Snowy - 2013
'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 -- DJ -- Donovan -- Edwin -- Icarius -- Mackenzie -- Nick -- North Fork Bob --
Quin -- Rammie -- Rodney -- Ron -- Snowy -- Sr. Bones -- Tango -- Woody
Osprey main page -- Migration page -- Migration09 -- Migration10 -- Migration 11 -- Migration 12 -- Migration 13 -- Home Page

	22 March - 8 May 2013: This is the earliest any of our juveniles have left their wintering grounds. They often don't leave until late April or even early May.      Snowy, like most juveniles on their first trip home, was in no hurry. He stopped for almost a month in Cuba.      He missed the turn in Cuba where he could have taken a short (130 mi) trip to the Florida Keys. Instead, he flew across 480 miles of the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the Florida Panhandle, instead of the southern tip of Florida.      He spent a few days in Weymouth, just south of Boston after missing the turn for Martha's Vineyard, just like Penelope did a few years back. He did not follow in her wingbeats (she didn't leave any footsteps) up to New Hampshire, .      I haven't had time to create any detailed maps after his month layover in Cuba, but you can follow the detailed route on the Migration 2013 page's interactive map.
	1 Jan-10 March 2013: Two and a half more months with very little foraging out away from the road.      [My first prediction: He should head north in the next month or two] -- Well, make that a couple of weeks!
	23-26 March 2013: After some early explorations back in late 2011, Snowy had settled down in a very restricted area in the Venezuelan llanos--a vast seasonally flooded lowland area. He headed north on March 23rd, 8 days after three of our adult birds started their migrations. (And about a month and a half before I predicted when I made the last map.)
	24-26 March 2013: Snowy surprised me when he didn't just head north up the Paraguana Peninsula, but instead skirted the Gulf of Venezuela. He wound up leaving South America from a very popular launching pad--the Guajira Peninsula. This is where most of our tagged birds wind up as they head north and stay over land as long as possible.
	25-29 March 2013: Snowy got an early start (around 6AM) as he headed out over the Caribbean. The trip over water was about 425 miles (680 km) and would have taken about 16-18 hours.      The trip from Haiti to Cuba was 225 miles (365 km) and took him 11 hours, averaging about 20 mph.
	22-31 March 2013: Snowy found a swamp in northern Cuba that must have been really full of fish. He spent almost a month there before heading north.
	31 March - 23 Apr 2013: Snowy took a break along Cuba's northern shore. We've seen this before in "almost 2-yr olds" heading home for the first time. They're not in a big rush this time around. Once they pair up and establish a nest, they will very rarely dally along the way north unless they run into bad weather.
	30 Mar- 29 Apr 2013: Snowy got going again (we sort of wondered if he'd ever leave) and moved northwest through Cuba. Somewhat surprisingly, he missed the turn to Florida and wound up flying over 540 miles of the Gulf of Mexico instead of 140 miles across the Florida Strait.      This was a bit surprising, because he came down through Florida on his way south in the fall of 2011. I suspect next fall he'll come down through Florida again and maybe after two trips south, he'll remember when to take a right when he gets just south of Florida on his second trip north.      This is how I now think Ospreys learn the route to and from South America--sort of by trial and error. Martha's Vineyard juveniles, as we've seen often just take on about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of open Atlantic Ocean on their first trip south. When they come north the first time, they find Cuba or the Bahamas and get to the U.S. coastline in Florida. They then head north along the coast and find home. The next time south, they know they don't have to go out over the ocean. This is why adults never go out over the ocean--they discovered an overland route on their first trip north. The second trip south can help refine the route even more, probably eliminating trips over the Gulf of Mexico like Snowy took here.
	25 Apr-10 May 2013: Snowy took 15 days to get from the Florida panhandle to his old neighborhood on Martha's Vineyard.      The intriguing thing here is that he's heading home over a landscape he's never seen before--so he can't be using landmarks memorized on his way south back in the fall of 2011.      He pretty much headed north until he got to the Appalachian Mountains on 28 April. He then turned east and followed the ridgeline up into Virginia. How much of this was because he knew he was too far west and how much was because he was just following the mountains? We'll never know!
	5-10 May 2013: Snowy moved north through Virginia and then started to turn a bit east as he got into Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. He crossed some of the ridges of the Appalachians, turning more and more east, somehow sensing where home was.
	8-10 May 2013: Snowy, just like Penelope a few years back, got close to home, no more than 30 miles or so from the Vineyard when he was in Newport after crossing Narragansett Bay. But rather than head straight home, which he could see if he got up a couple of hundred feet, he went north towards Boston. He spent the 9th in some territory he visited on his first fall migration back in 2011.      On the 10th he got an early start and was back on Martha's Vineyard around 11:30 AM. Much to my surprise, after spending the night of the 10th on the Vineyard, he flew over to Cape Cod, getting there by about 9:30 AM.      He got home 49 days after he began his first northward migration. Of those 49 days, only 26 were actual migration days. The distance traveled (roost-to-roost) was 3,458 miles (5,565 km). He averaged (on migration days)133 miles/day (214 km/d).
	10-21 May 2013: Snowy spent the 11th and 12th on the Cape and then flew back to the Vineyard on the morning of the 13th. He then began commuting, crossing Nantucket Sound 3 times before the 21st of May.
	28 Apr- 9 June 2013: Snowy spent quite a bit of time over on Cape Cod, where our 2010 juvenile, Belle, also tagged on Martha's Vineyard, spends quite a bit of time. They mostly frequent different ponds, although they do both like Long Pond, where they actually ran into each other, as we'll see in the next map.
	21 May 2013: Snowy and Belle were about 125 yards apart at 5 PM on May 21st. We can just imagine the conversation - "Wow, you have a transmitter, too? What are the chances? Want to go grab some sushi later this afternoon?"