"Cousteau" is in the wintering area

This national park covers about 40% of the 180,000 hectares that has the entire Delta Sine-Saloum, a network of channels of brackish water with more than 200 islands, vast mangrove forests and Atlantic coastal areas. It is a protected natural area known for its great diversity and abundance of waterfowl. Certainly it is a nice wintering habitat for our osprey.

Although the Delta of the Sine-Saloum is a perfect environment for wintering, Cousteau decided on Saturday, September 24, for further traveling south. At 13:00 he flight over Banjul, the Gambian capital, and crossed to southern Senegal, a region where the confluence of the Casamance River with the Atlantic Ocean creates a real tangle of islands, canals and mangrove forests. There Cousteau spent the night on the edge of an arm of the river, after traveling 115 km. On sunday changed course heading west, towards Ziguinchor, the main city of the region. After traveling just about 80 km, it sought a safe sleeping on the banks of one of the arms of the Casamance River.

The next day he stepped back a few kms downstream. Some positions at low altitude and speed seemed to indicate that was fishing and/or that he was looking for or perhaps already had found a good place for wintering. On Thursday, September 29, remained in the same area, so it seems that has finally found a place for wintering, at 3600 km from the Basque Country, his adopted home.

Young osprey compete with adults for the best fishing areas, so they are forced most of the time to take up less optimal areas what can eventually result in a lower rate of survival. The dangers that the ospreys must face during migration and wintering determine that more than 80% of the juveniles die during the first two years of life. If Cousteau is able to survive it will remain in Africa a couple of winters to return for the first time to the north of the Iberian Peninsula in the spring of 2018. Once there he will start searching for territory and female to reproduce a few years later. Hopefully it succeeds!