Jaws on location in South America
Jaws hit the Osprey jackpot when he found South America. Somewhat to our surprise, he stopped migrating almost as soon as he hit the continent. Below are some pictures of the habitat where he's spending his Osprey adolescence. Once we saw where he is, we realized that there was no reason for him to go any further. The pictures are "thumbnails" to save some download time for those on dial-up modems. When you click on the pictures, they'll expand. Hit the back button to return to the narrative on this page.
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By chance, his landfall was on the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia. This is the northernmost tip of the South American continent. He is almost in Venezuela, north of Lake Maracaibo. |
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Upon landfall, he discovered a
vast, shallow bay, Bahia Hondita. ("Honda" means deep, but the
"ita" suffix is diminuitive, so this is the not-so-deep deep bay).
In fact it's mostly only a meter or two (3-6 ft) deep. The shallow water is perfect for Ospreys
to hunt fish, and there appears to be plenty of them, as Jaws has not
budged from the bay since he arrived. The red areas in the satellite image
at left are extensive stands
of mangroves. |
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The BBC crew wanted some footage of Jaws in South America to
wrap up their documentary on his migration, so we sent a crew in to see if
they could find him. The habitat is surprising--a desert-like savannah
surrounds the bay. This is probably some sort of rain-shadow effect from
nearby mountains. |
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Armed with our telemetry receiver and directional antenna, Paul Salaman, an ornithologist working with the Colombian conservation group, Proaves, headed out into the bay... |
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...and found our bird! His transmitter is visible in this
shot. Jaws is not the only Osprey to have discovered this fishing hole. He
roosts with 6 or 7 other Ospreys in a stand of mangroves and apparently
horses around with the gang a bit before heading out to fish in the
morning.. |
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Paul took this amazing shot of Jaws diving to catch a fish. His feet are fully extended as he prepares to hit the water. In the far background are some of the many flamingos that share the bay with the Ospreys. |
| The BBC crew did go down in mid January
to film. They didn't have great luck--no close ups of Jaws, but they did
get some good footage of the lagoon and a brief shot of our camera-shy
Osprey flying by. The show is scheduled to air sometime in 2006. |