This photo of Paith was taken by Bernard Lagadec on 6^th September – we only heard of this sighting yesterday. This is 8-days after we last saw her on the Dyfi.

Voilà...

Anse de Combrit is around 320 miles (515 kilometres), as-the-osprey-flies, from the Dyfi, directly south.

Paith was the youngest of the three chicks this year, we last saw her on 29^th August when she was 93.1 days old. Paith was a big bird, weighing 1830g when we ringed her. In fact, of our three offspring this year, Paith was the only one that started her migration anywhere near the average age. 

He older brother, Pedran, left at a record-breaking 77-days old, whilst her older sister, Padarn, stayed on at the Dyfi until she was 109-days. We thought she'd never go!

Here's a reminder of the key stats for the 2022 season:

Why was Paith in Brittany?

Well, this is exactly where you'd expect her to be, really. Remember that the dates we record our birds leaving are the last confirmed times/dates we see them - Paith could have been dawdling around the Dyfi for a few more days without returning to the nest.

She could equally have made it to Brittany in just a couple of days with an overnight stop-over on the south coast of Devon or Cornwall.

We don't know how long Paith stayed on for in Brittany (edit: Bernard has just emailed; he said he recorded Paith at this location for two days), nor whether she resumed her journey south by flying directly over the Bay of Biscay or hugging the western coast of France. She will by now, hopefully, be where she needs to be.

And Finally

So Paith is the second (of three) of our offspring this year to have been re-spotted on their migration. The other, Pedran, was seen in Northumberland 15-days after leaving early on 11^th August.

However, we've never had a report of any of our birds from Africa since the 2011-12 birds that were tracked. I'm surprised at that.

We know they're surviving, as we have a very good return rate. At least one offspring has returned from each year since 2013, many of them having successfully bred. This is a phenomenal record - and these birds are just the ones we know about. There will be others out there, especially females, which are harder to record.

Many thanks to Bernard Lagadec for sending us his photos of Paith on her travels. Here are some photos of Anse de Combrit that Bernard sent over where he photographed our girl.

Trugarez vras, Bernard.