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THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST IN THE ESTUARY OF NALON.
| Fecha: 14/01/2010 | |
 Pincha aquí para ver la noticia en Español.  Meet the New Osprey inverning in Asturias. It comes from Germany and we assume it has been spending winters in the Cantabrian Coast; so far, nobody has been able to read its ring.  And this is the scenario where it moves: the estuary of river Nalon, in the vicinity of Soto del Barco. BUT.... LET'S BREAK THIS DOWN...... What is the place of a German tourist in the North of Spain in broad winter? Wouldn’t it be better in Mallorca? According to this and the title of the news, everything leads us to think that our visitor has arrived here in an eventual way, but it is an osprey, so this eventuality can’t be true. We could think that, like in Anne Tyler’s novel, it is travelling for “work reasons”, not for pleasure, it has the obligation of going on living. And it seems that, the choice of Low Nalon as a wintering place has been a total success, because we have heard this item, will be 14 years old in a short time.  Since we started the inverning items census, in 2007, enclosed in “Research of Viability of Reintroduction for the osprey in Asturias”, we had heard about the presence of some individuals (in an intermittent way) in Nalon; we could definitely test it last 17th December.  It was about 12:00 am when we saw it. He had taken the opportunity of the rising tide for fishing. It was an adult osprey feeding in one of the power poles near the mouth. This was our lucky day, because it was also ringed!   The power pole used by the osprey, is at the bottom of a ground path, through which people and cars pass, so we think the osprey is only using this part of the river to fish and feed.  And when disturbed, it vanishes as if magic, among the dense sides of the cloudy river. We weren’t able to read the ring until 30th December at 9:00 am, when we saw it again on its usual perch. We had suitable light condition, so we could approach to decode the number of the ring on its RIGHT LEG.  Apart from stating that the ring was green, we could check that letters MF (in zig-zag, white) were engraved. It must be read "FM" LEFT LEG with a metal ring with a flap. So we only had to start to find out to know where it had been ringed.  Christof Herrmann, responsible for the Conservation of Wild fauna in the region of Mecklenburg-Vorppommern, was the person who informed us that our osprey was one of the many items that had been ringed by the experienced naturalist Dietrich Roepke, in the North of Germany (and I think they are more than 2500 ....).  On the picture Dietrich Roepke, and Christof Herrmann at the back.  The osprey in Nalon was ringed as a nestling on 2nd July 1996, in a nest built on an old oak. Since then, nothing more about it was known. So we can guess it doesn’t breed in this German region (they have an exhaustive nest control, and it is quite unlikely it has been unnoticed by birdwatchers). The nest is no longer here, but this is where it used to be at the National Park of Murïtz, in the middle of the way between Berlin and Rostock.   Distance between Murïtz and river Nalon . WE ARE ALSO ACCIDENTAL TOURISTS.     |
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