Project OspreyTrack: Weber Map

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September 30, 2016
STOP Press: New life for Weber. While compiling data for an article on the Osprey project yesterday, I downloaded data for all 16 of the NH Ospreys we have tagged and followed since we started the project in 2011. One of those birds—Weber—was a juvenile that we tagged at a nest in Seabrook Harbor in 2013. Weber mysteriously vanished in northern Venezuela in October 2013 and we assumed he died. His transmitter came back to life briefly in June of 2014 and uploaded some points from the exact same spot and we assumed that the transmitter had just gotten enough sun to upload. It was just a few points from the exact same spot he vanished in and we thought no more about it. It turns out that unbeknown to me his transmitter had continued to send intermittent uploads throughout the rest of the year right up to December and some of the points clearly show that the transmitter was moving around up to a mile from the location we thought Weber had died. So . . . our conclusion is that Weber did not die in October 2013, he had a faulty transmitter and was seemingly still alive in December of 2014. We have no reason to believe that he isn’t still alive now.

October 7, 2013
Weber was going along so well, but it looks like we have lost her. She crossed from Florida to Cuba on September 19, then over to Haiti on September 23. She flew all the way to far eastern end of the Dominican Republic and then crossed over the Caribbean Sea through the night of September 26-27. She continued into Venezuela and stopped at a small river about 163 miles from her landfall point . . . and her signal stopped. The download of data on October 1 showed no movement. The download on October 4, only had a couple non-GPS points and we have heard no more since. We’ll never know what happened.

October 1, 2013
A quick update from Iain: New maps coming later in the week (I've been out of town). Here is a quick overview. Artoo is in Cuba and Bergen was on southern tip of Florida (likely has crossed to Cuba now). Both moving along nicely. Weber is heading east in northern Venezuela. So our three NH chicks are leading the pack of eight in the "class of 2013." Three of the eight have died so far, so our trio is beating the odds. Donovan is in the Dominican Republic and will be crossing the Caribbean in the next couple days. The sad news to report is that we lost Mackenzie. His signal stopped more than a week ago and yesterday I found his remains next to Head Pond in Berlin. He had been predated. All evidence points to Great Horned Owl -- the Osprey's "public enemy #1" The Movebank maps show all the details.

September 25, 2013
Weber on southern tip of Dominican Republic ready for the BIG flight across Caribbean! Anxiety time!

September 23, 2013
Weber continues to make good progress and is eating up the miles in Cuba. The map shows her route and roosting sites for September 19-21. It also shows the routes that Art and Jill used last fall. Weather in the Caribbean is looking calm so far, so all looks good for a safe crossing to South America in the next week.

September 20, 2013
Weber made a safe trip over to Cuba. She left the southern tip of Florida at 10am on the 19th and six hours later was in Cuba. Good girl!

September 13, 2013
Weber roosted last night about 35 miles from Charleston, South Carolina (her tenth state). She has kept up a nice steady pace through the first week of her migration. She has moved each day and is now 820 miles from Hampton Harbor. She has been finding lakes and ponds along the way and often ends the day and begins the next day at or near a pond. She lingers at each in the morning (catching breakfast) before moving on, so all indications are that she is doing just fine. She is following the “normal” New England Osprey route that we expect to see adults take. Juveniles often deviate (they don’t know any better) but Weber is following the road map nicely. If she keeps up this pace, she will be in Georgia or northern Florida next time she checks in. The map below shows her midnight (roost) locations each night.

September 11, 2013
Weber is leaving the boys in her wake. By 2pm yesterday she was already in North Carolina (570 miles into her migration). She crossed the Chesapeake very close to where Bergen is hanging out, but did not dally. She is a girl on a mission and reminds me of Jill last year, who stuck very close to the nest until the day she left and then made a picture perfect and rapid flight right along the “normal” adult migration route. We’ll see if she keeps on going or takes a break somewhere down south.

September 7, 2013
She’s off! After barely moving from the immediate vicinity of the nest in Hampton Harbor since we tagged her on July 29, the passing cold front obviously nudged Weber into migration mode and she left the nest between 9am and 10am on September 6. She flew directly over downtown Boston and then right over downtown Providence. She ended the day 130 miles from home near the town of Haddam just east of the Connecticut River in Middlesex County, CT. She spent the night on the cross arm of a wooden utility pole in a large power line corridor. On the 7th, she was well on her way by 9am and was crossing the Hudson River just north of the NYC at 2pm, having gone another 80 miles.

September 6, 2013
Weber is a homebody. She has barely moved from the immediate vicinity of the nest. Seems to be a trait of female chicks. But this cold front may nudge her into action.

August 29, 2013
Nothing much new to report from Weber. She is sticking very close to her nest, with only a few very short excursions into the saltmarshes.

August 15, 2013
Weber is beginning to explore her world a little. She was adventurous on the 12th and took three trips away from the nest, but has stayed close to the nest ever since – maybe she scared herself . . . there’s no place like home!!

July 31, 2013
Weber is a recently-fledged juvenile Osprey from a nesting platform in the Hampton Harbor saltmarsh. During our previous week’s scouting we were sure there were two fledglings from this nest, but only Weber showed any interest in the platform during our trapping day. He was caught using a noose carpet trap along with his mom (who was quickly released). Weber is named after local Hampton resident Dave Weber, who installed this and several other Osprey platforms in the marsh several years ago, and kindly provided his boat and expert knowledge of the area on our scouting trip and on trapping day. Dave is a wonderful addition to our team. We were also joined by Sharon and Scott Harvell who had won the opportunity to join us as winning bidders on an auction item at our recent Saturday Night Wild event. This was a once-in-a-lifetime birthday present for Sharon. Weber’s first map shows that, as expected, he is staying very close to the nest. We left a very large bass in the nest (as a peace offering) which no doubt Weber and his mom have stuffed themselves on for the last couple days. This transmitter is programmed to give an “extra” night-time location (at midnight) as well as twelve chronologically contiguous hourly points during the day (6 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Weber roosted on the nest each night so far.