Female Osprey M-38538 "Annikki"

The female Annikki was captured at her nest in Inari in Lapland on 31 July 2002. She weighed 1870 g, and she was fitted with a battery-powered radio transmitter (manufactured by Microwave) weighing 30 g, as well as the ring E6 on her left leg. On her right leg, she already had a 'normal' aluminium ring, M-38538, that Lasse Iso-Iivari had equipped her with when she was just a nestling 19 km from her present nest, on 8 August 1999.

Autumn migration 2002

On the morning of 8 September, we still had a reading of Annikki at 9 km from her nest. On the evening of the next day, she was 359 km away, at Kuusamo Soilujärvi, and 48 hours later, she was in Russia, SSW of Pskov, and 13-17 September she was slowly making her way southwards to the East of Minsk in Belorussia. After that, Annikki stayed in an area of some tens of square kilometres in the SW of the Ukraine for a week (20-27 Sept), in the lowlands between the rivers Dnjestr and Dnjepr. After filling up, Annikki continued her migration due South, passing the western shore of the Black Sea, and passing over the Mediterranean and Sahara. She flew 418 km a day and arrived, after 9 days and 3863 km, in mid-Sudan on 6 October. During the following 4 days, she moved on another 700 km, and finally settled after that. The total length of Annikki's migration, calculated from the stages that have been observed, was 6863 km. If Annikki had taken the shortest route possible, her trip would have been 110 km shorter, i.e. only 1.6% of the way was 'superfluous'. The migration took 32 days in all, meaning she advanced an average of 215 km / 24h. If we do not consider the few days she spent in Belorussia and the week of filling up in the Ukraine, her real speed during actual flight days (21) was 327 km/24h.

Winter 2002-2003

During the time between 10 October 2002 and 30 March 2003, the signals came from a very small area (8.5ºN/29.5ºE) in Southern Sudan, 90 km West of the western branch of the White Nile. On a small-scale map, the place where Annikki spent her winter looks like a fairly dry area, not at all suitable for an Osprey.

Spring migration 2003

At 08.49 on 30 March, Annikki was still at her winter abode. On the same day, at 13.44, her transmitter told us that spring migration had begun; Annikki was already 170 km away from her winter area. Since the transmitter was still set to its winter cycle of five days, the next reading was not obtained until 4 April in the afternoon, when she had flown 1137 km. After this, the readings went to the spring cycle of 36 hours. The readings of the 6 and 8 April came from either side of the Egyptian border.

There were no readings from Annikki’s transmitter during 9-19 April. However, her activity sensor showed that the transmitter had moved. On 20 April, we finally had a reading, albeit very unclear, showing that Annikki was by the Aegean Sea, 170 km South of the Isle of Lesbos. After this we haven't received any new readings.