Blog
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Swooper Trooper tours Scotland's east
Swooper Trooper (kite E, Culbokie PS) has also made a late May trip, this time heading in the opposite direction to Red Arrow and cruising down the east coast of Scotland before making her way back up towards the Black Isle. Commuters on the Kessock bridge may have spotted this bird over the Longman roundabout at 8am on the 18th May as she set out south to uplands east of Daviot, progressing to the north of Grantown and exploring around this area until a trip south to Aviemore, located here 2pm on the 21st. The next day heralded a trip east in the afternoon to Banchory before turning south, passing directly above Forfar before reaching Dundee by 6pm. On the 23rd, Swooper Trooper entered the Kingdom of Fife, popping up at 4pm to the east of Alloa before touring around Kirkcaldy and Burntisland by 6pm. More explorations around Fife were made in the morning of the 24th before this bird turned northbound again, skirting around Perth and drifting once more easterly, crossing uplands around Braemar at 4 and 6pm. By 6pm on the 25th she was back on the Black Isle! Here she remained until the 28th when she made a trip south to uplands north east of Tomatin before once again seemingly venturing towards her birthplace with a position at 4pm, drifting past the Bogbain heritage farm to the south of Inverness.Saturday, 29 May 2010
From West Kilbride to Newtonmore - travels of Red Arrow
After spending much of May travelling locally around Dingwall and Muir of Ord, one of our tagged kites has recently travelled as far south as Ayrshire and appears to have settled for the time being closer to home around the Newtonmore area. Red Arrow (Kite C of Beauly PS) first set off for the south west of Scotland on the 23rd May travelling down the east side of Loch Ness towards Fort Augustus, onwards through Ballachulish on the 24th before winding up at 6pm on this day to the east of West Kilbride in Ayrshire. By 12pm on the 25th Red Arrow was located on uplands to the north of Tyndrum, 2pm eastwards of the Blackwater Reservoir, 4pm north of Dalwhinnie and then at 6pm on the outskirts of Newtonmore. He has since spent (up until 6pm on the 28th) touring locally around here, journeying slightly west towards Laggan at one point but apparently favouring open ground and woodland to the east and north of Newtonmore itself. Perhaps Red Arrow is recalling this countryside from a previous visit he made round these parts way back in August of last year. This kite was the first of the tagged cohort to venture outside of the Black Isle late summer last year and we were very excited to track him for a good few weeks between Kingussie and Newtonmore shortly before heading back to the Black Isle again on August 24th. This was roughly a week before Red Arrow was discovered by a member of the public by a roadside verge outside of Beauly, completely drenched from a torrential rain shower and too waterlogged to fly! Great to see this bird hasnt had any more mishaps since then and if anyone's in the Newtonmore area do keep a look out for this fork tailed bird roaming around these parts... last located in a small patch of coniferous woodland just slightly east of the Highland Folk Museum on Main Street!Friday, 7 May 2010
Black Isle kite over Leeds!
'Kite-eyed' observers of the map will have noticed we have another one of these birds breaking its usual home ranging pattern of late.. Spey the red kite adopted by Grantown Primary is currently living it up on the outskirts of Leeds where he is in the midst of a whole new set of these birds!
We first spotted Spey heading south from the Black Isle on the 3rd of May when by 12pm he had made his way to Comrie in Perthshire after starting off close by Loch Ashie to the E of Loch Ness at 8am. By 2pm he had negotiated the big city of Glasgow and by 8am on the 4th May was close to Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, possibly saluting fellow red kites which were reintroduced to this part of Scotland in 2001. Doesnt look like he stopped for lunch at the local Bellymack Hill Farm feeding station however as he was recorded at 12pm along the M6 to the NE of Kendal, by 2pm west of Lancaster close to Bowland Forest in the Yorkshire Dales. By late afternoon, further progression SE was made to Bradford and Halifax and at 6pm he was recorded roosting in woodland to the south west of Keighley. More recent positions on the 5th and 6th May have placed Spey touring Shipley, Leeds and open farmland around Eccup to the north of this city. Interestingly, Spey's last positions around this area are very close to the site of Harewood House, N of the Eccup Reservoir where red kites were reintroduced back in 1999. The sight of Spey's distinctive blue left wing tag, giving away his highland heritage will surely stand out amongst the more usual orange left wing tags of red kites native to these parts! Without doubt Spey is coming across the successful population of kites down here and it will be interesting to see if he hangs around in their company over the next wee while!
Thursday, 29 April 2010
KITES - THE ROYAL CONNECTION
April 2010 proved to be a very interesting month for the interactions between the Red Kites, with a number of the group feeling their royal roots – in the 15th Century, a Royal Decree in England and Wales protected Red Kites, because they are so good at cleaning up the environment. Our 21st Century Red Kites are not yet protected in Scotland in this manner, but there must be some link with royalty as most of them met up at Tulloch Castle, near Dingwall this month. In addition, the Irish Wanderer, Lewis, has returned home to the Black Isle after an incredible epic journey to the Emerald Isle.
Sky, who was adopted by Avoch Primary School, has mainly been roaming about the Black Isle for most of the beginning of April. She even found time to drop in to Avoch itself several times, possibly to visit her adoptive school. About halfway through April, Sky obviously felt a strong connection to royalty, as she paid a visit to Tulloch Castle and then made it a regular on her travels for the remainder of April! Look out for Sky, with her distinctive yellow cross wing tags if you are visiting the Castle.
Beauly Primary School’s male Kite, Red Arrow may have followed Sky’s lead as he too has visited Tulloch Castle on many occasions during April. Perhaps the two of them set the trend for the other Kites to follow, as you’ll find out later. Red Arrow also flew over the new RSPB Feeding Station in Tollie several times this month. It could be that he intends to make it a regular stop-off point on his journeys in the future. Keep a look out for more information on Tollie Feeding Station as things develop.
Swooper Trooper, a female kite adopted by Culbokie Primary School and Phoenix, the male Kite adopted by Daviot Primary School, have been comparatively quiet, staying close to their stomping grounds for the vast majority of April, Swooper in the Muir of Ord and Phoenix on the Black Isle and South of Inverness. However… in a break from their usual travels, they both decided to visit Tulloch Castle! Swooper and Phoenix would have undoubtedly encountered the other Kites visiting there. Perhaps Red Kites got in free that day…
In a shocking turn of events, we bring you the story of one Kite that did not visit Tulloch Castle! Ruby, Carrbridge Primary School’s female Kite, spent most of April soaking in the sights near beautiful Loch Dochfour. In the past, Ruby has almost exclusively stuck to this area and the Black Isle. However, curiosity seems to have gotten the better of her as she spread her wings (excuse the pun) and flew on an odyssey of sorts. She flew south to Blair Atholl, in Perthshire, then the next day went North East to Tayside, stopping off at Kirriemuir (near Forfar) and continued North East to Laurencekirk (near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire), possibly to stop off by the Bervie Chipper for sustenance! It’s possible that Ruby was contacting another colony of Kites that roost and travel in Aberdeenshire.
From Laurencekirk, Ruby went North West, visiting Insch, (between Huntly and Inverurie in Aberdeenshire) and made her way back to the Black Isle in short order. We thought that after her huge journey, she might not be keen to travel for a while, but after a short rest, she flew south as far as Tomatin and spent some time near Loch Ness on the shore opposite Urquhart Castle at almost the same time the other Kites were visiting Tulloch Castle! At the end of April, Ruby was taking a well-deserved rest after her journeys and it will be interesting to see where she visits next.
Spey, Grantown Primary’s male Kite, in the distant past has visited Dundee, but when he returned, he has tended to stick close to his favourite places on the Black Isle and Muir of Ord direction. However, he was spotted flying south of Inverness, near Culduthel, so perhaps he too is gearing up to explore a bit more of Scotland.
By the 21st April,Lewis, Farr Primary School’s male Kite safely returned to Strathcarron after his massive journey from the Black Isle down to Ballyshannon,Co. Donegal, Ireland. It appears that he made his way back to Scotland by stopping by a number of Whiskey Distilleries on the West Coast! If you would like to duplicate Lewis’ route, visit Bruichladdich (on the Isle of Islay, where there are a host of distilleries), the Isle of Jura, Oban, Ben Nevis and Mallaig Distilleries and raise a glass to our Lewis. However, after a short rest, Lewis was on his travels yet again and stopped by… yes, you have guessed it! Tulloch Castle, meeting up with the rest of the Highland Kites! Perhaps the Kites were celebrating his amazing journey, or else receiving their duty free. Either way, it was an incredible achievement and it’s been interesting and exciting to keep track of his journey.
Meanwhile, in our office…
Our Red Kite Information Officer, Claire Buchanan, is hard at work with the RSPB Tollie Feeding Station – she has spent a lot of time liaising with the local estate and getting things ready for the opening. Claire is also in the middle of creating a “Red Kite Repertory Company”, polishing up a presentation for the local community on the abilities of these birds and the choices they can make to watch out for their wildlife, so we know that will be enjoyable and interesting.
I think you’ll agree April was very interesting. I wonder what May will bring?
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Rounding up April with some individual updates - turn of Tweety Pie
Its been a busy month for adult red kites with most established breeding pairs firmly into the swing of the breeding season. We expect at this point that successful pairs are sitting on eggs (or at least the females are!) with males busily attending to their partners increased appetite's during this energetically expensive time. Adult pairs won't travel too far away from their established nesting territories at this point but in another few weeks as chicks begin to hatch, food will be in high demand causing both adults to take turn about venturing further away to obtain a variety of foodstuffs for their continuing growth and survival.
In the meantime our juvenile kites are certainly making up for the relatively low-key adults. In the beginning of April, Tweety Pie (Aviemore Primary) had been spending most of her time around the Marybank area with frequent travels to the south of Muir of Ord and north to Jamestown. Unfortunately, in the latter half of the month things have since gone a bit quiet from this kite and we have received no further updates from Tweety Pie's tag since her last known position on the 15th April at 12pm - GPS placing her just to the west of Kilcoy. This position followed previous evening and morning explorations around nearby Newton of Ferintosh. Bit of a strange drop off the radar for Tweety Pie and we have since gone out on foot to check her last known GPS to see if we could spot her around but to no avail. Looking at the positives, we saw from the data that up until her last known point she was travelling about seemingly without any problems and this issue could well be due to tag complications which we have experienced in the past - we have still not heard anything from Merkinch's kite Red Rocket since last November. In both cases, both birds appeared to be flying around without any problems prior to the absence of positional information from their tags. It looks like for both of these birds for the time being we will have to keep a keen look out for their distinctive wing tag colours and combinations. Both have a left blue and a right pink wing tag - on top of this, Red Rocket has a red spot and Tweety Pie has lower case letter 's'. We will let you know if we pick up any new signals from Tweety Pie in the next couple of weeks.
Friday, 23 April 2010
Ash poses no flight restrictions for kites as Lewis cruises to Ireland and back!
Yes, in the past week we tracked one of the tagged kites all the way to the Republic of Ireland and back again. Lewis, a male red kite adopted by Farr Primary and adorned with a fitting green stripe on his wing tags, set off for the emerald island back on the 11th April when he began making progress south from his natal Black Isle through Lochaber and Argyll, making it to just south of Campbeltown by 7pm on the 12th. You may recall another of our kites, Phoenix, making a very similar journey way back in October last year! Lewis steamed on across the north channel and by 10am on the 13th April was over Northern Ireland, just to the east of Ballymoney, rolling onto to the Republic border just west of Enniskillen by 6pm same day. The 14th and 15th April were a little more sketchy since the GPS positions coming through were split but the 'general' route taken by Lewis on these days was further on south into the Republic and as far down as Connemara in county Galway. Back in October last year, Phoenix stopped at County Donegal so this latest journey is the furthest away we have ever recorded any of the tagged kites. Continuing with Lewis' journey and on the 16th he appeared to direct himself north once more, through Sligo and passing north east of here close to Strabane on the border. Even further progress was made on the 17th onto the west of Lough Foyle, north east of Londonderry and then by 2pm he popped up on the island of Islay! Such a whistlestop tour of Ireland must have surely meant eating on the hop for our intrepid kite and upon entering our Scottish atmosphere once again, it appears Lewis soon began orientating himself with respect to a very different kind of hop(s) (sorry!), appearing to tour several leading whisky areas on the west coast. First of all of course there was Islay.. then Jura 5pm same day.. then it was onto Oban via the island of Luing at midday on the 18th April on through FortWilliam, at 10am on the 19th popping up near Mallaig later this day before finally winding up further north from here by Loch Dughaill to the north east of Strathcarron in Wester Ross by the afternoon of the 20th. Phew! Lewis was last recorded in this area at 2pm on the 21st apparently resting it up in a small woodland by the loch perhaps contemplating his travels, even clearing the fuzz from all that flying through whisky clouds. Just goes to show these seemingly 'home' birds do simply take the notion to one day slip away, flying at sometimes extraordinarly fast paces across all sorts of landscapes and seas even to other countries.. very typical dispersal behaviour with the sole purpose of checking out what lies beyond familiar scenes. But it's also similarly interesting to see these birds time and again boomeranging back to their home patches. But maybe Lewis will surprise us once more and take off on another travel once he's limbered up - I guess you can never really predict what wild birds will do!
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..
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!
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!