With the death of Ms. Charlotte on her spring migration in 2002, we were down to our last tagged Osprey in 2003.
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KC started his spring
migration in 2003 a day later than he did in 2002--on the 22nd of March.
At this point, as last year, many of his neighboring males had already
been on Martha's Vineyard for more than a week. He moved quickly through Cuba and up to the Savannah, GA, area by 6 Apr. At this point, he was only a day behind the 2002 pace. He then got to North Carolina and stopped moving for a while, perhaps waiting out some bad weather. He's now 6 days behind the 2002 pace. Once he got going again, he moved north quickly, getting to Connecticut around the 16th, now a week behind last year's schedule. Inexplicably, he then took more than a week to cover the last leg of the trip, arriving at his territory at the Felix Neck Sanctuary on the 25th. When he arrived, he was greeted by a usurper, perhaps the same bird that tried unsuccessfully to take over his territory in 2002. The ensuing battle lasted almost an hour and included the young bird grabbing KC when he was perched on the nest. The two fell 30 ft to the ground and only let go of one another when they hit the ground. Eventually, KC was driven from his territory, bleeding under his wing (see picture below), and was found dead a couple of weeks later. |
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In this dramatic photo, taken by Julian Robinson as the Battle for Felix Neck raged, one can see the blood on KC's left wing. |
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