Blog
There are 8 blog posts dated February 2010
Thursday, 25 February 2010
This week's latest
Just a quick update now on the movements of most of our tagged kites since Saturday. Tweety Pie (Aviemore) has largely centred her travels close to Fairburn in Ross-shire with small excursions nearby in the Contin and Jamestown areas... similarly we received a couple of positions on Red Arrow (Beauly) who appeared to be in much the same area zipping between Contin and Muirton mains and we actually have a live sighting of this male dated Sunday 21st February close to Fairburn with his mother and father thought to be in close proximity!... Ruby (Carrbridge) has been making wider movements of late starting nearby to the previous two close to Contin between the 16-18th February, moving East to the Drumsmittal and North Kessock areas then landing back West of Muir of Ord on the 22nd Feb.. Swooper Trooper (Culbokie) revisited the Strathrusdale area on the 15th before winding back close to Contin between the 16-19th Feb then exploring the Brahan Estate, Culbokie before landing back near Contin on the 22nd.. rounding up, Phoenix (Daviot), Lewis (Farr) and Spey (Grantown) spent between the 15-22nd in much the same area, right on the Black Isle skirting between Drumsmittal and Munlochy bay.
We are still awaiting news of Red Rocket (Merkinch) and Heather (Dingwall - but not on map!).
Of the kites we know about it appears there are two quite distinct camps forming, one centred around the Fairburn/Contin area and the other between Drumsmittal and Munlochy Bay. Juveniles often seek each other out particularly during the winter months and the formation of such bonds can be crucial in all sorts of ways - finding food together, indulging in play to strengthen life important skills and of course perfecting courtship for the future. Whilst many adult pairs are beginning to move away from communal winter roosts and onto traditional nest sites, this sort of mature behaviour couldnt be further from the minds of these youngsters who will remain fairly 'talon-loose and fancy free' for the time being!
Saturday, 20 February 2010
10/12 kites accounted for - 2 tags remain elusive!
After that quick round up of news we can let you know that the majority of tagged kites have popped back up on our radar in the past few weeks after the dark winter months, all seeming to be pretty close to the Black Isle, so no significant dispersal movements to detail as yet... we are seeing a fair few of these youngsters patrolling about in very similar airspace and its quite possible these individuals are perhaps roosting together at one site, in doing so learning precious life skills together through the act of play.
We still have two kites out there both of which we havent had any data through from since the 22nd November 2009. First of all we have Heather, the female kite Dingwall Primary School are now championing after their first, Hector suffered an unfortunate demise after being struck by a vehicle back in September. We tracked her last moving about in the Muir of Ord area. (Please note, Heather movements are not currently on the website map). Then we have Red Rocket, the female kite that pupils of Merkinch Primary in Inverness adopted. Her last known position was back on this date to the east of Ardross in Easter Ross after exploring the Caithness coast at Berriedale. Its very possible that the tags on these birds will make contact in the same way that the others have done in recent days/weeks so for the time being we arent too worried about this although, the sooner we start getting data in the sooner we'll know that both are safe and sound and trackable once again! We'll let you know as soon as we find out.
Saturday, 20 February 2010
And there's more!
Yes, pleased to announce first contact of 2010 with Lewis (Farr Primary), a male kite we last tracked way back on the 10th November. On the 14th of this month we received a run of data from his tag which placed him between the 10th and 13th roaming between Kilmuir, Munlochy bay and Drumsmittal. Great to see he appears fit and healthy and quite happily sticking close to home like all the other kites!
One final update from Phoenix (Daviot Primary), a male we have heard a little from this year already and who appears to be crossing paths with Lewis, ranging between the 29th January to most recently the 13th February around Munlochy Bay and Drumsmittal.
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Spey making contact..
News of yet another bird and the sat tag on Spey's back has started to warm up again since we last heard from him back on the 14th November. On the 17th February we received a run of data from this tag, mostly unusable since instead of positions it kept giving us messages that the tag was running low on voltage. We did get through one position placing Spey in the 'general' area of Bogallan so we are pretty confident that this bird is also staying fairly close to home for the time being. Again, these tags all seem to need a big boost of sunlight over the next week to reach their optimum transmitting potential but we have seen from others that once they receive this they generally appear to be getting back on track as it were!Saturday, 20 February 2010
News from Tweety Pie!
Back on the 12th February we were very relieved to make contact for the first time this year with red kite Tweety Pie (Aviemore Primary), especially since her last known position was way back on the 19th October! This batch of data wasnt fantastic in that it contained a lot of low voltage battery in place of the usual GPS positions but we were able to tentatively place Tweety Pie on the 2nd February on Brahan Estate land very close to the Black Isle. Seems like Tweety Pie's tag still needs a bit of re-booting since another, far less accurate, position also came through for the next day placing this bird thousands of miles away from here over on the Alaskan/Canadian border!! Safe to say this was pretty unlikely though, especially as this position was accompanied by very low battery voltage on the tag and I guess in these early days of re-contact we might have to be a bit wary of such exaggerated positions as the tags get back to normal! But the fantastic weather today will do wonders and we remain hopeful that we will get a bit more detail through for next week.Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Red Arrow back on the radar
A welcome update now from Red Arrow (Beauly Primary). It's been a long time since we last tracked him way back on the 18th October! But vital signs are good as on the 15th February we received a little package from Red Arrow's tag from which we could place him on the 10th and 12th close to Contin then just to the north east of Marybank on the 13th. Still no exciting travels to report but the main thing is that we are once again able to follow where these youngsters are spending these winter months!Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Swooper keeps on Trooping
Sticking to the western edges of the Black Isle, Swooper Trooper has been exploring the lands around Fairburn and Urray, spending between the 9th and 11th of February to the west of Muir of Ord then back up around Muirton mains between the 12th and 14th February. Swooper Trooper has a history of frequenting this area which isnt too far away from where our feeding station is currently being developed up at Tollie nearby Lochussie.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Roaming Ruby
She's still pretty close to home but Ruby (Carrbridge Primary) has been covering quite a lot of ground of late spending between the 2nd and 6th February visiting Beauly, Kilmuir, Fairburn and Strathpeffer areas. Between the 11th and 14th February she was tracked exploring the uplands that lie to the West of Muir of Ord. Great to see her so active and to be able to chart her progress from one day to the next rather than relying on occasional weekly fixes!Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Sky in flight
The good news is that we are beginning to get more input from the satellite tags and now that we've likewise been able to track the kites themselves, we thought we'd bring you some individual updates once again. First off news about Avoch Primary School's adoptive kite Sky, identified on the map as 'B'. We last tracked Sky back on the 15th Jan roaming between Munlochy and Drumsmittal and since then, we havent seen much of a change to this pattern. Between the 4th-13th February we have seen her exploring these areas still. Sky has a history of sticking fairly local to this patch since fledging, as far as we've seen at least, with only a brief jaunt down the A9 to Daviot towards the end of September last year. While we can't say where she's been in the interim period when her tag was down, its good to be finally getting some decent positional information on her so we can be hopeful that if and when she does disperse further, we shouldnt be too far behind!