The Galician adventure of Glen, the Welsh fish eagle migrating to Ghana

Image courtesy of Conservation Without Borders

Glen

travels from Scotland via Galicia to escape the harsh Atlantic winds, while migrating to Ghana.

This osprey has landed in A Coruña, flutters along the north coast and takes refuge in Cariño, Ortigueira, or in San Andrés de Teixido, where food and shelter abound, after being left for dead, as its movements are observed minute by minute. to minute

An international group of scientists analyzes the movement of this bird using a GPS that tracks the journey of more than 7,000 kilometers to warmer climates for the winter.

's signal

before discovering that she took a break on fishing boats to rest before landing in Galicia and gather strength before continuing her journey.

Many Galicians do not know that what flies over their heads has kept a cast of specialists awake at night.

The ornithologist Sacha Dench, who leads the team of experts that accompanies

and that make up the Conservation Without Borders association, snorts with relief as she recounts the adventures of the eaglet, who was born this year and undertakes the very long journey south for the first time.

The specialist explains that this species was practically extinct in the United Kingdom until the winds and changes in routine brought these eagles back to those latitudes from the Scandinavian countries.

The problem: instinct.

"These birds are used to flying from Sweden and nearby areas, so when they leave Scotland they tend to go west, where they encounter very strong winds that endanger the journey, which lasts weeks," explains Dench from Spain. , since the entourage accompanies the route of its object of study by car.

This change of route causes bad news such as that of

, another monitored eagle that, despite trying to reach Africa, lost its way and landed in the Republic of Ireland, to the northwest, before falling in battle.

he was luckier: his GPS positioning lines show fluctuations in the ocean before returning to the coast of Portugal, a good gastronomic destination to recover steam before heading towards the African skies.

glen

also appears in the chapter of the blessed.

The eight people who study his flight smiled when, after losing sight of him for two days, he reappeared on radar, but something strange happened.

The bird went up and down in straight lines, a strange routine for her, until they concluded that it must have stopped on a ship to rest.

Naval route investigations revealed that he landed on two Greek fishing boats before returning to Galician lands.

That is where it moves these days, they verify thanks to a system placed in a kind of backpack attached to the animal's back and with a mini solar panel so that it is self-sufficient and sends information by satellite.

In Galicia they have discovered that no matter how many gusts of wind arrive, less than the 90 kilometers per hour that can blow on the Atlantic route,

The scientist, known as "The Human Swan" for her extensive work on birds, details that barely 30% of the specimens make it through the first migration, before detecting the keys to doing it safely and, year after year, successfully repeating it.

“A four-year-old adult specimen that we have been following for a long time stops forever on a specific branch of a tree in Ghana,” Dench illustrates about the enormous capacity of this species to move with a specific destination.

To do this, they feed on freshwater or saltwater fish, without distinction, which collides with one of the lines of analysis of these conservationists: climate change.

"Drought makes it very difficult for them to fish in wetlands with hardly any water, highly affected by pesticides, by the high concentration of toxins or bacteria that poison their prey," laments the specialist, who warns that ospreys or any of their congeners that migrate to the south can die "exhausted" for not achieving sustenance to continue flying.

Success also depends on the wind currents, because if they manage to enter one of them they save energy because they are dedicated to gliding, but they can run into another enemy: fires.

“The fire creates smoke that birds pass through thinking they are clouds, which they are used to,” adds Dench, who hopes to head to Morocco soon, where another ornithologist is waiting, before heading to central Africa, where

and company will live until March, when they will start the return trip if all goes well.

Until then, they will continue to monitor

's flights , which he has refueled at As Pontes Lake (Coruña), like one more tourist who wants fish and tranquility before taking flight.

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