Island Girl Heading for the Texas Coast

I know that many of you are closely following Island Girls route at this time so I want to give you as much information as I can.

Here are two (always excellent) posts from Don explaining her movements over the last 24 hours....

"We received Island Girl's evening (Saturday 6 p.m. local time) GPS signal already, and since the overnight signals have been coming in fairly late, here's an interim update.

It appears that IG has become tired of fighting those headwinds in the Gulf of Mexico, for her latest track is nearly due west of her previous one, and her speed is 0 indicating that she has found another offshore oil platform.  She covered 137 km (84.8 mi) in the 8 hours since the previous signal, and her latest course leads directly to Padre Island north of Corpus Christi, Texas.  I wouldn't expect her to do any more flying until tomorrow."

So, in this case, those SW winds have worked out well for us. It looks like they have "discouraged" her from heading due south and crossing the entire Gulf to Yucatan. She appears to be jumping among the continental shelf offshore oil platforms and using them as resting points while fighting the winds. Speculation, I know, but it seems quite likely.

I have tried to drill down in Google Earth, taking the image all the way down to sea level, but it seems as if images of the oil platforms are not there. We would easily see them if they were. I think we can all imagine some very good reasons for this omission.

And another following post from Don.....

"As expected, Island Girl roosted overnight in the same spot (presumably an oil platform) where she was last observed yesterday evening at 6 p.m. local time.  Her total distance for Saturday was 222 km (138 mi).  Unless the strong southwest winds die down, she'll probably return to land somewhere in Texas later today.

I spoke with Gregg Doney, leader of the Padre Island Peregrine Team, this morning. He said the wind has shifted to the N and NE today and a front is heading south so this may impact Island Girls route. Gregg reports that the island is extraordinarily dry this year due to the extreme drought conditions in Texas. Many of the hurricane wash lakes are totally gone and the back flats are enormous.

"Correction from the previous post - Padre Island does not extend north past Corpus Christi, so if she makes landfall that far north it would be a different barrier island."

That would be Matagorda Island.
Once again, it is difficult to say where and even if she will land on the Gulf Seashore. The northerly could change everything. But we certainly hope that she does makes landfall. Gregg has alerted the Padre team that she is likely to come through in the next day or two.

It is even remotely possible that they could capture her. Wearing a 30 gram Microwave backpack telemetry GPS transmitter and sporting a Chilean band (RCL 72805), she would be pretty easy to identify.

Don will be standing by to relay her roosting position for Sunday night ASAP in hopes they can find and see her. Once again, that would be a first, since Island Girl has never been observed (as far as we know) on any of her six migrations yet.

Maybe this time...good luck guys!