DJ's Fall 2013 Migration

DJ and his Martha's Vineyard neighbor Icarius took off like rockets on Sept 17th with a wicked northeast wind at their backs. They both shot down the coast, making it to Florida in just two days!

After that, the pace was a bit more leisurely. DJ made an uneventful crossing of the Caribbean on the 27th and 28th and then settled down on the Guajira Peninsula for six days. We had not followed him before, so we didn't know if this was his winter spot or not. Turns out it wasn't. On the 5th of October he crossed the Gulf of Venezuela and settled down for the winter in northwestern Venezuela.

DJ's Winter Range

This map shows the results of a "kernel" analysis of all of DJ's winter locations. 50% of the time he was in one of the darker orange areas. Most of his tracks show that he commuted very frequently between the two areas. The lighter orange areas show where 95% of his locations were found, and the yellow area is 98%.

DJ Comes Home

DJ made a rather quick trip home--only 16 days to cover almost 2,800 miles. (The distance reported in the map is his "roost-to-roost" track and so underestimates the actual distance he flew.

The orange track is his path south in the fall of 2013.