Google Earth Community: Peregrine falcon and osprey nest cams

Satellite tracking Ospreys around the world

Fans of Britain's longest-running wildlife soap opera can keep in touch all year round in future thanks to satellite technology.

Events at Loch Garten in Scotland's Spey valley have fascinated nature enthusiasts world-wide for the half a century since ospreys began nesting there after being extinct as a UK breeding species since 1916.

The internet meant they no longer needed to travel to the Highlands to view the tree-top eyrie from a hide. Due to a web cam, everything happening in the nest could be viewed on computer screens worldwide.

But that was just during the April-July nesting season. Now it will be possible also to follow the adventures of at least the two offspring during their 3,000-mile migrations to and from West Africa.

The Ospreys are tagged with tracking devices that let researchers follow their movements worldwide

They've been fitted with satellite tags which will enable their exact positions, anywhere in the world, to be pinpointed during the three to five year life expectancy of the solar-powered equipment.

The youngsters have been named Nethy and Deshar after two local primary schools where pupils will be following their progress as an educational project. They are also known as, respectively, AY and AZ, the letters that stand out on their identification leg rings.

A new website has been set up so people can check their locations - and over the year the number of visits will run into millions.

There's no doubt about that because of the level of popularity of the regularly updated blog and live nest cam. Over the past three months alone there have been 200,000 visits to the live nest camera.

"This technology builds on the blog and the live nestcam in inspiring the huge online community which avidly follow the Loch Garten ospreys, in addition to the thousands of visitors that come and see them in the flesh every summer", said Ross Watson, warden of Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' Abernethy Reserve, the nest's location.

"For the first time, we'll have an accurate idea of where these birds winter and how long it takes them to get there. As well as teaching us more about their behaviour, we hope to link up with people and schools along the migration route, to share information and enhance protection for these magnificent birds throughout the year."

It is now possible to watch the Osprey nests on live web cameras

He expects the chicks to fledge during the course of this month and then they'll spend about four weeks learning to fly and feed around Strathspey. "Towards the end of August, they'll head south bound for West Africa, although this time we'll be able to keep an eye on them all the way."

Nethy and Deshar are the latest stage of a Loch Garten soap opera plotline that reached new drama heights last year with a much-publicised love triangle.

Their mother, known as EJ, the letters on her leg ring, had a regular mate called Henry but after he failed to appear she paired up with an old flame called VS and two eggs were duly laid.

But then Henry returned late from West Africa and, furious at this cuckoldry, not only kicked the eggs out of the nest but responded similarly when two more were laid. After that eggs were laid following EJ's mating with Henry but no young were reared.

This spring a re-run seemed in prospect when EJ returned and - with Henry again nowhere in sight - VS resumed his wooing. However, this time Henry didn't make a late appearance - and Nethy and Deshar are the result of EJ and VS at last becoming an established pair.

For the satellite tagging project, the RSPB called in Roy Dennis of the Highland Foundation for Wildlife, an expert in this field and whose previous efforts are the reason why there is no doubt this latest development will arouse mass international interest.

This is because, thanks to his previous tagging activities, large numbers of internet bird watchers followed the progress of an osprey called Logie during her bad weather-delayed spring flight from Guinea Bissau, West Africa, to her nest near Forres, Moray.

This intensified after she crossed the Channel, between Bayeaux, France, and the coast near Brighton and proceeded northwards, including overflying Heathrow runways. Knowledge of her position due to the internet enabled some people to see and photograph her during the journey.

Source: Telegraph

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