Slow Day on Thursday

Elizabetha has held up and remained stationary after her sea crossing of the Hudson Strait. She is certainly in no rush to get back to Chile.

Her apparent reluctance to leave the arctic is similar to Sparrow King. He is still on his breeding territory as we move into October, just like last year. It makes me think that there is a reason for them to stay up there until the latest date possible. Perhaps there is an abundant source of food available to them.

We should get the latest data for Sparrow King later on today (recall that his signals come in only every two days). It is fascinating to see that he is still so far to the north while the peak peregrine migration week is just starting to hit on the Texas Gulf coast.

The errant transmitter of Fireball is still operating sporadically. No more new signals as yet. How far has he gone? What route has he selected?

And, although Fireball summered much further north than Sparrow King (i.e. above the Arctic Circle), he is apparently far to the south of Sparky by now, having departed much earlier.

Of course, Fireball will be migrating much farther to the south too. Sparky, in contrast, just needs to return to Antofagasta, near the Tropic of Capricorn in northern Chile. Fireball has to fly hundreds of miles farther to the Putu dune fields, well south of Santiago.