The “last two standing”, Cactus (F24) and Cèpe (F15), finally migrated on September 17, ending the 2019 Osprey season at Bellechasse. They nearly matched the record for the latest departures since the start of the project, when two young left on September 19, 2015.

Cactus was the last to fledge on August 12, while Cèpe was one of the first to be released, on July 19. Which meant that he established the record of spending the longest time between release and migration, i.e. 60 days (the previous record was 49 days, by PR1 in 2016).

Interesting is that the 2019 final departures were quite like those of 2015. That year the last male (PP4) seemed to wait until the youngest female (PP1) finally decided to leave. This summer we had the impression that Cèpe (photographed on September 8 by Adrian Schmid in Hagneck) was just waiting for Cactus (also the youngest female) to leave before finally taking the big leap himself.

Thanks to a fantastic osprey team working non-stop to take care of our birds, 2019 has been a great year, with all 12 chicks successfully reared, released and migrating. All we can do now is wish them safe travels and look forward to as many of them as possible returning in 2-3 years.