Elizabetha Flying over the Atlantic Ocean Last Night

One of the things we are learning during this project is that predicting the behavior of migrant peregrines is always challenging. We had expected Elizabetha to migrate slowly down the eastern shoreline, perhaps stopping at several different locations along the way. We were hoping that people might get the opportunity to see her perched somewhere on a log or something.

Instead, she turned on the jet-pack yesterday and flew across all of New England and past New York. At last signal (1 AM Eastern time!), she was flying south at night over the ocean 15 km off the New Jersey coast doing 88 kph (55 mph). Remarkable.

As Don McCall writes "if she's going to fly at night, that's the place to do it -- the eastern seaboard is lit up like a Christmas tree at night for a thousand miles, so navigation certainly wouldn't be a problem."

She had traveled 744 km (462 miles) during this period, her longest jump so far this season. As we have seen many times in the past, when they are ready to go, they can really cover some distance.

It is likely that she put in somewhere this morning and may be resting during this period. Today is probably one of the best opportunities anyone will have to see her.