Blog
There are 5 blog posts dated January 2010
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Tags beginning to wake up
Pleased to say that a lot of the sat tags appear to be awakening from their winter slumbers and whilst we are still not getting accurate positional data from the vast majority, this new contact continues to be most welcome. Rounding up, in the last few days/weeks we have heard from a grand total of 9 sat tags, leaving 3 tags that we havent had anything from since before Christmas. These remaining tags are fitted to the backs of red kites Heather, Red Rocket and Tweety Pie. Whilst this is still worrying we can remain hopeful that we may very well tune into these tags in the coming days and weeks as has already been seen with others.
Leading onto what we do know about and we do have definate and accurate GPS positions for 2 kites in particular this week. Red kite Swooper Trooper has once again flashed up on the radar this week and we were able to trace her movements between the 19 and 23rd Jan roaming between the Fairburn area in Easter Ross and Munlochy area on the black isle. A welcome bit of news from Phoenix also came through placing him between the 20th and 24th ranging around the southern area of the black isle. This has been the first usable bit of data from him since the tail end of November last year and its great to see him obviously getting out and about. These positions have been updated on the map this afternoon so should appear online by tonight. More news as and when it comes..
Monday, 18 January 2010
Bumper package!
Well at least in light of recent months.. today we received data through on 6 of the tags specifically those tags on the backs of red kites Sky, Ruby, Swooper Trooper, Red Arrow, Phoenix and one kite who has yet to be assigned to a school. From this bunch we got positional data from Sky and Swooper Trooper only. Between the 13th and 16th January, Sky was hanging around Munlochy and Kilmuir areas with Swooper Trooper operating in much the same airspace between the 15th and 17th January. Again, although we're not able to place the rest of the kites very well at the moment it is great to see that the satellite tags seem to be picking up from their hibernation a bit more of late!
Thursday, 14 January 2010
A good omen
Today we took a trip up to the stone building which will very soon exist as Tollie Red Kites and were welcomed by the sight of one of these beautiful birds, perched right on the guttering! Close by, another was floating above some trees with that perfect fluidity they are renowned for. This was fantastic to see and greatly encouraging that we will have plenty more red kites come to visit once the word spreads! We took the pick up truck along the track which was just aswell as the route was pretty hairy still with layers of snow and ice but well worth the ride to spot the pair of kites and also begin to move some furnishings into the building space. We're going to be busy decking out the site over the next month to make it as welcoming as possible for you all and will keep you updated with the latest progress. At the moment the walls of the building are bare but the floor is now taken up by chairs, benches and tables not to mention feeders for the smaller beaks that'll be drawn to the table! And yes, we received another dribble of data through today from one of the tagged birds, this one not assigned to a school yet. Again no positional data to go on but contact none the less and at a much regular frequency than before!Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Surprise from Spey!
Just when we thought we had settled into a routine of Sunday and Monday data updates we received a surprise dribble of data through from the tag on Spey's back today! Despite not being enough to help us work out where he's hanging around of late this was a very welcome bit of contact with this bird since we havent had anything through from him since the 16th November. Back then he had been sticking to familiar territory on the black isle so it will be interesting to see if there is another top up from the tag in the days to come with this new information in it. Perhaps yesterdays bright light was enough of a boost to transmit the news we did receive from this kite today so fingers crossed the cloud cover will part again over the end of the week..Tuesday, 12 January 2010
a spot of news..
For the first time in a good while we received some nice GPS positions for one of the kites this Sunday past. Red kite Swooper Trooper's tag delivered a few points on her whereabouts between the 6th and 9th of January providing us with a rough picture of her movements during this time. Still on the black isle, she was shown to have wandered between Munlochy bay and the tip of Cromarty, last recorded between here and Rosemarkie seemingly patrolling the lands edge as it rolls steeply down to the firth here. Her positions on the map should update this evening some time so you can get a better idea of this location. This news follows a week where we've had a couple of particularly bright and sunny days so as long as this pattern repeats itself over the next wee while we should be fairly optimistic of learning a bit more on movements shortly..
Otherwise, although we have been making contact with some of the other tagged kites (Sky and Red Arrow), this hasnt been to the extent where we have been receiving actual GPS data yet so we cant provide any detail on their whereabouts. However, all the signs are still indicating that batteries are low on voltage so presumably we need to just bide our time whilst they power up gradually.
Thought it was about time to give you an update on the development of Tollie Red Kites the feeding station. Although some work is currently being hampered by the big dumps of snow we've had over the past few weeks we hope that this facility will be open in time for March 1st. We're very excited to be bringing this opportunity to the local area and it will definately showcase these spectacular birds and their acrobatic displays! So stay tuned for further updates as things are beginning to roll with this.. we hope that many of you following the tagged kites already will come and visit and perhaps see them right up close and personal!