La Serena

In Chile, La Serena's signal has also been spotty. No good GPS signals for quite awhile. Although we know that there can be heavy fog in her area, it is also possible that she has begun nesting and may even be on eggs at this time. Christian Gonzalez states that this is the breeding season for that latitude. If her eyrie (or nest) is in a pothole, cave or has an overhang, that could account for no signal. It may be blocked. We are hoping that our Chilean colleagues will have a look soon.

The Concern About Linda

Linda has been moving steadily but slowly south of her presumed breeding site. Alastair Franke tells me that it is beautiful in that area right now and there is really nothing driving her south as yet. A good cold front would definitely do the trick.Our concern is that her transmitter has not been producing good GPS signals for the past few weeks. We are not sure why but the leading theory is that the low angle of the sun so far to the north is not producing enough power to charge the battery. In the meantime, most of what we are receiving are sporadic Doppler signals.If this continued, we would not be able to follow Linda south because the Doppler signals alone are not accurate enough to pinpoint her locations. However, today, much to our relief, we began getting some more solid GPS signals as she moves south to the shoreline of Hudson Bay. So we are hoping that the number and quality of signals will continue to improve and that the GPS capability will be maximized as more sunlight becomes available.In the meantime, I am approaching Manitoba in hopes of intercepting her in Canada.

The Mystery of Arena

We followed Arena north to her site on the Ungava Peninsula last summer. By monitoring her locations, we realized over time that she likely did not breed this year. Her signals ranged too widely to indicate that she was incubating in a single location. Lindas signals, in contrast, "drilled a hole" in the map.
As the season wore on, we noticed that Arena started to head west, again indicating that she did not breed successfully.
On 9 July, we received an anomalous signal from her transmitter. We realized later that this was probably the beginning of a malfunction in the unit. It showed that she was not moving (0 speed) but that she was over a large lake. Since there were no rocks or islands visible on the map, we questioned how she could not be moving and yet be over water. We considered that she was in the lake itself, i.e. had suffered mortality, but the temperature of the transmitter was too high to be immersed in the chilly arctic water.
On 13 July, we received several more signals showing her position further down the lake, this time somewhat near the shoreline. Then the signals stopped altogether.
The transmitters have a built-in mortality sensor (GroundTrac) that sends a signal automatically if there is no movement over a two day period. However, no such signal was generated by her transmitter. So we have a mystery regarding the whereabouts of Arena. We made an unsuccessful attempt to visit her last known location in Ungava but the botanist working in the area was prevented from getting there by poor weather and limited helicopter time.
Our best opinion, based on extensive review of the data, is that her transmitter failed. This happens a fair amount in the satellite transmitter field. In fact, we are quite lucky so far that no more have failed. During a recent study in Europe on Saker Falcons for example, three of ten units failed.
The team plans to go visit Arenas territory in Chile this October in hopes of seeing her there and clarifying what might have happened.

Linda Starting to Head South

After 6 weeks of intensive preparation, I am ready to head east to intercept Linda on her migration south to Chile. I'll be leaving in about an hour for Spokane where Mark Prostor will attach the final satellite communication gear to "Lula Belle", our intrepid Ford F-350 4WD pick-up truck.
Linda began to migrate last Saturday (22 September), moving approximately 280 km (180 miles) southwest of her breeding area. We are discovering that her signals have been somewhat sporadic at this time of the year. Since these are some of the first solar-powered GPS satellite transmitters to be used in the Arctic, we were not exactly sure what to expect. In fact, Don McCall reports that we have had several episodes where the lack of sunlight has resulted in decreased battery power (just like La Serena in Chile). As the fall season progresses in the Arctic, the angle of the sun decreases, providing less light for the solar panel on the backpack. In these cases, we get the less accurate Doppler signals but not the precise location data that we get from the GPS chip. However, after her move on Saturday, the signals stopped altogether for several days. Since the transmitter also sends us data on the level of the battery charge, we knew that it was likely too low to send anything.
Fortunately, today, we got several more Doppler signals showing that she has moved south to about 62 degrees latitude. We also found that her battery charge had increased substantially as she moves further south and is right on the verge of producing the GPS signals again.
So things are progressing nicely and we are on schedule to intercept her hopefully later this week.
More later....

Remarkable News About Seven

Seven spent the boreal summer in the Tuktut Nogiat National Park in the NWT of Canada above the Arctic Circle. Since he did not have one of the new GPS satellite transmitters, we were unable to pinpoint the exact location of his suspected eyrie (nest).

We talked with Delia Bourrard, the Park site manager in Paulatuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and almost journeyed north to find him, but without more information on his location, we judged it to be an effort in futility.

Last Thursday, I received this e-mail message from Ceiridwen Robbins, Park Warden II in Paulatuk, who wrote...



"One of the community members from Paulatuk just came in to report that he'd seen a peregrine falcon with a backpack on around the Hornaday River when he was there in early August. He said there were 4-5 other falcons with it; he says some of them were young ones. He said he was about 20 m away from the birds when he saw them."



We are so grateful to have recieved this truly remarkable information. As a result, we hope to learn exactly where Seven nested. It also sounds as though he was successful in raising young in the Arctic this summer.

We are very grateful to our friends in Paulatuk. On behalf of all of us interested in Seven, we want to extend our thanks for their efforts and interest in peregrines.

Seven Heading South-Fall Migration Begins

Seven, one of two satellite-tagged adult male peregrines, is the first to begin his fall migration south. Sometime between 13-15 September, he departed his northern range and flew 349 km (217 mi) southeast, traveling east of Great Bear Lake.
Seven was our northernmost bird, inhabiting (and likely breeding in) an area (69.33 degrees north) well above the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada. His range was generally within about 20 miles of the Arctic Ocean near the village of Paulatuk and most of his satellite locations were within the Tuktut Nogiat National Park.
He was also the southernmost peregrine that we tagged in Chile. His range there was centered on the Pacific coastline (33.5 degrees S) approximately 116 km (72 miles) southwest of Santiago.
Our last signal from his coastal site in Chile was on 9 April and he arrived at his apparent breeding area on 20 June, an interval of 72 days minimum. He covered a distance of 15, 043 km (9,402 miles) over the entire migration north, an average of 208 km (130 miles) per day.