The first of Northumberland’s batch of ospreys to hatch this season has left on his challenging migration journey – and has been spotted taking an overnight break in Barcelona.
Frankham is one of four youngsters from nest 1A at Kielder and was named after a fell near Hexham. He was photographed by Spanish birdwatcher Ferran Lopez on the Llobregat river delta at Barcelona. The Llobregat is the second longest river in Catalonia.
He was the first juvenile to leave Kielder this season and to reach Barcelona has averaged almost 90km a day. Most UK ospreys head for Senegal or The Gambia in West Africa, although some over-winter in Spain and Portugal.
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“It is brilliant that Frankham has been seen. He did leave Kielder very early and so was taking a chance but it looks like he was in good condition,” said Kielder osprey observer Joanna Dailey.
All this year’s Kielder youngsters are named after locations in Northumberland beginning with F. A total of 14 have fledged from six productive nests. According to Joanna, it is likely that youngsters Falstone, Fenham and Farnley have left on migration.
The adult females usually start their migration first while the males stay behind to continue to supply fish for their offspring until the youngsters leave. Nest 1A has provided most of the drama at Kielder this year. It was the only nest to have four eggs, and the last bird to hatch, called Farne, suffered constant bullying from one of its siblings which deprived it of food.
Although underweight and underdeveloped, Farne surprisingly survived to the fledging stage, along with Frankham, Falstone and Fenham. But then their father, YA, went missing and is now presumed to have died after some mishap.
YA had been raising chicks at Kielder since 2013 with his current mate and first bred the year before with a female who failed to return from migration the next season. YA raised 26 offspring to fledging – more than a quarter of the total output for the Kielder colony - since breeding began in 2009.
After his loss, Mrs YA brought fish for the family but Farne once again was subject to feeding time bullying. After being the last of the four youngsters to leave the nest on its first flight, Farne has not been since since and is unlikely to have survived.
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