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Osprey update! January 2010 - New Year's Greetings to all!
The lone survivor of this year's crop of juveniles is Buck, our South Carolina bird. He's still in northern Venezuela, and still exploring, although he's got a couple of spots he keeps coming back to. Seems a bit like Claws. Penelope is doing fine down in French Guiana. She should be heading home in March or April. The three adult males are all fine and hunkered down in very localized areas. They should head north in February or March. Overall, the loss of the young is about what we expect, but we're delighted to have recovered 3 of the 6 transmitters that were on birds that died. That's pretty remarkable. All the birds have new maps: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/maps09/2009_map_links.htm
Dr.Rob Bierregaard
704 333 2405 Osprey Update - Late 2009
http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/maps09/2009_map_links.htm We also lost two other youngsters down in Venezuela. Isabel stopped transmitting on 21 Sept in central Venezuela. We had no clear idea of what happened to her. Then, mysteriously, about 6 weeks later her transmitter started sending signals again, but 50 miles south of her last location! Just like Hix and Katy, we have a pretty long series of signals from Isabel's transmitter, so we know exactly where it is (within about a 20m radius). Fortunately, the location is pretty accessible--about 5 miles outside of a small town in the state of Apure, and only a half mile from a decent looking road. I have a colleague in Venezuela who is willing to go out and try to find the transmitter. I'm fairly confident that he'll be able to locate it--and for only about $600. (If anyone wants to contribute to the recovery mission, you can effectively buy us a $4,150 transmitter for next year for only 600 tax-deductible bucks. Now, that's a deal. Let me know!) On the 3rd of November, we lost the signal from Bea, another MVY youngster. A month later we got a signal from Ciudad Bolivar, the capital of the state where the last transmission came from. Then just yesterday I got an email from the manufacturer of our transmitters saying that someone in Venezuela had tracked them down and was enquiring about our transmitter, which is safely in their hands. Indians shot the Bea and gave the band and transmitter to our new best friend down there. So we know what happened to Bea and we'll get that transmitter back for sure. So, of the 7 young Ospreys we tagged this year, 3 are doing fine (Moffett in Cuba, Buck in Ven, and Caley in Guyana) and we're probably going to get all 4 transmitters back from the 4 birds that died. I think Santa Claus came early this year. May your holidays be joyful and your migrations safe!
Dr. Rob Bierregaard http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard Twitter at: "ospreytrax"
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