Previous maps for Homer -- Scroll down for more maps for Homer. '07 Maps for Homer
'08 Maps for: Claws -- Conomo -- Duke-- Goody  -- L.R. -- Meadow -- Mittark -- Penelope
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26 Sept. 2008. Homer left the Vineyard on Sept 22. We don't have any fixes for him on the 23rd, so we don't know what route he took to Delaware.
     We have him roosting in northeastern Maryland on the 24th. Then on the 26th we got signals from a location 10 mi. southeast of Fredericksburg, VA.
     These were the last signals we received from Homer. We don't know if he died or if his transmitter fell off.
      Since we got the last signals, the transmitter's battery has drained. Our only hope to find it is if the transmitter changes its position somehow so that the solar panels are facing up. We recovered Bunga's transmitter this way back in '04.
     This was a tough bird to lose. He carried his transmitter longer than any other bird we have studied and provided some fascinating insights into the migration of juvenile Ospreys.

Scroll down for detailed maps.


31 Jan 2008. Homer has settled down right where he spent most of his first South American sojourn.

Feb-Mar 2008. This map is for Feb, but the March map would be the same. He has settled down at his reservoir.

 

 16 April 2008. Homer is on his way home! He left headquarters at his reservoir on the 12th and pushed off from Venezuela sometime in the morning of the 14th. He made landfall on Hispaniola before dawn on the 15th. He spent the 16th in Haiti. 737 miles (1187 km) so far on the Osprey-ometer.
     Below is a satellite view of his path out of Venezuela.






12-16 Apr 2008. Homer leaves Venezuela behind. The three islands east of his escape route are Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.
17-27 Apr 2008. Homer took care of Cuba in a week. He does not seem to like Miami. On his way south last fall he left the Florida coast north and Miami and flew out over open water en route to Cuba. This time he made it to the Keys on the 25th and hit the Florida coast at Sanibel Island. By the 27th he was near Gainesville. At this point he had covered 1,822 miles (2,933 km).
     Scroll down for an aerial view.
17-25 Apr 2008. Here's his track leaving Haiti and crossing Cuba in about a week.
30 Apr 2008. Homer took care of Georgia on the 27th and moved into North Carolina on the 28th, passing close to Raleigh. By the 29th he was just north of Newport News, VA, now 2,465 mi. (3969 km) into his return trip.
     Scroll down for an aerial view of the next leg of his trip.

5 May 2008. Homer is back at home. He saw the sunrise in Delaware at his first location on this map for 1 May. The second location for 1 May is just east of Philadelphia the same day around 15:00. He probably moved further that day, arriving at his 2 May location late on the 1st. He's just a bit east of Armonk, NY, and may have passed over the Greenwich Audubon Sanctuary (where I got my start as a young naturalist at their summer camp almost 50 years ago) on the 3rd as he pressed on to the Connecticut River (his location on 5/3 on the map). In Rhode Island, he flew between Kingston and Charlestown around 09:00 on the 4th and arrived on the Vineyard sometime later that day. The whole trip was 2,938 miles (4,730 km), which he covered in 23 days. His average distance covered was 128 miles/day (206 km/day). Amazing.
     Since his arrival he has been spending much of his time around the freshwater mill ponds that were his base of operations all last summer.
     Scroll down for an aerial views of the last leg of his journey.
30 Apr 2008. Homer crossed Chesapeake Bay, home to perhaps 8,000 pairs of Ospreys according to local specialist Bryan Watts, on Apr 30th and pushed on towards home, arriving on the Vineyard on the 4th of May.
2-5 May 2008. Homer made short work of Connecticut and Rhode Island, arriving on his natal turf on the 4th.

31 May 2008. Homer settled right down at the Crocker Pond at the north end of North Rd. This was his base of operations last summer as well. There was a nesting pair of Ospreys here back in the 50s and perhaps early 60s. They left the area when their nest tree fell. This would be a great spot for a new pole! He's definitely an Up-Island bird.

30 June 2008. I'll post monthly maps as the summer progresses. We don't expect much new from our oldest tagged bird. Next year he should be ready to nest.
     Looks like he's been hunting in Vineyard Sound, perhaps visiting the Elizabeth Islands and Katama, although interpreting the data from non-GPS transmitters at this scale is a bit risky. The cluster of points around Crocker Pond is certainly real.
July 2008. These are the two most accurate class satellite locations for Homer in July. There's one high-quality location 18 mi. (29 km) west of the Island, which is suspect and not shown here.
    Below there's a close-up of the ponds that Homer calls home.
 
Sept 2008. Homer shifted his base of operations from Crocker Pond to Chilmark.
     The central cluster of points is puzzling. There is no pond there, so I'm not sure why he spent so much time there. Mittark also spent quite a bit of time here prior to leaving on his migration.
     This may just be some high ground where there's a good view of Menensha Pond.
     Homer left the Island on the morning of the 22nd.

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