Elizabetha Changes Her Heading Again

Elizabetha has altered her direction yet again and is now flying along a SE heading paralleling, and certainly in sight of, the Andean foothills to her east. Yesterday she flew 55 km (35 miles).

She continues to baffle us with her new and different behavior, moving so slowly down the west coast of South America. To us, this is really great stuff, new behavior in a migrant peregrine.

It forces me to become aware of my own particular prejudices in how I think about migrant peregrines. Working the fall migration for many decades along the beaches of Padre Island, Texas, or on the coastlines of Ecuador, Peru and Chile, I have developed a concept of these falcons flying south both quickly and directly, that there is some sort of "rush" to get to their austral ranges. And, of course, many of them do that very thing.

However, looking at Elizabetha, and Linda before her, I am having to re-calibrate my understanding to include these adult females that slowly take their time traveling south.

And I realize that, after all, peregrine means wanderer, the essence of what she seems to be doing right now.

This sort of meandering flight really does epitomize that quality. Think of what she is going through. She is flying across a gigantic amount of area on her flight across an entire hemisphere. She has to be able to function in each location, climate, and habitat type. She must be able to recognize each new prey species and exploit new hunting opportunities when she encounters them. She has to have enough skill and experience to make a living under all of these conditions. And she has to successfully avoid predators. She is out there every day, adapting to each new challenge on her journey south.

In other words, she is an absolute master at what she does, which I find to be extraordinary.



Don McCall writes,

"It's not clear whether we'll receive any more data before her transmitter begins the off-season duty cycle. There should be one more GPS fix in the evening of the 30th but it wouldn't normally be transmitted to a satellite until the next morning (after the switchover), so we'll have to see if anything shows up tomorrow morning."

So expect the next series of reports on Elizabetha to appear in about 10-11 more days.