Male Osprey M-40754 ”Vihtori”

The male Osprey ”Vihtori” was fitted with a satellite transmitter on his back (weighing 30 g, battery-powered, manufactured by North Star) as well as the id ring W3, by his nest in Loppi on 21 August 2003. The transmitter was the same as the one that travelled to Israel on ”Lasse’s” back two years earlier, and which had had a new battery installed at the factory. Vihtori weighed 1410 g when caught. Pertti Saurola had ringed Vihtori as a nestling in 1997 at the same nest in Loppi as Laho two years earlier. The distance between the two nests in Loppi is 23 km. Vihtori’s two female offspring of 2003 will also make their migration with a satellite transmitter on their backs. Justiina was given her backpack at the nest and her sister was given hers in Spain.

Autumn migration 2003

Vihtori’s autumn migration probably started on the morning of 4 September. On the previous afternoon, Vihtori was still in his territory, but he spent the night of 4-5 Sept near lake Võrtsjärvi in Estonia, 259 km from his nest. The following readings came from further west than expected: Poland, 5 km from the border of the Kaliningrad area and 46 km south of the city of Kaliningrad (6 Sept) and Germany, the lake area of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (8 Sept). After that, Vihtori stayed a few days (10–16 Sept) in Nordrhein-Westfalen, before he crossed the border into France. Here, in the Lorraine province, on the plateau dotted by lakes, whence the Mosel and Saar rivers start off in different directions, Vihtori stayed and fished for nearly two weeks (17–30 Sept). After that, the readings suddenly ended completely. For now, we can only conjecture whether Vihtori’s transmitter broke down or whether he became the illegal target of a frustrated French duck hunter.