Ceulan - He's Off..

Ceulan - He's Off..

Ceulan Migrates Monday, September 3rd

Ceulan has finally gone. He started the biggest journey of his life at 09:26 on Monday, September 3rd, and Alwyn actually saw him go. Al said he lifted off the low perch and quickly gained height, so much so, Al had never seen him that high before. At altitude, he circled the nest, then continuing to gain height, circled Cors Dyfi and the Dyfi Junction train platform before heading south. Even with his beloved 13 x 56 Minox, Al finally lost him a couple of miles down the valley. He'd gone, no question.

By 11:00, Ceulan was south of Aberystwyth at 630m, an hour later he was heading for the Brecon Beacons at 820m - over half a mile high. By 14:00 he left Wales for the first time heading southeast and an hour later he was right over Exmoor National Park. At 17:00, Ceulan was a few miles west of Exeter where he roosted and stayed the night.

© MWT - Ceulan migration tracking data, 03/09/2012

The following day, Ceulan was off at first light and had made it to Brittany by midday - much quicker than the Ferry. By 16:00, he was at a small island called Ile d'Groix off the southern coast of Brittany. Ceulan had a big decision to make here. Stay put for the night or continue south over the ocean. After a couple of hours of flying around Ile d'Groix, Ceulan took the latter option.

He crossed the Bay of Biscay in around 12 hours, flying most of it in darkness and with a north-east tail wind. He finally reached the northern coast of Spain at around 05:30 on Wednesday, September 5th. Despite flying through the night, Ceulan didn't stop and continued south until he crossed over to Portugal and finally settled in an area just south of Porto. He roosted here on the evening of Wednesday, September 5th.

© MWT  - Ceulan migration tracking data, 05/09/2012

Ceulan has flown over 900 miles between Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon - not bad for a 14 week old osprey whose longest journey before that was a 12 mile round trip to the River Ceulan.

Ceulan started his migration aged 97 days, a day younger than his brother and sister last year - Einion and Leri. Here's a photo I took of him aged 96 days, just a day before he left.

© MWT  - Ceulan

Ceulan. © MWT

We will update Ceulan's progress as soon as we can, weekends too, but please be patient. The data doesn't always come in when it should sometimes. You can follow Ceulan on Google Earth.