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Sr. Bones - 2011
'09 maps for:
Bea
--
Buck -- Caley --
Claws --
Conomo --
Hix --
Hudson 09 -- Isabel --
Katy -- L.R. --
Moffet --
Mr. Hannah --
Ozzie --
Penelope
--
Rafael
2010 maps for: Belle
-- Buck --
Gunny --
Hudson --
Mr. Hannah --
Neale --
North Fork Bob
--
Penelope --
Sanford
-- Sr. Bones --
Thatch
2011 maps:
Belle --
Buck --
Henrietta --
Katbird
-- North Fork Bob --
Pemi --
Saco --
Sanford --
Sr. Bones --
Snowy --
Thatch -- Tucker
2012 maps: Art --
Belle --
Bridger --
Chip --
Cutch --
Jill -- North Fork Bob --
Rammie --
Snowy --
Sr. Bones -- Thatch
2013 maps: Art --
Belle --
Bridger --
North Fork Bob --
Rammie --
Snowy --
Sr. Bones
Osprey
main page --
Migration
page --
Migration09 --
Migration10 --
Migration 11 --
Migration 12 --
Migration 13 -- Home
Page
![](bones-111019a.gif) |
Fall Migration: 16-28 Sept 2011:
Sr. Bones esta em casa!
(He's back in his winter home) Sr. Bones
started south this year on 16 Sept, a week later
than the previous year. But that year his nest
failed, so he didn't have any responsibilities
in late summer.
His track south was almost identical to that of 2010
until he crossed the Caribbean. Most likely,
back in 2010 (orange track) the wind was out of
the west, and he went with the flow. In 2011, it
looks like easterly winds pushed him to the
Guajira Peninsula in Colombia.
He made it back to his winter hideout on the 18th.
Scroll down for more maps beginning in January.
Skip to spring migration.
Skip to fall migration. |
![](bones-110406all.gif) |
Spring Migration: 24 Mar-6 Apr 2011: Sr. Bones is home on
Nantucket. He had had
smooth sailing almost the whole way. He took care of
Cuba in 2 days, with no stops at fish farms!
He did the whole trip in a remarkable 14 days.
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![](bones-110131.gif) |
1-31 Jan 2011: Sr. Bones is giving North Fork Bob a run for the
money in the smallest winter home range contest.
For both birds, the core area is about 1 km (0.6
mi) in diameter. Bones makes a few more sorties
away from his core area than Bob does, so I'm
giving the prize to Bob.
Sr. Bones should be heading north in a few weeks. |
![](bones-110228.gif) |
1-28 Feb 2011: Sr. Bones continues to fish in his mountain redoubt. |
![](bones-110325.gif) |
1-25 Mar 2011: Sr. Bones is finally heading home. He's taking a very
different route than he used in the fall. When
he was coming south from Hispaniola weather
probably pushed him east. When he got to
Venezuela, he corrected for his displacement and
headed southwest to his hideout in the Colombian
mountains. Now he's heading north, staying over
land as long as possible. Once out over the
Caribbean, he will hit either Hispaniola or
Cuba, depending on how hard the trade winds are
blowing.
Our Long Island bird, North Fork Bob, is also on his
way north-his track is in the lower right of
this map. |
![](bones-110327.gif) |
25-28 Mar 2011: Sr. Bones left South America
on the 27th, a few days after North Fork Bob.
Two interesting points here. First, we see once
again that the way north is usually different
than the route taken coming south. Second, we
see in both Bob and Senor Bones' northbound
tracks evidence of the "stay over land as long
as possible" strategy of Osprey migration.
Starting from opposite sides of the Gulf of
Venezuela, both birds left the continent on the
northernmost points of land they could find.
Crossing the water is dangerous (as we saw too
painfully in last fall's hurricane season!) and
to be avoided as much as possible. |
![](bones-110401a.gif) |
28 Mar-1 Apr 2011: Sr. Bones wasted no time
with the Caribbean. We always like this, as
Hispaniola and Cuba are dangerous places for
Ospreys. Too many fish farms and uneducated
farmers who think Ospreys will take their
chickens.
Again we see that he's not following his south-bound
route, so we know they're not navigating by
landmarks. |
![](bones-110404.gif) |
1-4 Apr 2011: Sr. Bones knocked off both
Carolinas in a big movement day on the 4th. |
![](bones-110405.gif) |
4-5 Apr 2011: Sr. Bones had a 5-state and
two bays day on the 5th, winding up in New
Jersey. He crossed Delaware Bay from Cape
Henlopen to Cape May around midday. |
![](bones-110406c.gif) |
5-6 Apr 2011: Another big travel day for Sr. Bones,
who arrived at his nest on the 6th, a remarkable
13 days after leaving his winter hideout in
Colombia! |
![](bones-110431.gif) |
6-30 Apr 2011: After arriving home on the
6th, Sr. Bones made a quick junket over to
Chappaquiddick, on Martha's Vineyard. After an
hour or so over there, he went back to Nantucket
and got down to the business of breeding. |
![](bones-110531.gif) |
1-31 May 2011: During most of May Sr. Bones
would have been doing virtually all the hunting
for himself and his mate. Most of the action was
on the eastern half of the island-around
Sesachacha Pond and the Head of the Harbor. |
![](bones-110630.gif) |
1-30 June 2011: A carbon copy of May. |
![](bones-june10N11.gif) |
1-30 June 2010 and 2011: Here is a
comparison of where Sr. Bones was during June of
last year and June of 2011. We see that the
fishing seems to have been fairly similar in the
two years. At least he was looking for them in
the same places. |
![](Sr%20&%20Sra%20Bones%20Nestling%2029%20June%202011.jpg) |
29 June 2011: Here's the bundle of joy that
Sr. Bones is catching all those fish for! It's
right about 3 weeks old, so it hatched around
the 8th, which means the egg was laid around the
1st of May, three weeks after Sr. Bones arrived
from South America. |
![](bones-june10N11c.gif) |
1-30 June 2010 and 2011: A close-up of the
fishing action in 2010 (pink) and 2011 (orange). |
![](bones-110727.gif) |
1-27 July 2011: Apparently the fishing has
changed. He may have been at Sesachacha Pond
during the month, but he wasn't there much. Our
locations are taken on the hour, so he could
have made a few quick trips there and back. |
![](bones-july10N11.gif) |
1-31 July 2010 and 1-27 July 2011: The
fishing action in 2010 (pink) and 2011 (orange).
It seems that whatever happens to the fish in
Sesachacha Pond, it is an annual event. |
![](bones-july10N11c.gif) |
1-31 July 2010 and 1-27 July 2011: Another
close-up comparison of the fishing action in
2010 (pink) and 2011 (orange). |
August 2010 |
August 2011 |
![](bones-100831.gif) |
![](bones-110831.gif) |
![](bones-110916.gif) |
16 Sept 2011: Sr. Bones is off! He began
this year's fall migration a week later than
last year, but last year he wasn't taking care
of a youngster.
He's on pretty much exactly the same route he took last
year (the yellow line).
He was on Martha's Vineyard at 11, Newport RI by 1PM and at
the end of the day roosted on Fishers Island at
the mouth of Long Island Sound. |
![](bones-110917.gif) |
16-17 Sept 2011: AOn the 17th, he was out
over the Atlantic at 9AM about 90 miles from
Fishers Island. He was flying a touch over 30
mph, so if we backtrack, he left Fishers Island
around 6AM--an unusually early start. Typically,
Ospreys begin the day's migration closer to 9.
He roosted for the night west of Rehoboth Bay in
Delaware. We tagged a number of birds there in
earlier years. |
![](bones-110917capemay.gif) |
17 Sept 2011: The hawk counters at Cape May
probably saw him go over just before 2PM. |
![](bones-110921.gif) |
18-21 Sept 2011: The weather was good and
Sr. Bones took advantage of it, covering 630
miles (1012 km) in four days.
On the 19th he travelled almost 200 miles and roosted
near Greenville, SC. On the 20th he moved about
85 miles down the coast to Bluffton, just north
of Hilton Head Island.
Next leg was only about 55 miles with his roost 33
miles south of Savannah, GA.
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![](bones-110924.gif) |
22-24 Sept 2011: Bones continued his steady
move south down the coast. On the 23rd he moved
about 130 miles down to the northern outskirts
of Orlando. He was either bucking a headwind,
sightseeing, or using thermals, because his
ground speed for most of the 7 hours the trip
took was less than 20 mph. I suspect that when
birds are using thermals (rising up on a thermal
and then coasting south until they find another)
isn't as fast as straight flapping flight.
The 24th saw a bigger move of around 195 miles, most of
the way doing over 20 mph. |
![](bones-110930.gif) |
24-30 Sept 2011: AHe covered about 190 miles
from his roost in the Everglades to his
projected landfall in Cuba on the 25th. He left
the keys heading out over the Florida Straight
at 4PM. His last signal was at 9PM, with about
30 miles to go before reaching Cuba. He was only
going around 15 mph, so he probably got to the
coast around 11PM. Not sure where he spent the
night, as we next got a signal at 10 AM. The
11AM location was close to the 10AM, so he
probably roosted around there and was fishing
before heading off down the spine of Cuba.
He got to Arroyo Muerto (Dead Arroyo--I don't like the
sounds of that!) on the 29th and then took a day
off on the 30th.
In 14 days, his distance covered (roost to roost) was
1,858 mi. (2,991 km). He averaged 133 miles/day
(213 km/day). |
![](bones-111012.gif) |
28 Sept-12 Oct 2011: Bones spent some time
in eastern Cuba and then lingered around the
Haiti/Dominican Republic border for about 6
days--making us nervous. The D.R. is not an
Osprey-friendly place, as too many of our tagged
birds have discovered. |
![](bones-111015c.gif) |
12-15 Oct 2011: Bones crossed the Caribbean
using a much shorter route this year than last.
Probably last year's crossing was with a
westerly wind that blew him east, making the
trip a lot longer than it had to be. It seems
this year the Trade Winds were doing their
thing, enabling him to make the short crossing
to the Guajira Peninsula.
Our last fix for him is only about 240 miles (380 km)
from his winter area.
While it's not on this map, he's now retracing pretty
closely the track he took heading north back in
the spring. |
![](bones-111019c.gif) |
15-19 Oct 2011: Bones retraced his spring
route up the Magdalena River Valley, skirting
the Cordillera Occidental (western) and arrived
in his mountain redoubt on the 18th, 33 days
after leaving Nantucket.
Last fall, he was blown pretty far east as he crossed
the Caribbean, so he had to work his way back
toward his winter quarters and cross the
Cordillera to get back down into the Magdalena
Valley. |
![](Bones-111019Maracaibo-basin.gif) |
15-19 Oct 2011: Bones' route up the
Magdalena Valley is a bit easier to see here.
His wintering spot is just above Bucaramanga. |
![](bones-111019bS.gif) |
15-19 Oct 2011: Here's a view
looking southeast, sort of looking
over Bones' right shoulder. |
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