Elizabetha Slowly Moving Through Lowlands of Ecuador

Elizabetha continues to move at a slow pace through Ecuador. Yesterday, she flew another 50 km (31 miles) towards Guayaquil.

Don McCall writes...

"Unfortunately we won't be able to track her daily progress much longer. Her transmitter's programming will soon switch to a different seasonal mode, and her data will then become available only every 10 days. When that occurs, these notices will be sent only while Elizabetha continues to migrate and new signals are received for her. However, the FRG website will continue to be updated approximately every 5 days (since there will also be periodic updates for Sparrow King and La Serena)."

When we order satellite transmitters, we are required to designate what kind of "duty cycle" we want programmed into each unit. This includes the dates for switching the radio on for daily locations during the migration as well as when we want the unit to turn off (when the falcon arrives at its austral range).

We had all anticipated that Elizabetha would be back at the Putu dune field by the first of December. However, peregrines obviously have their own way of doing things and therefore we underestimated the transition date for her this year.

We should still be able to get a pretty good idea of her route and when she arrives back at Putu but we won't be able to get this information every day. Downloads for her will occur, as Don stated, every 10 days starting 1 December. So stay tuned.