In last week's Dulas blog, we mentioned the risk of the water system he was on drying up. Yesterday morning at 11.00, Dulas started to fly west from this area that he had been in for the last seven weeks - was this area actually drying up and making fishing difficult for him? We know that the rainy season this year has been particularly short, which usually results in the bringing forward of the dry season to October and November.

Here is the average rainfall for Gambia, the next significant rain is eight months away:

By 16.00, Dulas had reached the Atlantic coast, having flown around 130 miles during the afternoon of November 15th following the Gambia River. If he would have turned right and flown north, there's a good chance he would have encountered his brother Einion - he's only 90 miles up the coast. Instead he decided to turn south by Banjul and by late afternoon had just crossed the border from Gambia to Senegal.

This is the last GPS position we have for him - we won't get another download now for five days as his tracker transmission schedule changes to winter mode today: every five days now until March 14th. How frustrating! If he keeps going in this direction, Dulas is only around 30 miles away from a huge river and mangrove area of southwest Senegal on the great Casamance River. It looks ideal habitat for ospreys - let's hope he makes it and continues south.