Links: Previous map for Della -- Next map for Della
'06 Maps for: Conanicus -- Della -- Erica -- Homer -- Jaws -- Lew -- Moshup
Birds of Prey page -- Osprey main page -- Migration page -- Home Page

18 Sept: Della is safe and sound in South America after a very long crossing of the Caribbean. This is the furthest west I've had a bird land in S.A. She took off from Cabo Beato in Hispaniola, as do almost all the Ospreys we've followed. But then she probably encountered some strong winds out of the east that pushed her pretty far west.       Prior to the Caribbean crossing, she left Cuba on the 15th and apparently made a pretty strange detour, backtracking from almost on Hispaniola to almost back to Cuba. These locations aren't the most accurate, but the way they line up so neatly suggests they're not random errors in the data. If those points are right, she was going about 30 mph, which might mean she ran into a really strong headwind and just turned around and went with the flow.      We don't know when she left Hispaniola. Our first fix for her out over the Caribbean was around 1PM on the 18th. She landed sometime around 10PM, well after dark down there.      The long leg from Hispaniola to the first point on the 18th is 483 mi (778 km). She would have been on land at this point if she'd flown due south. From there she flew another 147 mi (237 km) to the coast of South America.       In 13 days she made it from Delaware to South America, covering 2826 mi (4857 km), for an average daily trip of 217 mi (350 km). And she did it the hard way!

Birds of Prey page -- Osprey main page -- Migration page -- Home Page