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Satellite Ospreys 2001–2002

Sponsored by Vattenfall Oy, a research project was started in the summer of 2001 by Sääksisäätiö (the Finnish Osprey foundation) and the Finnish Museum of Natural History. The goal of the project is to complement the mapping of the migration and wintering of Finnish Ospreys with the help of satellite tracking. Satellite technology enables us to track the progress of migration from a "bird's-eye view". Thus we can get exact information on such things as migration speed, and resting and refuelling sites, about which mere ring recoveries tell us very little. Because our overall knowledge about the migration and wintering of the Ospreys of Lapland is very sparse, the research is focused on these, "the world's northernmost" Ospreys.

During the summer of 2001, the Sääksisäätiö field research group, consisting of Juhani Koivu, Helmi-Irene Saurola and Pertti Saurola, and the local guide Lasse Iso-Iivari, fitted only one Osprey with a radio transmitter. This Osprey was "Lasse", who was nesting at Utsjoki, and apparently was literally the northernmost male Osprey in the world that year. In the summer of 2002, reinforced with Harri Koskinen, the same field group removed Lasse's transmitter and fitted six new Ospreys with transmitters. At Utsjoki, Lasse's mate, "Marjaana", and another pair, "Harri" and Lea", who were nesting nearby, were fitted with transmitters, as were the female Osprey "Annikki" in Inari, and in Häme, "Victoria", a Swedish-born female from Pälkäne, and "Mirja", a fledgling from Hauho. The research continued in the summer of 2003.

Annikki This female Osprey from Inari made a beeline for Sudan.
Harri This male Osprey migrated over two continents to the southernmost tip of Southern Africa; he made the world record for Osprey migration with his 12,500 km!
Lasse The northernmost male Osprey surprised us by wintering in Israel.
Lea The fishing in Northern Poland interrupted the migration of Harri's mate for a week before she continued to Equatorial Guinea.
Marjaana Lasse's mate filled up at the Danube delta for two weeks, then she flew to Southern Sahara in a week, and eventually stopped in Cameroon.
Mirja This young female Osprey from Häme took a flying start, then rested in Greece for five weeks, and then followed her instincts to Cameroon.
Victoria This female from Häme followed the western migration route indicated by her Swedish origins and ended up in Sierra Leone.

Map symbols

  • Dark blue or dark red symbol: tracking precision < 1 km (Argos 3, 2 and 1).
  • Light blue or pink symbol: the tracking precision has not been noted, but it is probably some kilometres / some tens of kilometres (Argos 0, A and B).
  • White symbol: placement very unreliable
  • Dotted line: at least one end of the line segment is unreliable
  • Date: date when observed
  • Large symbol: established resting place