Ozzie's estuary was drying out. March was the height of the dry season. Ozzie was seeing less Ospreys now, and less birds generally. The northward migration was on. But not for Ozzie, he was staying in Africa; he was too young to breed. Instead he needed to explore, find new hunting grounds. Good hunting grounds too, for he was in moult. The constant wear and tear that comes from plunging for fish had taken its toll on his feathers. His brown feathering was bleached paler by the sun and his smart cream feather tips had largely worn away. He now spent even more time grooming himself. Of course it was essential that Ozzie's moult didn't interfere with his hunting ability. His flight feathers could not be moulted quickly. Instead they were moulted one at a time, the next one not shed until the new one was fully grown.

In order to speed up the process the moult started in three different places in each wing instead of all in one place. The overlapping feathers meant that the gaps where the new feathers were growing barely affected his flying abilities. It would take Ozzie some years to replace all his original feathers, and, for the rest of his life he would be slowly moulting his feathers in rotation, stopping only during the migration. Once mature Ozzie would never have a feather more than two years old.