Blog

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

The month that was March

Sorry it's been a long time since a blog update..  final preparations to the feeding station up at Tollie on the Brahan Estate are in full swing and we are hoping to install signs and start welcoming visitors very soon..  lots of people on tenderhooks awaiting news of this exciting destination - not long now, stay tuned for the green light to come and see us up there!

The main news from the satellite tags is that we have still to make contact with Red Rocket  (Merkinch) and it looks increasingly like we will have to rely upon actual sightings of this female distinguished by a left blue wing tag and a right pink wing tag, each with a red spot on it.  There are all sorts of possibilities as to the fate of this bird - the most desired outcome of course is that she's fit and flying and gaining her independance happily, learning along the way as youngsters do.  We hope that her disappearance off our radars is more to do with a faulty satellite tag, annoying as this may be, its certainly not as bad as a potential problem with the bird herself.  Merkinch Primary were visited before the Easter holidays to be kept up to speed with the news on Red Rocket, needless to say, all very much hoping that there will be a sighting of her in the not too distant future.

As to the rest, in short all still basing themselves on the Black Isle and immediate countryside: Tweety Pie (Aviemore) and Red Arrow (Beauly) preferring the area surrounding Contin, making the most of their time here patrolling the open fields around Brahan and Loch Ussie and uplands to the west of Fairburn.  Hoping to make these two amongst the first of our visitors to the feeding station!

Sky (Avoch), Ruby (Carrbridge), Swooper Trooper (Culbokie), Phoenix (Daviot), Lewis (Farr) and Spey (Grantown) all mainly residing to the south eastern part of the Black Isle.  Of particular interest, three of these kites have been day tripping a bit further afield of late.. Ruby has been repeatedly exploring to the south and south west of here, ranging through the western side of Inverness to uplands west of Dochfour then up to Beauly and west of Muir of Ord - previous to that, journeying to the east of Loch Ness down to Loch Duntelchaig and back again....  earlier in March, Swooper Trooper chose to direct herself north instead, ping ponging between Munlochy bay and Fortrose then Cromarty before crossing the entrance to the Beauly Firth to the North Sutor and back again... finally Phoenix has been ranging to the south west of the Black Isle, spending many successive days crossing the Moray Firth to spend daylight hours on uplands to the east of Daviot, just north of Moy further down the A9.  This is a destination we saw a few of the kites end up at in late Autumn last year, so its certainly interesting to see a sort of red kite route or highway forming between the Black Isle and here.

That's it for the moment.  Due to give another blog update at the start of next week but keep checking the maps for more regular positional updates.  Thanks for visiting.

Monday, 15 March 2010

Catch up!

Quite a lot to update you on this time - apologies for the absence of blogging of late - spending a lot of time working up at the feeding station site getting it all prepared..  kites are slowly but surely beginning to take an interest in our daily offerings up there and we hope its not too long before we can provide you with fantastic close up views of these wonderful birds.

Back to the tags and lets start from the top..  Tweety Pie (Aviemore) still centring her movements around the Fairburn patch up until the 10th March.  Infact, we tracked her to the field adjacent to the feeding station in the vicinity of Loch Ussie at 10am on the 8th March so seems pretty certain she is one of the first red kites to pick up on this opportunity!

Sky (Avoch) is another kite staying faithful to a particular spot as she is still enjoying wanderings around the Drumsmittal area of the Black Isle up until the 13th March.. 

Red Arrow (Beauly) similar to Tweety Pie, is roaming around the Fairburn area to the north west of Muir of Ord..

Ruby (Carrbridge) had an interesting flight down to Loch Duntelchaig via Dochfour on the 6th March before flying back to the Drumsmittal area, spending the 10th March in the Loch Ussie area (possibly also attracted by the feeding potential there!) and then back to Drumsmittal for the 13th.. 

Swooper Trooper (Culbokie Primary) has been an active kite, ping ponging between Cromarty/Nigg areas and Munlochy bay between the 7th and 13th March, most recently spotted resting up in woodland close to Jemimaville..

Likewise, Phoenix (Daviot Primary) has also been flying back and forth between two spots, the south side of the Black Isle, south of Munlochy bay and further down the A9 towards Moy with frequent rests in uplands to the east of Daviot - very close to his adoptive school!  Last tracked back on the Black Isle by 7pm on the 12th..

Sticking closer to home, Lewis (Farr Primary) isn't making significant moves away from the Munlochy Bay area, and was last spotted on its north side exploring the open fields and woodland surrounding the shores here.. similarly Spey (Grantown Primary) is still ranging in a very small area between Bogallan and Drumsmittal, last tracked on the 7th March.

Unfortunately we have yet to make contact with Red Rocket (Merkinch Primary).  Given the lovely bright days of late we had anticipated that we would have got information through from her tag by now and it seems strange why we havent yet.  We are at a loss to know for sure what exactly has happened to the tag and where Red Rocket exactly is and will have to rely upon live sightings of this bird to answer these questions..  it may be her tag has simply fallen off or been particularly faulty and not survived the winter's dark..  Red Rocket has a red spot on both her wing tags (blue left and pink right) which makes her quite distinctive and we would welcome anyone who thinks they may have spotted her winging her way around!

Some news on Heather (Dingwall Primary) who is not showed on map.. her tag appeared to power back up on the 1st March and slowly started providing us with GPS from the 2nd to the 7th March so we know that she is roughly in the area of Farr to the south of Inverness.  More recent data through from her tag has been a little sketchy however but we hope the tag will get properly up and running in the week to come.

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Sunday data and admission of map error!

We received a bumper package from 7 tags on Sunday.  As follows...

Sky (Avoch) still happily roaming open ground and scrub areas between Munlochy Bay and Drumsmittal areas - occasionally resting up in stands of coniferous woodland... Ruby (Carrbridge) ranging a bit more widely starting off further east by Contin on the 18th then across to Drumsmittal, in woodlands to the west of Muir of Ord on the 21st up to Jamestown on the 22nd then back down to the north east of Beauly on the 23rd and 24th, across to Munlochy Bay again before arriving back at Marybank on the 27th (phew!)... despite Swooper Trooper (Culbokie) showing on the map over the North Sea and halfway to Scandinavia (!) this is infact an input error which should be rectified by this evening (I forgot to hit the minus on the longitude!).  Otherwise this female has been spending most of her time between Contin and Maryburgh between the 18th and 26th with a short trip west to low ground past Loch Achilty on the 22nd.... Lewis (Farr) still ranging in close proximity to Ruby between Munlochy bay and Drumsmittal... we also have information on kite A (not shown on map and currently not adopted by a local school) who between the 18th and 27th Februrary has been spending most of her time to the east of Loch Ness by Loch Ruthven, Torness, Inverfarigaig and uplands to the west of Dunmaglass.  We made contact with two other birds on this day, Red Arrow (Beauly) and Phoenix (Daviot) but unfortunately no more updates on positions.  Some more information to follow..