Scroll down for Goody Hallett's maps.
Links: Claws -- Conomo -- Duke -- Homer -- L.R. -- Meadow -- Mittark -- Penelope  
Birds of Prey page -- Osprey main page -- Migration08 -- Migration page -- Home Page

12 August 2008. We trapped this young female at a nest on Cape Cod (see the map below), using the transmitter we recovered from Sheri. The nest is close to the Wellfleet Bay Mass Audubon Sanctuary, the newest partner in our satellite tracking project. The photo was taken by Craig Gibson.


Travels so far.

15 Dec 2008. Signals lost in Brazil.
     Goody left her natal range on Cape Cod on August 23rd. Curiously, she left through the "back door" heading north to Provincetown before crossing Cape Cod Bay to mainland Massachusetts. She explored central Mass for a week or so. On the 1st of September she headed southwest, apparently initiating her migration. After reaching New Jersey, she turned around and started working her way north again.
     She spent a month and a half mostly along the Delaware River near the confluence of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania with a brief sojourn over to the Hudson.
     On Oct. 15 she finally decided it was time to head for warmer climes. She left North Carolina's Outer Banks around 09:00 on the19th, heading for the Bahamas.
    She arrived on Eleuthera on the 20th and kept right on moving through the Bahamas, on to Cuba, and then west to Hispaniola.
     On the 28th she headed for South America. She made landfall on Curacao sometime on the 29th. True to form, she kept right on going and settled down in northwestern Venezuela.
     At this point, she seemed to have started trying to finding a place to spend the next year and a half. She moved west into some quite mountainous terrain east of Lake Maracaibo and wandered around there for about a month.
     On the 4th of December, she kicked back into full migration mode and moved south for 10 days. She made it into Brazil and then dropped off the map. She was in an area that is as unpopulated as one could imagine, so shooting certainly is not a likely explanation for her disappearance.
    
Details of her trip are below.

 

 

  
12-14 Aug 08. These are the first few data points for Goody Hallett. She's been out in Cape Cod Bay and working a freshwater pond about a mile from her nest.
12-20 Aug 08. Goody is exploring Cape Cod. She has spent a considerable amount of time around the Eastham kettle ponds (relicts of the glaciation that created the Cape and islands to the south.)
    She was spotted at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on the 17th. Either that day or the next, a Peregrine Falcon with a satellite transmitter was also spotted at the sanctuary. Seems to be some kind of high-tech raptor convention going on!
      Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is coordinating an Osprey census on Cape Cod and arranged funding for Goody's transmitter.
19-26 Aug 08. Goody has left the Cape. She did so in a rather unexpected way, heading north to Provincetown and then crossing Cape Cod Bay to the south shore. She flew about 100 mi. (160 km) from her nest area to her roost on the 23rd, a few miles east of Worcester.
     She moved about 25 mi. (40 km) northwest on the 24th, and then explored her way north to the Damon Reservoirs in southern New Hampshire, where she spent the night of the 25th.
     On the 26th she moved back into MA, passing north of Quabbin Reservoir. Our last point on this map was mid afternoon.
24 Aug 08. Goody found a big wetland just west of Medfield, MA, for her night's roost.
24 Aug 08. Goody arrived around 15:00 at Mare Meadow Reservoir, southwest of Westminster, and spent the night.
25 Aug 08. Goody arrived at the Damon Reservoirs around 14:00 and spent the night here in NH.
Goody and Luke. It is exciting to see patterns in our data. This is what science is all about. Those familiar with our early studies of adults tagged on Martha's Vineyard may remember the surprise of seeing adult Ospreys leaving the Vineyard after their nests failed and heading up into central Massachusetts.
     We now see that some young do this after they fledge, so the adults we tracked were probably visiting areas they discovered as teenagers when they first left their nest areas.
     In this map we see that Goody is visiting some of the same areas that Luke, an '07 juvenile, explored in his first summer.
3 Sep 08. Here's the big picture for the first 11 days on the wing for Goody. After a week in northwestern Massachusetts, she headed south and got into New Jersey before  backtracking a bit up to the Delaware River.
     Evening roosts are indicated with purple triangles.
     Details below.
31 Aug 08. Goody moved into the Greenfield, MA, area on the 26th and stayed through the 31st. She explored the Connecticut and Deerfield Rivers before taking off for points south on the 1st.
1 Sep 08. A nice spot to roost in western Connecticut on the 1st.
2 Sep 08. She crossed the Hudson River just after noon and moved into New Jersey. Her route brought her to the Round Hill Reservoir near Clinton, New Jersey. From there she saw another lake a bit further west and went over to explore.
2 Sep 08. She spent the night by this little pond just north of Spruce Run Reservoir near Clinton, New Jersey.
3-7 Sep 08. We're heading north again! After spending the night near Clinton, she flew 40 mi. (65 km) north on the 3rd to the Delaware River between NJ and Pennsylvania. After working up and down the river on the 4th, she  moved even further up the river along the Pennsylvania-New York border on the 4th.
     She was still there on the 7th.
4-13 Sep 08. Goody must have liked it back up north. She is heading back northeast towards Massachusetts after six days along the Delaware River, between Pennsylvania and New York.
     She moved along the southeast slope of the Catskills Mountains on the 10th, arriving on the west bank of the Hudson River at 16:00.
     Any hawkwatchers counting raptors on migration along these ridges must have wondered what this Osprey was doing going the wrong way! So do I.
     On the 11th she headed west through the Catskills, visited the Pepacton Reservoir on the East Branch of the Delaware River, spent a couple of nights and worked her way back to her temporary headquarters on the Delaware.
15 Sep-15 Oct 08. Goody spent most of Sept 15 on the Delaware River then moved west to the Lackawaxen River, one of the Delaware's tributaries, where she spent a full month before the migratory urge was reignited. She headed south around noon on Oct. 15.
15 Sep-15 Oct 08. A close-up view of all our locations during her month of fishing the Lackawaxen River.
15 Oct 08. Goody is taking this migration thing seriously this time. I left the track of her travels since leaving Cape Cod on the map.
     Once she finally got going, there was no hesitation. She flew due south through New Jersey, passed over Cape May, then made it most of the way down the DelMarVa peninsula before roosting in Virginia on the 17th
16-19 Oct 08. A closer look at Goody's route down the mid-Atlantic coast.
     She may have been part of some hawk watcher's tally of Ospreys migrating over Cape May on the 16th.
     After crossing the mouth of Delaware Bay she flew quite close to Little Ricky's nest in Lewes, DE.
     She roosted in Virginia on the 17th and then flew over Cape Charles, crossed the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and finally settled down in North Carolina on the 18th.
19 Oct 08. Goody left North Carolina's Outer Banks on the morning of the 19th, pushing off into the unknown.
     The wind was out of the west, so she went with the flow. Her compass heading was probably due south or perhaps a bit southwest, but the westerly winds pushed her east.
19 Oct 08. Goody was 476 mi. (767 km) out over the Atlantic at 20:00 when here transmitter shut down for the day. About this time the winds were shifting around to the east.
     The next signals we had from her were from Eleuthra Island in the Bahamas. Her trip across the Atlantic covered 725 mi. (1166 km).
20-21 Oct 08. Goody first hit land on Eleuthra Island. She rested up a bit and then pushed on, spending the night of the 20th near Georgetown on Great Exuma Island.
21-23 Oct 08. Moving right along, Goody spent the night of the 21st on Little Ragged Island, just north of Cuba.
     She crossed most of Cuba (north-south-wise) on the 22nd. She then moved southeast down the Sierra Maestra mountains, perhaps being counted at the hawk watch manned by Cuban ornithologist, Freddy Santana.
     On the 23rd she roosted just 10 mi. (16 km) northeast of Guantanamo Bay.
24-27 Oct 08. No rest for the wicked. Goody got to Hispaniola and spent the night of the 24th in western Haiti. She few east across southern Haiti and crossed into the Dominican Republic on the 26th. She spent the night of the 27th northeast of Santo Domingo.
     On the 28th she was out over the Caribbean, heading for South America.
29 Oct - 4 Nov 08. Goody made landfall on Curacao on the 29th. Amazingly, after crossing 450 mi. (730 km) of the Caribbean in non-stop flight, she kept right on going. She got to Venezuela late in the day.
     She flew up over the coastal mountain range on the 30th and is now wandering around western Venezuela.
30 Oct to 4 Nov 08. Looking north again, we see that Goody made it about 100 mi. (160 km) into Venezuela before dropping anchor.
    She moved back north on Nov 2 and then pushed west into some mountainous country in western Venezuela.
     It looks like this is the end of the road for this migration. (I know, famous last words!)
     Now we expect her to explore, seeking out a reliable fishing spot that she'll call home (casa?) for the rest of her 18 months on the wintering grounds and all future visits to South America.
5 Nov - 4 Dec 08. This is just what we've seen most of our young Ospreys do when they stop migrating. Some find a great spot to fish on the first try and settle down for the next year and a half, but the majority stay in an area for a while and then take road trips, often returning to the first spot, apparently having failed to find better fishing.
     Goody was spent a month in the mountains east of Lake Maracaibo, working some small rivers valleys. On the 29th she flew about 40 miles (68 km) southwest for an overnight excursion, returning on the 30th.
      We were very surprised to see her take off on December 4th and continue in that direction for 10 days.
4 -15 Dec 08. Looking south from way over Goody's shoulder as she flies southeast into Brazil.
     After a month in the mountains east of Lake Maracaibo, Goody took off for points south.
     Goody traveled 4,274 miles (6,878 km) over 31 days of actual migration. She averaged 134 miles (215 km) per day migrating. These 31 migration days were spread out over 114 calendar days.
14-15 Dec 08. Looking straight down here (with North where it belongs).
     Goody crossed the Jurua River in western Brazil on the 14th, flew over some interesting looking ox-bow lakes left behind by the meadering Purue River, crossed a smaller river, before settling down on a very small river in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest, about 50 miles (80 km) north of the Amazon River itself.
     Our last signals from Goody were on the 15th. It's most likely that we can't blame her loss (if it's not just a malfunctioning transmitter) on human intervention.

Birds of Prey page -- Osprey main page -- Migration page -- Home Page