Ceulan - Four Months Old

Ceulan - Four Months Old

Four Months Old Today!

It's somebody's birthday today. Exactly four months ago on May 29th, we filmed this..

The first meal - Ceulan is the one with the lighter head

© MWT

It's almost unthinkable that this happened just four months ago, so much has happened since. Surviving the worst summer weather on record, migrating to Africa in record time - just 12 days from mid Wales to Senegal; no wonder he was in such a hurry. Mixing it up with 'celebs' in Sunday tabloids. To date, he has flown over 3,500 miles.

Ceulan has quickly settled in this area he has been in since September 15th, two weeks ago today. He initially favoured the north side of the Senegal River (geographically Mauritania), although for the last week or so he's been spending more time to the south, actually in Senegal itself.

© MWT  - Ceulan migration tracking data, Senegal

All these clusters of GPS points are within a radius of around 10 miles from a central point. I think it's fair to assume that Ceulan has mastered the art of fishing by now, and that he's been feeding well given his fairly conservative range of movement for the last fortnight.

Zooming in a little may explain Ceulan's preference for the south side of the great river. It is much less built up here with most of the land being used for arable crops, mostly rice. Of much greater interest to Ceulan (he does like apples, but not rice), there seems a well-connected network of waterways throughout the area. Some of these are natural tributaries of the Senegal River and Lac de Guiers, seven miles to the south. Some are man-made and serve as an irrigation system to the crops. Undoubtedly, these will contain plenty of fish.

South side - a network of natural and man-made waterways. Look how close to these Ceulan has been perching

MWT - Ceulan tracking data, Senegal

So, two weeks after arriving in this seemingly-favourable area, how long will Ceulan decide to stay here? The rainy season has more or less finished now in this part of Africa. Now comes the big dry-up. It won't rain again until next summer.

Only time will tell, of course, but for now, young Ceulan seems to be doing well and has found a good place to be for this part of his life. Was it Harold Wilson that said, "a week is a long time in politics"? Four months then, must be an eternity for an osprey.