2014 Mid-Atlantic Fall Migration
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Fall Migration (20 Aug - 31 Oct)Watch the yellow dot (Ron) as you use the time slider!Use the slider at the bottom of the interactive map to animate the birds' movements.See 2014 Winter map for subsequent data.The players (in order of migration start):
Ron (yellow) DC adult male-24 Aug. Crabby (blue), Chesapeake Bay female-25 Aug. Woody (red), Chesapeake Bay male-6 Sep. Nick (pink), Chesapeake Bay male-12 Sep ???. Quin (green), Chesapeake male-26 Sep.
Notes: I recently noticed that the colors can show up differently on different browsers. Hover the cursor over a dot to see which bird is which. Click on it for location details You can zoom in and out and move the map around. If you slide a birds marker along its path, you'll see where the other birds were when your bird was wherever you have the marker. You can also use the calendar to see where all the birds were on a given date. Scroll down for details.
Go to Individual Bios |
Udates:
15 November:
Crabby (young adult female from Kent Island, MD) spent 10 days at Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela and completely faked me out. I thought she would winter there. Wrong, big time! She made a marathon sprint across Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname and is now in French Guiana. I have a feeling that this might be her wintering area. Last signal from her was on 5 Oct. If she were wearing a satellite PTT, we'd be worried, but she's a cell-tower bird, so she's probably OK and just out of range.
Woody (adult male tagged in 2013 near Annapolis, MD) is back on his winter waters in northwestern Venezuela, just west of Lake Maracaibo. He made the trip in 15 days, with no stopovers. His roost-to-roost distance traveled was 2,426 miles (3,905 km). The actual path he took was 2,964 miles (4,769 km).
Quin (adult male tagged in 2013 on Tangiers, VA) last emailed on 1 Oct in southern Florida. He's somewhere in cell-tower never-never land.
"Wrong-way Ron" (adult male tagged in Washington, DC, in the shadows of the Nationals' baseball stadium) is bummed that the Nationals didn't get a chance to play for the National League pennant. But he's glad to be across the Caribbean, Venezuela and half of the Amazonian rainforest. He's now back on his wintering waters near the Amazon River in western Brazil. His travel this fall was the most bizarre thing we've ever seen a migrating Osprey do. Almost a third of the way through his migration, he turned around and went all the way back to DC! Then he started again. The false start added 2,655 miles (3,951 km) to the Osprey-ometer. His total travel this fall was 6,247 miles (10,053 km). From start to finish, his migration took 55 days, with 14 of them in stopovers.
No word from Nick since 12 September, when he was still on Tangiers Island. That's a bit worrisome. If he were OK, I'd have expected at least some word from him. As well, his wintering area last year was cell-tower accessible, and he should be there by now, so I'm afraid it doesn't look good for him.
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Updates below are in chronological order.
3 September:
Crabby, an unmated female tagged this spring, left Kent Island on 25 Aug. She got to Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela on 15 Sep. I thought she'd stay there after she spent almost a week, but on the 21st she was off again, heading east.
Across the Bay from Kent Island, Woody, tagged in 2013 near Annapolis, MD, started migrating on 6 Sep. 2 weeks later he was back at his wintering waters just west of Lake Maracaibo in northern Venezuela.
Further south in the Bay on Tangiers Island, Nick dropped off the map in early September. I suspect he's migrating somewhere. It's surprising that birds can make it through the southeastern US without finding a cell tower, but it does happen. His neighbor Quin is still on the island.
West of the Bay, in Washington, DC, Ron is on his second trip south in the same fall. After making it half way across the Florida Straits to Cuba only to retreat all the way back to DC, he's at it again. The first trip started on 24 August. He was back on 4 September! Then it was off again on the 12th. A week later he was back in southernmost Florida. Apparently, this time he remembered his passport, because he's now in Cuba!
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25 September:
Down south on the Chesapeake, Crabby, an unmated female tagged this spring, left Kent Island on 25 Aug. She got to Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela on 15 Sep. I thought she'd stay there after she spent almost a week, but on the 21st she was off again, heading east.
Across the Bay from Kent Island, Woody, tagged in 2013 near Annapolis, MD, started migrating on 6 Sep. 2 weeks later he was back at his wintering waters just west of Lake Maracaibo in northern Venezuela.
Further south in the Bay on Tangiers Island, Nick dropped off the map in early September. I suspect he's migrating somewhere. It's surprising that birds can make it through the southeastern US without finding a cell tower, but it does happen. His neighbor Quin is still on the island.
West of the Bay, in Washington, DC, Ron is on his second trip south in the same fall. After making it half way across the Florida Straits to Cuba only to retreat all the way back to DC, he's at it again. The first trip started on 24 August. He was back on 4 September! Then it was off again on the 12th. A week later he was back in southernmost Florida. Apparently, this time he remembered his passport, because he's now in Cuba!
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1 October:
Quin finally got going on 26 September. 4 days later he was down in Florida, about 50 mi (80 km) north of Miami.
Ron finally made it to Cuba on his second try (after almost getting there and going all the way back to DC!) on the 21st. On the 26th he arrived at the Cauto del Paso Reservoir about 300 miles (500 km) southeast of where he made landfall. He's been resting and fueling up there for 5 days.
Woody is safe and sound in Venezuela, right where he was last winter near the southwest corner of Lake Maracaibo.
Crabby is on a marathon move across northern South America. She left Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela on the 21st, 6 days after arriving there. I thought she would spend the winter there, but not even close. She left Venezuela and entered Guyana on the 29th. The next day she crossed the Courantyne River (I'd never heard of that one!) and moved into Surinam (formerly Dutch Guiana).
Nick has been off the radar for about three weeks. I hope he's just been dodging cell towers and will show up eventually.
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10 October:
Crabby (young adult female from Kent Island, MD) spent 10 days at Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela and completely faked me out. I thought she would winter there. Wrong, big time! She made a marathon sprint across Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname and is now in French Guiana. I have a feeling that this might be her wintering area. Last signal from her was on 5 Oct. If she were wearing a satellite PTT, we'd be worried, but she's a cell-tower bird, so she's probably OK and just out of range.
Woody (adult male tagged in 2013 near Annapolis, MD) is back on his winter waters in northwestern Venezuela, just west of Lake Maracaibo.
Quin (adult male tagged in 2013 on Tangiers, VA) last emailed on 1 Oct in southern Florida. He's somewhere in cell-tower never-never land.
"Wrong-way Ron" (adult male tagged in Washington, DC) is bummed that the Nationals didn't get a chance to play for the National League pennant. But he's glad to be across the Caribbean in northwestern Venezuela. He has crossed over the Cordillera Oriental (eastern range) of the Andes into the llanos--the vast, seasonally flooded grasslands of central Venezuela. He's heading for the Amazon River, so he still has a ways to go.
No word from Nick since 12 September.
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20 October:
Crabby (young adult female from Kent Island, MD) spent 10 days at Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela and completely faked me out. I thought she would winter there. Wrong, big time! She made a marathon sprint across Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname and was last heard from in French Guiana. I had a feeling that this might be her wintering area. Last signal from her was on 5 Oct. If she were wearing a satellite PTT, we'd be worried, but she's a cell-tower bird, so she's probably OK and just out of range. It's now been 2 weeks since we heard from her, so I suspect she's moved on. (There's some cool stuff on her map pages.)
Woody (adult male tagged in 2013 near Annapolis, MD) is back on his winter waters in northwestern Venezuela, just west of Lake Maracaibo.
Quin (adult male tagged in 2013 on Tangiers, VA) last emailed on 1 Oct in southern Florida. He's somewhere in cell-tower never-never land.
"Wrong-way Ron" (adult male tagged in Washington, DC) is bummed that the Nationals didn't get a chance to play for the National League pennant (his nest is practically in the shadows of the baseball stadium). But he's glad to be across the Caribbean in northwestern Venezuela. He has crossed over the Cordillera Oriental (eastern range) of the Andes and the llanos--the vast, seasonally flooded grasslands of central Venezuela. He's now back on the Amazon, and should be settled down for the winter. He arrived on 17 October.
No word from Nick (adult male tagged on Tangiers Island in 2013) since 12 September, when he was still on Tangiers Island.