ardross. Onto Phoenix now and up until the 21st Nov, he had seemed quite content on the black isle, darting between Munlochy bay, Kilmuir and Ord hill areas....
On Monday we picked up on a kite which has remained largely elusive of late. We've had some pretty rubbish data through recently from Sky, adopted by Avoch Primary, but were very pleased to pick up on some more reliable movements leading up to the 22nd Nov confirming her love of the black isle, shadowing much the same movements as Phoenix. Talking about moving in the same circles, Swooper Trooper flashed up on Monday, continuing her explorations of an area that has also become familiar to Red Rocket. Both have most recently been located around Ardross and its surrounding farmlands. Ruby also made contact on Monday but didnt give us much to go on with one position on the 22nd indicating she was on high ground to the east of Ben Wyvis. Still, nice to get some useable data through. Which brings me to the rest of the kites...
We've been left hanging by Lewis, Tweety Pie, Spey and Red Arrow. As you all know from a recent blog posting we've heard nothing from Tweety Pie since the 19th October which is a worry. We've received data from the remaining three kites on this list much more recently, but the problem being this data has been highly variable and not useable infact as its lacked an essential component (that which is called the 'engineering data' to be precise), rendering the rest of the information useless. Lewis was last located on the south side of Munlochy bay on the 10th Nov; Spey near Kilmuir on the 14th Nov. As reported before Red Arrow has not given us any actual locations since the 18th Oct, similar to Tweety Pie, however the fact that we have seen data coming through off this bird - allbeit unusable - has been heartening.
So there we are - infact becoming increasingly reliant upon actual sightings of these birds now at winter roosts to fill in the (sometimes very long!) gaps between bouts of data. Such are the frustrations when we only receive weekly updates now! Ah well, an update on some of these roost sightings will follow shortly...
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
This weeks update
This weeks double hit of data came through on Sunday and Monday lunchtimes - we seem to have settled into this winter duty cycle now and this should be the way of things until March...
Overall no major movements, rather a lot of localised wanderings. First of all a report of failed GPS from two of the kites Sky and Red Arrow. Hopefully next week we should get a catch up on where they've been adventuring - they could be anywhere!
Onto those red kites we know a lot more about and after a brief trip south from the Strathrusdale area and down the A9 to uplands surrounding Moy on the 5th Nov, Ruby made her way back to the black isle and then navigated west over towards the Orrin Reservoir on the 9th. She stayed fairly close to here in the Strathconon area until her last position at 2pm on the 14th which placed her closer to Black Dyke near Fairburn.
We last left Swooper Trooper on the Brahan Estate on the 7th of Nov and since then she progressed up through Knockbain farm by Dingwall reaching glen Strathrusdale by 2pm on the 9th. After staying around here over the next couple of days she moved a bit further east to woodland just north of Scotsburn on the 13th but was back to the Ardross area the next day, her last position here on the 15th. The Strathrusdale area has proved a popular destination so far for a couple of the kites which are probably finding it quite a productive landscape, each one spending a good amount of time here possibly feasting upon buzzard leftovers...
Not much to report on Phoenix except to say he's still making local movements about the black isle, with some flights over Bogallan and towards Mount Eagle. Similarly Lewis is sticking to the same patches on the black isle namely Kilmuir, Munlochy and Munlochy bay very probably crossing paths with Phoenix as he goes about his wanderings. As for Spey the kite, well we didnt get a lot of data from him but he's also making very localised movements about the very south of the black isle.
Last but not least a little bit of news from Red Rocket and an update of 1 position, apparently unsettled in the night and flying over a farm just to the north east of Ardross in the early hours (0216am!) of the 15th Nov.
Map updates should appear this evening...
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Tweety Pie gone flyabout?
Whilst we've been getting signals from 8 of the tagged kites since the change in pattern to data supply, there is one bird - Tweety Pie that we havent had any satellite data through from since the 19th October - a full month ago. Her last position on the 19th at midday placed her between CononBridge and Marybank and she was actually seen close to here on the Brahan Estate on the 18th, reportedly looking fit and healthy. This might seem alarming but there may be several reasons for the abrupt 'silence' of her sat tag. Most likely there may be a little technical problem with Tweety Pie's sat tag perhaps caused by it having to adjust to the recent change in light levels and in this case we can only surmise that the kite is absolutely fine and going about her daily business while her sat tag sorts itself out. This has occurred in other studies of satellite tagged birds where its been seen that sat tags have eventually powered themselves back up again, popping the bird back onto the radar, almost as quickly as sat tags have seemed to almost shut down like this - technology! Of course there may be other reasons such as damage to the tag itself and/or the tag simply falling off - unfortunately its very difficult to say for certain what the problem may be and for the latter two guesses we should still expect to see some data through, albeit fairly dodgy! We hope to get an update on Tweety Pie fairly soon but in the meantime may have to rely on actual sightings of her to check up on her progress. We know she was last seen between Conon and Marybank and this is where she's largely been hanging out aside from a trip to Tomich and Cannich on the 16th of Oct. She will have left blue wing tag and right pink with a lower case 's' on both incase anyone gets a good view of her wings. An update on the remaining birds will follow...Thursday, 12 November 2009
No new data.. but some actual sightings!
Still nothing new from the satellite tags but instead we do have actual sightings of two of the sat tagged birds which appear to be hanging around together at one of the largest communal winter roosts of red kites in the black isle. Kites Sky and Red Arrow were seen yesterday afternoon at a traditional roost site where they were perched in trees together with a staggering 60 other red kites! Although its pretty impossible to see the sat tag aerials protruding out of back feathers from a fair distance away, our birds were each identified using the unique wing tag monitoring system, established in 1998, which is in action at red kite reintroduction sites up and down the UK. Brian Etheridge is the raptor monitoring officer for North Scotland working for the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology and its his job to collate data on the health and status of the highland red kite population. This is a hugely demanding job involving paying visits to all known red kite nests in the area and fitting where possible uniquely coloured and patterned wing tags to the juvenile birds. This may seem pretty invasive but its vital work in order for us to keep track of individual birds which can in turn tell us a lot about the status of the overall population of red kites that live close to us. Anyway, all red kite chicks that fledge nests on the black isle get fitted with a blue wing tag on their left wing - similarly all the other reintroduction locations have a distinct colour that relates to their area. The right wing tag colour reflects the year in which that chick fledged, giving information on age of the bird. In addition to colour, each tag bears either a letter, number or symbol - all this information together allows a bird to be identified out of a crowd. However it can be easier said than done when trying to read wing tags in a dusky or glary light, even more so when the kites are wheeling and tumbling above you!
Red Arrow - left blue; right pink with the letter 'n' on both
Sky - left blue; pink right with the letter 'g' on both
Sightings of red kites are greatly welcomed and anyone managing to spot and read wing tags can pass that information through to us using the project email eyestotheskies@rspb.org.uk. Aswell as giving us more detail on the movements of local red kites, sometimes youngsters from the other UK reintroduced populations, even other European populations have been known to pay a visit to the area.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
The only way is... down?
All of the tagged kites seem to be happily going about their business of exploring and interacting with other young kites, oblivious to the attention we're giving them and the interest we have in their every movements. Infact, red kite dispersive movements have long been the subject of intense scrutiny, in the past relying heavily on wing tag records to follow the wanderings of a single bird...
It has been observed for instance that the proportion of red kites dispersing away from their natal areas has been higher in Scottish red kite populations compared to those raised in England. One proposal to explain this difference relates to an individual's genetic make-up. Way back in the late 80's/early 90's when UK red kite reintroductions first began, kites released in the Black Isle area of North Scotland came from Swedish and German stock, from populations themselves that were largely migratory in nature. In contrast, red kites which over the same time period, were released in the south of England mostly came from resident populations in Spain. Perhaps working alongside these more 'internal' factors is the influence of topography and whether or not the landscape surrounding the red kites up here has any role to play in their wanderings. To the immediate east of the Black Isle there's a pretty large expanse of sea, the Moray Firth. Most large birds of prey tend to avoid crossing expanses of water where possible as thermals, required by birds to gain height, are much stronger over land. Further north and to the west we strike the rugged mountains of Wester Ross, a naturally beautiful and awe-inspiring landscape but largely unproductive for the kites which, although adaptable, feel much more at home in a fairly low-lying rolling type of landscape where carrion is more abundant. It is possible that these natural barriers to dispersal up here largely dictate the more southernly pattern of dispersal we tend to see and the possible need for kites to gain an insight into other areas in which to settle. Of course an exception to this theory occurred in 1997 when a juvenile which fledged its Black Isle nest that summer was recorded in Iceland in the December! However we try to pin 'rules' to behaviours like this, its fair to say that kites, like many other animals, are always full of surprises!
We didnt receive any tag data through today at the usual time of midday, but will check again tomorrow and bring you the latest news.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Phoenix's return to the Black Isle
We got data through from 3 tags yesterday (Monday) belonging to kites Red Rocket, Spey and Phoenix. Only one position through for Phoenix at just before 9.30pm on the 8th showing us he had made it back to his Black Isle homeland after a whirlwind trip to the south west of Scotland and north east coast of Ireland. Whether he chooses to stay here now for the winter or move on is anyone's guess but for the time being at least he remains our most well travelled kite. Only a couple more positions for Red Rocket most recently placing her just east of Ardross at around 9.30pm on the 8th and Spey, who is currently still in the Kilmuir area of the Black Isle with a position at 2pm on the 7th close to where Phoenix later landed.Monday, 9 November 2009
Weekend update
What a cracking weekend. I was driving down the Leanaig brae (for anyone who doesnt know, its the local name of that long stretch of the A835 road meandering down between Tore and Maryburgh), admiring the Wester Ross mountains, which at that time on a saturday afternoon were bathed in a warm orange glow, when I spotted a red kite taking advantage of the thermals. The kite in question was casually negotiating its way along the roadside with subtle movements of its long tail and looked positively stunning against the azure sky. The chestnut red of the kite's plumage seems to dazzle all the more when the sun's out. It was hard to duck out of the long line of traffic I was in to take a closer look at this individual and check whether is was one of the tagged birds or not. By the time I had found a safe spot to pull over it of course, as kites do, had moved quite a distance in a short space of time away from the road, over the fields and the glare of the sun made it impossible to check for wing tags. Great to see though and likely that many other kites were out and about indulging in similar foraging behaviours on this fantastic day.
Indeed we received a new batch of satellite tag data in yesterday (Sunday) and this little present contained information on six of our tagged kites. Whereas before the end of October we were getting several positions to a single day, now we are down to just one position a day - 2pm. This will probably be the regime throughout the winter months, an adaptation to conserve the batteries of these solar powered tags throughout this season of shorter days. So we'll be getting far less of a representation of where the kites wander to but an idea nonetheless and an insight into whether many of them will stay in this area or choose to escape the chilly skies and frozen grounds for somewhere a little warmer. The GPS data from two of the kites we received signals from, Ruby (Carrbridge Primary) and Lewis (Farr Primary) had unfortunately failed so we have no update from them. Failure of GPS tends to occur when the battery voltage is low and we do not receive a time to accompany the birds positions. This is one of the checks we can carry out to get an idea of the accuracy of the information thats comes in and in these cases the data was not terribly accurate so we do not trust it! Otherwise we were able to place Swooper Trooper (Culbokie Primary) to the Brahan Estate area; Red Rocket (Merkinch) to the Glen Strathrusdale; Spey (Grantown) to the Kilmuir area of the Black Isle and Phoenix (Daviot) to just west of Grantown-on-Spey. The majority of these kites have stuck largely to these areas since the beginning of November however Red Rocket's latest position comes after a journey south after cropping up on the Caithness coast at Berriedale and Phoenix's after movements back north from Argyll. We hope to hear more tomorrow from the remaining birds and I'll update as and when we receive the next data batch.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
November nights
Since the start of November there's been a distinct change to the frequency of all the satellite tag updates - the last batch came through on the 1st November so there hasnt been anymore updates to the map since then. At the moment we're having to do a lot of sitting back, waiting for news and wondering on the wanderings of all our kites. It will be interesting to see how the sat tags perform over the winter up here with the fading light levels that accompany the shorter days. As I sit typing this however, frequent glances out the window seem to suggest we're in for a fairly dry and bright (if not a little crisp!) weekend so here's hoping all the tagged kites are out and wheeling about in the sunshine, getting their exercise and charging their tags up while theyre at it!
To keep you up to speed with all the kite's last known positions, at the end of October we had four of the tagged kites hanging around the rather exclusive Munlochy bay area - Sky (Avoch Primary), Red Arrow (Beauly Primary), Spey (Grantown Primary) and Lewis (Farr Primary); Ruby (Carrbridge Primary) was last located nearby Strathrusdale; Swooper Trooper (Culbokie Primary) and Tweety Pie (Aviemore Primary) were still in the Brahan Estate and Marybank areas; Red Rocket (Merkinch Primary) was last located up on the Caithness coast at Berriedale after a flight over from the west and finally, Phoenix (Daviot Primary) was last located on the banks of Loch Fyne, Argyll, seemingly returning from his Ireland trip. Unfortunately you'll realise that all the kites are still on the wrong end of their lines on the map page so you'll have to bear with us for a few more days while we continue to get this rectified but hopefully they'll be sorted in time for our next update on kite movements.
Monday, 2 November 2009
Phoenix back in Scotland
That's right, our wandering kite Phoenix left behind the emerald isle on saturday afternoon, his last position in northern ireland at midday just north of Knocknaharry in the country's far north eastern corner. By 2pm he was just to the west of Kintyre and by 7pm same day had made it to the eastern side of Loch Fyne just south of Otter Ferry. This news coincides with a potential actual sighting of Phoenix dating back to the 17th October by a woman in Donegal which we are waiting to confirm. Up until his return to his native country, Phoenix appeared to be touring about in the area of the Giant's Causeway (although the data that came through off the solar powered tags was a little bit shaky), more latterly moving through Ulster, Coleraine and Bushmills areas. We anticipate that Phoenix will eventually find his way back to the black isle as his return appears to point in that direction but we'll let you know as soon as we find out where he ends up next.Monday, 2 November 2009
New look to map page
Some of the more frequent visitors to the site will have noticed there's been a change to the map page. We now have the option to select to view individual kite movements on their own or in relation to one another. Simply click on a red kite in the list at the top right of the map to make it visible and click again to make it disappear. We hope this will make it easier for you to pick out the progress of a particular kite from all the spaghetti thats inevitably created by all the paths of the moving birds. We are currently waiting on a correction to be made to the map page - that is, all the red kites are currently positioned on the wrong end of each track line. We are working with our colleagues to try and rectify this as soon as possible so you can see the most up to date movements made by each red kite. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and your continued interest in the exploits of out intrepid youngsters.