23 September, 2009
Island Girl Migration Progress
Island Girl flew 539 km (335 mi) yesterday along the east side of Hudson Bay, and roosted last night about 60 km from the northeastern corner of James Bay (in west-central Quebec). She's off to a fast start.
22 September, 2009
2009 Southern Cross Peregrine Migration Begins
Island Girl has started her migration south from the Arctic, officially kicking off the 2009 SCPP project for this year.
She has captured by Kathy Gunther at the Putu dune field on the coast of south central Chile on 15 March 2009. She had travelled all the way north to Baffin Island for the summer and from her signals, appears to have nested there. She got closer to Greenland than any other falcon on the project so far.
Our intrepid monitor of all things electronic, Don McCall, writes....
"Just picked up the latest Argos data for I.G. [Island Girl], and sometime between 1405Z yesterday [20 September] and 1815Z today [21 September] she flew 372 miles south-southwest and is now on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. She could have left either yesterday or today, no way to know (some of these points are Doppler fixes since she had a low battery for a couple of days, but 2 GPS fixes today indicate that her batteries are recharged).
So off she goes and with a good initial push too, 372 miles at the very start of her migration is impressive.
Here is a comparison of six start dates for the other tagged peregrines on the study.
Sparrow King 2007.............................5 October
Sparrow King 2008.. .......................10 October
Seven 2007............................11 September
Linda 2007...........................(unavailable at the time of writing)
Elizabetha 2008............................22 September
Fireball 2008..................................18 September
So a range from 11 September through 10 October or a span of 30 days between the 6 birds.
Island Girl left the Foxe Peninsula region of Baffin Island and did an impressive first move, flying across the Hudson Strait and continuing almost halfway down the east side of Hudson Bay, almost to Port Harrison.
With her track first trending to the SW, we have to ask the perennial question, which route will she commit to? Will she veer over to the classic east coast/Yucatan migration path or will she continue SW towards the Texas Gulf Coast and Veracruz?
As we have learned in past years, only time will tell.
She has captured by Kathy Gunther at the Putu dune field on the coast of south central Chile on 15 March 2009. She had travelled all the way north to Baffin Island for the summer and from her signals, appears to have nested there. She got closer to Greenland than any other falcon on the project so far.
Our intrepid monitor of all things electronic, Don McCall, writes....
"Just picked up the latest Argos data for I.G. [Island Girl], and sometime between 1405Z yesterday [20 September] and 1815Z today [21 September] she flew 372 miles south-southwest and is now on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. She could have left either yesterday or today, no way to know (some of these points are Doppler fixes since she had a low battery for a couple of days, but 2 GPS fixes today indicate that her batteries are recharged).
So off she goes and with a good initial push too, 372 miles at the very start of her migration is impressive.
Here is a comparison of six start dates for the other tagged peregrines on the study.
Sparrow King 2007.............................5 October
Sparrow King 2008.. .......................10 October
Seven 2007............................11 September
Linda 2007...........................(unavailable at the time of writing)
Elizabetha 2008............................22 September
Fireball 2008..................................18 September
So a range from 11 September through 10 October or a span of 30 days between the 6 birds.
Island Girl left the Foxe Peninsula region of Baffin Island and did an impressive first move, flying across the Hudson Strait and continuing almost halfway down the east side of Hudson Bay, almost to Port Harrison.
With her track first trending to the SW, we have to ask the perennial question, which route will she commit to? Will she veer over to the classic east coast/Yucatan migration path or will she continue SW towards the Texas Gulf Coast and Veracruz?
As we have learned in past years, only time will tell.
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