Sunday 23 June 2019

Off The Grid... Aln/7L in Winter


THE STORY SO FAR...
7L on her nest at Kielder

We had last heard from Aln (Blue 7L) on the 7th of November 2017, when her unusual, weather-dominated migration route through Holland and Germany via the Swiss border with France and through eastern Spain, appeared to have ended in the foothills of Morocco's Atlas mountains.

For days we waited, and then weeks. Hope faded – other sub-adult ospreys had vanished from the tracking charts at this point in their journey. But then...

In late December of that year, we received a fragment of data, indicating that Aln was alive and wintering somewhere in northern Mauritania. This “somewhere” was obviously out of range from the GSM cell towers that carry our communications, and only when she wandered away from it could we expect to hear more news.

(Click any image for larger)
So we waited. Eventually, in April 2019, Aln embarked on her return migration. As her transmitter struggled to upload the mass of data it had accumulated during the previous 18 months we began to fill in the picture of where Aln had been, and what she had been doing. We don't have all of it, and probably never will, but here – in the context of one selected day – is part of Aln's story...

24th Jun 2018, 04:03 UTC Aln (Blue 7L) is an early riser. On her first migration, back in Europe, this was an inclination. Here, in midsummer of the Sahara Desert, it is a survival strategy...

Stars still litter the sky but there is light enough to fly. Sunrise may be be a couple of hours away but already the eastern horizon is a narrow glaring band, like molten silver. Aln's favoured roost sites are among the sand dunes of the desert interior. At night, these locations are away from the chilly onshore breezes of the coastal margin, and the scattered rocks store warmth from the previous day. But she cannot be here when the sun rises and temperatures start to soar. She heads west towards the nearest of several tidal lagoons, four kilometres away.


This is the Banc d'Arguin National Park in Mauritania. It is a World Heritage site and protected under the Ramsar treaty as a location of international importance for biodiversity. By any standards, Aln has chosen a remote and isolated location: there are no people here, no roads, no fishing villages – even the Park staff, based at the southern part of the reserve, face an arduous cross-country expedition of more than 300 km just to get here. It's an ephemeral terrain of tidal channels, quicksands and ever-shifting dunes – because this “land” really belongs to the Sea.

06:27 – 07:20 UTC Aln arrives at the lagoon and waits there. The tide - now rising - has not yet reached this far inland and the shallow water carries a thin film of dust that has fallen during the night. The margins of the pool show a white crust of evaporated salt. Although there are small fish here, it would be hard for her to see them.

It is the exact hour of sunrise. Although Aln is not conscious of it, the sun's appearance feeds important information to the autonomous centres of her brain: her internal “clock” registers that this daybreak is slightly later than the one before, and the one before that. Her innate navigational sense is also recalibrated by the time difference, confirming that she knows exactly where she is.

08:39 UTC Aln flies west again another 6.5 km, crossing the southern lagoon to a rocky promontory on the coast. From this vantage point she views the area, taking in the activity of other birds and assessing the state of the tide. It is still too early for fishing, as seawater floods into the lagoons through a wide breach in the dune margin. After a few minutes she takes wing again, moving north along the shoreline...

Other birds... There are many thousands here, in dozens of different species – but far fewer than when Aln first arrived. The Gulf of Arguin is a unique and vital location for migrating wildlife - one of the most productive marine environments anywhere on the planet.

Cold-water currents carry organic nutrients up and over the edge of the African continental shelf. Meanwhile, dust and sand blows onto the water surface from the desert interior, bearing minerals such as phosphates and nitrates. Fuelled by sunlight and fertilized from above AND below, life explodes into action.

Microscopic plants - the phytoplankton – multiply at such a rate that their biomass is visible from space. They form the basis of a complex food web that attracts all manner of marine creatures. Some - like the rare and endangered Atlantic right whales - travel thousands of kilometres to join the feast.

09:07 UTC  Aln arrives beside the wide and shallow flood channel that feeds the northern lagoon, It is one of her routine fishing spots, but she does not hunt as ospreys do in other places, on the wing. There is no need. Instead, she stands on the side of a half-submerged sandbar and watches for the fish as they struggle past in a few inches of water. She is joined by a host of other piscivorous birds – all taking advantage of this unusual situation...

The fish have been betrayed. Normally a rising tide would provide deepening water to protect them from the predators along the channel, but here this seems to be happening far too slowly. While the tide attempts to flood the land, the evaporative power of the desert sun is lifting eighteen metric tons of water out of the lagoon EVERY MINUTE.

13:59 UTC   Her hunger satisfied for the moment, Aln moves off to the beach where it should be cooler. She perches on some sand bars along the foreshore but it is still too hot for comfort. After a while, she takes off and flies out to sea.

We have observed other tracked ospreys doing the same thing. Flying is an extra way for large birds to regulate the their body temperature. Veins and arteries under the skin of their chests and flanks can be dilated, allowing the slipstream to cool their blood directly.

15:05 UTC   Aln has flown south 2.5km, arriving back at the cape where she was this morning. Tracking data shows that it is one of her favourite places – a rocky promontory that juts out into the sea. Here, in a comfortable sea breeze, she can chose from many safe perches that overlook the gulf. In front of her, migrating dolphins race past, leaping and spinning clear of the water. 16 different species of dolphin and porpoise have been identified at Arguin – a record for the west African coast.

17.28 UTC    “What do wintering ospreys do all day?” From tracking and many field observations, the answer seems to be – as little as possible for as long as possible. Aln has remained at her vantage point for the last two hours. This is not idleness – it is an exercise in inactivity and the object is to conserve as much energy as possible.


We have analysed Aln/7L's flying speeds over the available recorded period and found that they are much lower than those typically seen on migration. It appears that wintering ospreys are in no hurry to do anything, and this fits in with the whole pattern of instinctive energy management.

19:40 UTC   Aln has arrived back at her roost site just as the sun is setting. With minor variations, this will be her daily routine for another ten months, until the time comes for her to return northwards. By that time, she will have finished growing her new set of adult feathers and will look very different in appearance.


She has made her wintering location work for her. To our human eyes, the Arguin coast of Mauritania might look like a harsh and desolate landscape – but it seems to be a good place for ospreys.

Study period: 1-5-2018 to 19-4-2019 (354 days) Data points recorded : 175,451


9 comments:

  1. Thanks for your detailed analysis of lots of data. It is fascinating learning about the wintering habits of the Kielder ospreys. Sally

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  2. This is wonderful, thank you! What a different life to the damp UK.

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  3. That was fascinating, easy to understand and thoroughly enjoyable , thank you . Jen

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  4. Thank you Paul for an amazing account of a single day in this birds life.

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  5. Good to hear from you Paul - funny, as it was only last week I was thinking that we hadn't heard from you for a while.

    I have to say your latest blog did surprise me regarding the choice of area Aln had chosen. I was always under the impression that Osprey were on the lazy side, choosing man made platform rather than building their own, and yet the bird in questions seems quite happy to live where challenges are greater than other spots.

    Of course, she wont be aware of an easier life elsewhere, and seems to meet the demands quite happily.

    Thanks Paul

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  6. Thank you for this fascinating insight into Aln's World. What an enigmatic and other-worldly place it is.
    I have been wondering, Paul, in view of the fact that Aln forages by dipping her talons in the water, whether this has been reflected in her behaviour in the UK so far. Visiting so many "ponds" rather than large bodies of water.
    In so far as this could be a possibility, could she be surviving on many smaller fish as opposed to the less frequent bigger fish of conventionally performing Ospreys, hence her tendency to move frequently/randomly from waterline to waterline, as illustrated by your previous graphics of her Winter activity.
    I am put in mind of reports that I have read on 30's activity (Rutland bird) in Africa ie. she basically has a perch on the coast, flies out to sea once or twice a day to fish, and that's it. No other activity. And that this energy conservation enables her seemingly effortless migrations.
    Could it be that Aln has not mastered hunting on the wing, although this would seem a highly unlikely survival strategy?

    Many thanks, Sal Lloyd

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    1. Sal: I have to emphasise that the behaviour is inferred from tracking data, rather than being directly observed. I was not actually there on that day, and neither was anyone else.

      I am quite sure that Aln already "knew" how to catch fish in the conventional way. We believe that osprey chicks are born with this as an instinctive ability, although there is no doubt that they get better at it with practice.

      We know she was hunting from the air during her stopover in Spain. The tracked movements of this activity are quite distinctive, but we saw far less of it during her time in Mauritania. The implication is that she was catching fish at water level or from a low perch - something that other ospreys have been seen to do in similar circumstances.

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  7. I wasn't previously aware of this kind of foraging behaviour, Paul, so thank you. It's a real buzz to keep learning about these birds.

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  8. Oops! Above post from Sal - forgot to click on reply

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