why avoid the NW coast of Africa?
We have not recorded any Ospreys flying along the coast of SW Morocco or Western Sahara. Why should they have a preference for flying across the desert rather than along the coast where, presumably, food would be more readily available? Nigel Cox and Graham Johnson of Warwickshire replied: Could the answer to your question be that it is easier for a bird to fly in hot thermals rather than turbulent coastal air? This does sound a plausible theory. Underlying it, is the assumption that migratory routes are determined by external physical factors. For Duncan Halley it is directional tendencies inherited from Scandinavian ancestors which are most important. (Click here to see Duncan’s views concerning the tendency to fly south west.) The Scottish (and by extension Rutland water) population of osprey are recently descended from Swedish/SE Norwegian stock , and so will have inherited for migration with c. 8000 years adaptation to surviving migration to and from Scandinavia. Scandinavian bird
