Introduction

Initial research on tracking the migrations of Scottish honey buzzards using satellite transmitters, involved two young in 2001 and one young in 2002, as well as the adult male of all three chicks in 2002. These birds were from a nest on Forestry Commission land near Inverness and provided very important information about the migration anomalies of young honey buzzards from Scotland. The male wintered successfully in Gabon, and his migration was accurately monitored to the wintering quarters, while one chick was tracked to Morocco before the battery ran out. The other two perished in the Atlantic Ocean after making southerly migrations with a westerly bias. Two young from southern England were also successfully tracked to West Africa in 2003. Unfortunately no suitable nests were located in the following years but in 2006 we are continued our research on these fascinating birds and two young were tracked to Africa. In 2007, it was a very wet summer and wasps were scarce - as were sightings of honey buzzards. In late August, I found one nest with a just fledged single chick.

In 2008, I located a nest in Moray in July and ringed two young on the 26th; the larger female chick was fitted with a Solar PTT100 satellite radio, to follow its migration click migration maps 2008. This summer, 2009, we have ringed and satellite tagged the two chicks from this nest, both transmitters are of the old non-GPS type so we should get data throuch the autumn and winter.

A Partnership Project between Forestry Commission, The Highland Foundation for Wildlife & The Highland Raptor Study Group