Gunny - 2010
'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
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	19-26 Sep 2010: Gunny began migrating on the 19th. He made it across the Caribbean to the island of Bonaire, where he rested for just a morning, and then pushed on for South America. Unfortunately, he didn't make it. He was only 20 miles from shore when we got his last signal on the GPS. Scroll down for detailed maps of his summer movements or jump ahead to the start of migration.
	The first week: 7-14 May. I've plotted Gunny and Sanford's data together so we can compare their foraging ranges.      Just like last year, early in the season the Osprey are feeding heavily on the herring run on the upper reaches of the East Branch of the Westport River.
	15-21 May 2010: Both birds are still working the East Branch, but both birds are wandering a bit.
	22-28 May 2010: Pretty much the same thing this week.
	7-28 May 2010: Here are three  weeks' locations for all three adult males we're following this spring. All three are travelling about the same distances from their nests. Their foraging ranges are about 10 mi (16 km) across.
	28 May-6 June 2010: The herring run on the East Branch is clearly over. Both Gunny and Sanford are mostly working  freshwater ponds this week.
	6-13 June 2010: Gunny's still working the upper East Branch, but Sanford has shifted his attention west of his nest..
	14-20 June 2010: About this time, both Gunny and Sanford's nests failed. It's particularly noticeable with Gunny, who's clearly not leaving home much this week. Sanford's working both freshwater ponds as well as the coast and shores of Narragansett Bay up near Fall River.
	21-27 June 2010: Gunny's really sticking close to the nest, while Sanford's doing almost all his fishing at the two Watuppa ponds. He may have been back to his nest during this week, but if so, it was only a brief appearance.
	29 May-28 June 2010: Here are all the locations for our 3 tagged males in the Westport River/Jamestown neighborhood.
	28 June - 3 July 2010: Back to just our Westport birds--pretty much the same as last week, although Sanford's spending some time around  his nest again and Gunny seems to be able to find all the fish he needs right in own backyard, upriver from his nest. He doesn't seem to spend anytime downstream.
	5-18 July 2010: Both birds are focusing on the southern parts of their home ranges. Gunny is mostly doing freshwater fishing, while Gunny is spending some significant time in the saltwater in the southwest corner of  his home range.
	19-31 July 2010: More of the same for both birds.
	31 July-15 Aug 2010: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Both birds know where the fish is, and maintain a vigil around their nest so no upstart whippersnapper youngsters get any ideas about taking over their nests.
	19-20 Sep 2010: Gunny started his migration on the 19th. He made a modest 103 miles (166 km) following a somewhat unusual route through central (rather than coastal) Connecticut. The next day he got an unusually early start, sometime around 7 AM, and made a big push south, covering 378 mi (608 km) in about 13 hours.
	20-24 Sep 2010: Gunny is moving down the coast. North Fork Bob was about a half day ahead of her, so they experienced the same weather conditions. I've put Bob's track on this and the following maps (the white track), so we can see how two Ospreys responded very similarly to the same weather.
	24-29 Sep 2010: Gunny and Bob had a somewhat different approach to getting through Florida. Probably a bit more of an easterly wind for Bob, pushing him west a bit. Once he got to the Everglades, he hunkered down for a couple of days. On the 27th Bob was almost in Cuba and continued on down the island while Gunny was fishing the Everglades, although he didn't move far on the 28th and 29th, so he didn't gain much ground.
	27 Sep-3 Oct 2010: Gunny took a bit of a shortcut relative to Bob. This suggests different winds for the two birds when they crossed to Cuba. Their paths criss-cross a bit heading southeast through Cuba. They both spent time at the reservoir (3 Oct roost on this map) where our '07 youngster Conomo spent his 18 months "wintering" back in '07-'09.
	3-5 Oct 2010: Here we see how coast lines and peninsulas funnel birds to the same locations.      As of 5 Oct, Gunny had flown 2,190 miles (3,524 km) in 16 days of migration and 1 day of feeding or waiting out bad weather. His average distance covered on migrating days was a very average 137 miles (207 km).
	5-7 Oct 2010: This was a pretty straightforward crossing of the Caribbean. It appears there was a pretty strong westerly wind as he headed for South America.      He left Cabo Beato on the south coast of the D.R. at around 12:30PM. Out over the water he was averaging 22 miles (36 km)/hour for the first 8 hours of the trip.      He landed on Bonaire just about 7PM on the 7th, about 31 hours after leaving the D.R.
	8-9 Oct 2010: The last GPS from Gunny was only 20 miles from Venezuela. The next signals were from his radio, apparently transmitting as his body drifted along the coast (the colored dots on the map).      When we lose Ospreys at sea, we always wonder if they were exhausted, but this doesn't seem to be the case with Gunny. He rested back on Bonaire, but only for the night of the 7th. At 9AM he was on the wing, heading south, clearly not a bird in need of rest.  I can only assume that he ran into a really bad storm and couldn't get out of it, got drenched, and went down in the sea.      North Fork Bob (the other track here) got to a tiny atoll on the 7th and tried to go south that day. He aborted the trip, waited on the 8th for whatever weather was happening and successfully made the crossing to Venezuela on the 9th.

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