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12 Dec 2010 - 27 July 2011.
Thatch moved around in an area 180 mi. (290
km) across. He has currently settled down for a
couple of months where you see the dense cluster
of points at the end of the last arrow.
The forests along the rivers in Amazonia
are drastically seasonal. At high water in the
rainy season, the river overflows its banks and
floods the forest for miles. An entire community
of fish exist that has evolved to exploit fruits
from trees in these flooded ('varzea' in
white-water areas and 'igapo' in black water).
We have seen Ospreys that winter along the
Amazon move around quite a bit over the course
of the year, presumably in reaction to changes
in the availability of fish related to changes
in the river level. |
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1-31 Jan 2011.
Thatch moved upriver a bit (35 miles/56 km)
to a small lake on the south shore of the
Solimoes (Amazon) River. We had another bird
(also from Delaware, coincidentally) winter on
the Amazon. Over the course of her 14 months or
so on the Amazon she moved around quite a bit.
This is probably because the whole ecosystem
changes radically as the Solimoes rises and
falls through the annual dry season/wet season
cycle. At high water, the river floods into the
forests for miles. One can paddle a canoe
through the flooded forest. Below the water, as
one weaves through the trees one can see the
shrub layer of the forest deep under the water. |
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1-28 Feb 2011.
Thatch is doing what lots of young Ospreys
do--explore the countryside. Some birds get
lucky and find a perfect spot on their first
stop, but others will shop around. Most are
pretty settled down by this point in their first
winter, but one bird (Claws) never did stop
moving around. |
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6-26 Feb 2011.
Thatch found this lake to his liking for 3
weeks, but seems to have a limited attention
span. Teenagers! |
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26-28 Feb 2011.
Thatch apparently found good fishing in
a couple of lakes north of the Solimoes, where
he spent the last couple of days of February.
He'll come back to these lakes a lot later
in the year. |
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1-31 Mar 2011.
Thatch wandered up to the Japura and
then returned to his lake area. On the 19th he
made a move of about 60 mi. (100 km) to the
west. At the end of the month he found a spot
much to his liking. |
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1-30 Apr 2011.
Thatch settled down in this new area for a
whole month. This would be a transitional time
for the river, with water levels falling. |
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1-31 May 2011.
On 18 May he decided to go downriver back
to his lakes a few miles east of the Solimoes. |
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20-31 May 2011.
A closer view of the last 10 days of the
month. Thatch shuttled back and forth between
the river and his inland lakes. |
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1-30 June 2011.
The fishing is good here, apparently. |
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1-31 July 2011.
He ate all the fish up there by late July
and decided for a change of venue on the 23rd. |
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1-31 Aug 2011.
Another move. This after 18 days on the
Jurua. He's now back at a lake he knows from
earlier this year. |
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1-10 Aug 2011.
Details of the first spot.
He spent some time at a cool oxbow lake. |
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10-31 Aug 2011.
Detailed locations for the rest of the
month. Back to a favorite lake. |
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1-30 Sep 2011.
Thatch spent the month
almost entirely at the north end of this lake
just west of Uarini. |
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1-29 Oct 2011.
Thatch is still liking the fishing here.
About 5-6 months before he heads north for the first
time. |
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1-30 Nov 2011.
Thatch is hunkered down. With the exception
of four forays away from the lake, it was a very
boring (=safe!) month. The less our birds move
around, the less chance they have of running
into someone with a gun and an appetite for
fishy meat. |
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1-31 Dec 2011.
Out of nowhere, Thatch decided to make a
big road trip. It was a 10-day, 200 mile junket
up the Rio Amazonas.
Apparently he wasn't impressed. |
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1-31 Jan 2012.
Thatch's New Years' resolution: I think I
should explore more and not be satisfied with
just the same old same old....
So it's back upriver for our intrepid teenager. |
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1-29 Feb 2012.
Thatch is exploring new territory here.
He's never been this far west.
It's very unusual for a bird that's been down on the
wintering grounds to explore new countryside
more than a year after arriving. |
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Mid February 2012.
I just love looking at the intricate and
almost abstract patterns that the big rivers
etch through the landscape of Amazonia. The lake
where Thatch spent a few days in February was
once, thousands of years ago, a loop of the
Amazon, which is now 15 miles southwest of this
lake. |
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1 Jan - 29 Feb 2012.
Here's his track for January and February. |
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Nov 2010 - Feb 2012.
This map shows all of Thatch's travels for
the 15 months he has spent along the Amazon
River.
He should be heading north in April or May. |
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