Following the osprey by Senegal
| Sunday, 23 February 2014 19:27 |
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Next Wednesday, 26th of February at 19:00, Urdaibai Bird Center will give a conference about the following-up works in West Africa of one of the satellite transmitter marked ospreys this summer in Urdaibai. In this trip, carried out during his holiday period, Aitor Galarza, head of the osprey´s recovery project in Urdaibai, describes his journey and his experiences along African lands following one of the 12 ospreys released this summer in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. Urdaibai starts her migration the 15th of September The 15th of September, Urdaibai, one of the ospreys in the recovery project of this species in Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, started her first migration towards the wintering area.
Urdaibai is one of the twelve ospreys brought from Scotland to Urdaibai
In early August she made her first flight and she left the hacking tower
Urdaibai with Mundaka at the bottom 14 days later, after having crossed the strait of Gibraltar and the Sahara desert, she arrived to the coast of Senegal. Last Christmas, the head of the project, Aitor Galarza, together with a small group of friends, travelled to Senegal in order to enjoy his holidays while they tried to locate Urdaibai in situ. The goal didn´t seem to be easy although Aitor had had precise information provided by the ARGOS satellite. A small extract of the journey is given below. 29th of December 2013 At noon we left Dakar, capital of Senegal. Our immediate destination is Ponto, a small fishing village where close to it is wintering Urdaibai, one of the ospreys of the recovery project released this year in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. The coast road goes straight through the savannah, dominated by grasslands and meadows, alternating with patches of low-growing acacia, where are remarkable for its size and beauty, the majestic baobas, that splash the landscape.
Centenarian baobabs (Adansonia digitata) next to the road Dakar-M'bour We have recently crossed M'bour, the second most important fishing port of the country. As in all of the settlements in Senegal, its main streets are noisy and messy. They are crowded of shops, garages and stands of fruits and food, which are surrounded by people that is shopping, doing business or simply chatting, lost in the traffic chaos caused by the heavy traffic of trucks, taxis and carts. Outside of M'bour, we discover a large flock of vultures along the road taking notice of the remains of a horse. Besides of the griffon vulture, which is abundant in the Iberian peninsula and it´s only a visitor in this area, feed on the doping, other two species of similar size as the Ruppel´s vulture (Gyps rueppellii) and White-backed Vulture, (Gyps africanus) and some other specimens of the Hooded vulture, (Necrosyrtes monachus) and the Lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotus).
Vultures eating carrion South of Nianing the road passes through a dense forest of young acacias where we observe a large group of Patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), and a flock of Helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), where we also observe a Northern red-billed hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus).
Patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas)
Northern red-billed hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus). A narrow road without directions on it arises on the right, which we intuit that could get us down to Ponto. A couple of kilometers more and we reach the first houses of the village.
A street in Ponto (Punta Sarene) After crossing the streets, we take a track that runs parallel to the beach and gives the access to a couple of inhabited houses and a hotel provided of bungalows that seem to be abandoned placed 1 km far away from the village.
Arrival to the coastal stretch where Urdaibai is wintering At the car park we saw a huge Savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus), over one meter long that was going into the undergrowth. The beach is really big, over 10 kilometers from Point Sarene until Mbodiene, where the river flows.
Inlet of Punta Sarene. Place where Urdaibai uses to fish
Carrying a boat in Joel
Western Reef Heron (Egretta gularis)
Abyssinian roller (Coracias abyssinicus)
Pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) In the back, far away from the coastline, 3 ospreys fly around over the sea. Timing their activity, we realized that more than fifteen minutes of flapping flight were needed by the ospreys in order to capture a fish, which is a lower fishing efficiency comparing with the timing recorded in Urdaibai, which really attracts our attention. Despite the fish abundance in this coast, the sea condition and the wind certainly make harder watching the fish, decreasing the fishing success of the ospreys. Behind the beach, there is an important area of mud inland, result of the flooding of the river during the rainy season.
Mud behind the sand. At the bottom one of the baobabs that Urdaibai uses as perch In this season of the year the mud is partially dried and we can distinguish on it the footprints of a hyena and a couple of jackals.
Footprint of a Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) on the mud Seven ospreys are perched on the mud. Rapidly we place the telescope, expecting that one of them could be Urdaibai. One is ringed, probably is Scottish but the intense reverberation complicating the ring reading although the distance is quite small.
A ringed Osprey resting on the mud It is 18:00 pm, soon will get dark and none of the ospreys we are seeing is Urdaibai. We are disappointed and we plan to try it again the following day, but first we have to find a lodging, so we go to Joal, located less than a half an hour from Ponto. Joal is the hometown of Sédar Senghor, the first president of the country (1960-1980) and a renowned poet. A few meters after crossing a pedestrian bridge is Fadiouth, a mainly Christian village built on an island and surrounded by mangroves and marshy areas. Located also in an island close to the town stands out the cemetery for its beauty and originality. The white colour of the millions of shells contrast with the dark of the baobabs that grow in the island.
Christian cemetery in Fadiouth 30th of December 2013 It is still night when we left Joal in early morning. Thanks to the information we get from the ARGOS satellite, we know that Urdaibai uses to sleep not so far from the road, so we go over the last kilometres of the road carefully finding, despite of the lack of light, the silhouette of the bird.
On a support of a power line we could see an osprey silhouette. We park the car quickly, we prepare the telescopes and... the eagle notice our presence and she flies. Would be she Urdaibai? Impossible to know as we haven't had enough time nor light to distinguish if the eagle has rings or antenna. Begins to get light so we headed to the beach where we were yesterday. At 7:30 am we park next to the hotel. Will be Urdaibai there? The first thing from the car is to watch through our binoculars towards the jetty, as we already know that is one of her favourites perches. The jetty is still far but on the railling we could clearly see a silhouette of an osprey.
The jetty which usually uses Urdaibai as perch
At the end of the jetty is perch Urdaibai, resting Exciting. Will be Urdaibai? This time it seems that she is!! Through the telescope we can clearly see the antenna of the transmitter that stands out of her feathers of the back.
Urdaibai next to a Little Egret Despite of the distance we take some photos, in case she decides to fly. Slowly and hiding between the palm trees we approach to the jetty. She seems calm. There is nobody on the beach, but a young boy goes jogging towards the jetty and once he arrives he turns around to go back again to the town along the beach. Urdaibai doesn't seem scared and she only does a small flight to another part of the railling. Encouraged by this, we approach to the beginning of the jetty. We are just some meters far from her and Urdaibai doesn't seem worried. While we are taking pictures and we also filming her, we distinguish clearly the yellow ring with the inscription N1 that identifies her.
Urdaibai watches us with curiosity. It seems that she recognizes us At 8.19 am she leaves the jetty and she dives into the water 500 meters from the beach. Success! Urdaibai has captured a big fish in only three minutes, so apparently she has great skills to fish, which increases without a doubt the probability to survive and to return to the Reserve of Urdaibai. After having fish, Urdaibai flies directly inland, but we cannot follow her with our binoculars as the palm trees impede us.
Watching the fishing skills she has from the jetty We headed towards the mud area it is behind the beach, where we see three ospreys perched directly on the mud. None of them is eating, so none of them can be Urdaibai. So far away, there is a specimen perched on a baobab. Either has a fish. Definitely we have lost her. We are curious to know where she has perched to eat and also where she has slept tonight. We must wait to go home and to check the information given by the ARGOS satellite. In any case, it has been a very exciting beginning for these holidays in Senegal. Next days we will visit the National Park of Saloum Delta in the south, which together with rest of this coast, is one of the most important wintering area in all over the world for ospreys. And more inland we will visit the National Park of Niokolo Koba, which is the last refuge for big mammals in Western Africa. Once we are at home, we check through the ARGOS satellite that Urdaibai remains in the same points where Aitor and his friends left her. Today, 2014/02/23, she was perched on the railling in the jetty, and in the afternoon she has gone inland towards her resting place. As we have seen, the place seems very peaceful, which gives us hope that Urdaibai can spend a period in the place before coming to us. Good luck! |
