Loch Garten osprey chicks both make it to Africa – Follow them on their route

Nethy, one of the 2008 chicks, wearing a satellite tag. Sadly neither of the 2008 chicks survived their first year. Credit RSPB.

The tags were fitted on 6 July and have transmitted data on the young bird's journey to West Africa, which so far seems to have gone well.

The two birds, both females called Rothes & Mallachie, have followed similar routes south. Rothes left first and flew down the west coast of Britain, and over the Irish Sea and crossed the south coast of England just east of Plymouth, Mallachie took a slightly more easterly route and left England near Portsmouth, almost a month behind her sister. Both birds flew past the western end of the Pyrenees and both left Spain near the border with Portugal.

Morocco
Rothes flew several hundred miles down the coast of Morocco before crossing onto a land based route, but Mallachie took a much shorter crossing and then flew over the Atlas Mountains into Algeria.

Depending on which direction Mallachie heads in next, she'll soon be into southern Morocco or Mauritania (or probably already is). Rothes meanwhile flew much closer to the coast and seems to have settled onto the islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau.

2-3 years in Africa
Both birds, assuming they survive, will spend 2-3 years in West Africa before returning to the UK for the first time.

Click here to follow the ospreys migration on the RSPB website