Thatch - 2011
'09 maps for: Bea -- Buck -- Caley -- Claws -- Conomo -- Hix -- Hudson 09 -- Isabel -- Katy -- L.R. --
Moffet -- Mr. Hannah -- Ozzie -- Penelope -- Rafael
2010 maps for: Belle -- Buck -- Gunny -- Hudson -- Mr. Hannah -- Neale -- North Fork Bob -- Penelope -- Sanford -- Sr. Bones -- Thatch
2011 maps: Belle -- Buck -- Henrietta -- Katbird -- North Fork Bob -- Pemi -- Saco -- Sanford -- Sr. Bones -- Snowy -- Thatch -- Tucker
2012 maps: Art -- Belle -- Bridger -- Chip -- Cutch -- Jill -- North Fork Bob -- Rammie -- Snowy -- Sr. Bones -- Thatch
2013 maps: Art -- Belle -- Bridger -- North Fork Bob -- Rammie -- Snowy -- Sr. Bones
Osprey main page -- Migration page -- Migration09 -- Migration10 -- Migration 11 -- Migration 12 -- Migration 13 -- Home Page

	12 Dec 2010 - 27 July 2011.      Thatch moved around in an area 180 mi. (290 km) across. He has currently settled down for a couple of months where you see the dense cluster of points at the end of the last arrow.      The forests along the rivers in Amazonia are drastically seasonal. At high water in the rainy season, the river overflows its banks and floods the forest for miles. An entire community of fish exist that has evolved to exploit fruits from trees in these flooded ('varzea' in white-water areas and 'igapo' in black water).      We have seen Ospreys that winter along the Amazon move around quite a bit over the course of the year, presumably in reaction to changes in the availability of fish related to changes in the river level.
	1-31 Jan 2011.      Thatch moved upriver a bit (35 miles/56 km) to a small lake on the south shore of the Solimoes (Amazon) River. We had another bird (also from Delaware, coincidentally) winter on the Amazon. Over the course of her 14 months or so on the Amazon she moved around quite a bit. This is probably because the whole ecosystem changes radically as the Solimoes rises and falls through the annual dry season/wet season cycle. At high water, the river floods into the forests for miles. One can paddle a canoe through the flooded forest. Below the water, as one weaves through the trees one can see the shrub layer of the forest deep under the water.
	1-28 Feb 2011.      Thatch is doing what lots of young Ospreys do--explore the countryside. Some birds get lucky and find a perfect spot on their first stop, but others will shop around. Most are pretty settled down by this point in their first winter, but one bird (Claws) never did stop moving around.
	6-26 Feb 2011.      Thatch found this lake to his liking for 3 weeks, but seems to have a limited attention span. Teenagers!
	26-28 Feb 2011.            Thatch apparently found good fishing in a couple of lakes north of the Solimoes, where he spent the last couple of days of February.      He'll come back to these lakes a lot later in the year.
	1-31 Mar 2011.      Thatch wandered up to the Japura and then returned to his lake area. On the 19th he made a move of about 60 mi. (100 km) to the west. At the end of the month he found a spot much to his liking.
	1-30 Apr 2011.      Thatch settled down in this new area for a whole month. This would be a transitional time for the river, with water levels falling.
	1-31 May 2011.      On 18 May he decided to go downriver back to his lakes a few miles east of the Solimoes.
	20-31 May 2011.      A closer view of the last 10 days of the month. Thatch shuttled back and forth between the river and his inland lakes.
	1-30 June 2011.      The fishing is good here, apparently.
	1-31 July 2011.      He ate all the fish up there by late July and decided for a change of venue on the 23rd.
	1-31 Aug 2011.      Another move. This after 18 days on the Jurua. He's now back at a lake he knows from earlier this year.
	1-10 Aug 2011.      Details of the first spot. He spent some time at a cool oxbow lake.
	10-31 Aug 2011.      Detailed locations for the rest of the month. Back to a favorite lake.
	1-30 Sep 2011.      Thatch spent the month almost entirely at the north end of this lake just west of Uarini.
	1-29 Oct 2011.      Thatch is still liking the fishing here.      About 5-6 months before he heads north for the first time.
	1-30 Nov 2011.      Thatch is hunkered down. With the exception of four forays away from the lake, it was a very boring (=safe!) month. The less our birds move around, the less chance they have of running into someone with a gun and an appetite for fishy meat.
	1-31 Dec 2011.      Out of nowhere, Thatch decided to make a big road trip. It was a 10-day, 200 mile junket up the Rio Amazonas.      Apparently he wasn't impressed.
	1-31 Jan 2012.      Thatch's New Years' resolution: I think I should explore more and not be satisfied with just the same old same old....      So it's back upriver for our intrepid teenager.
	1-29 Feb 2012.      Thatch is exploring new territory here. He's never been this far west.      It's very unusual for a bird that's been down on the wintering grounds to explore new countryside more than a year after arriving.
	Mid February 2012.      I just love looking at the intricate and almost abstract patterns that the big rivers etch through the landscape of Amazonia. The lake where Thatch spent a few days in February was once, thousands of years ago, a loop of the Amazon, which is now 15 miles southwest of this lake.
	1 Jan - 29 Feb 2012.      Here's his track for January and February.
	Nov 2010 - Feb 2012.      This map shows all of Thatch's travels for the 15 months he has spent along the Amazon River.      He should be heading north in April or May.