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Satellite Osprey Pete: Autumn 2007

Pete's autumn migration route 2007:

18 Sept

On 18 Sept at 10 Finnish summer time (07 GMT), Pete was still in his home range, a few kilometres from his nest. Three hours later, he was flying in Tammela, at the south end of the isthmus between the lakes Pyhäjärvi and Kuivajärvi, heading south-southwest at an altitude of 186 metres. By 16 o’clock, Pete had arrived at Hirsijärvi in Kisko, where he stayed at least until 7 o’clock the following morning. Pete migrated 122 km during his first day of migration.

19 Sept

At 10 on his second day (19 Sept), Pete briefly stopped in Tenhola after flying 30 km, then he set out to cross the Gulf of Finland. At 13 o’clock, Pete was already flying across Estonian waters east of Hiidenmaa at an altitude of 929 m.

20-22 Sept

At the time of writing this (evening 23 Sept) it looks like as many as 18 fixes are missing! The only readings after passing Hiidenmaa were received during the night of 21-22 Sept. At that time, Pete was in Poland, 17 km due east of the famous knight castle Malbork, and 578 km from the previous location. During his first four days of migration, Pete had traversed 876 km, i.e. an average of 219 km a day.

During the following 72 hours, we had more success with locating Pete than during the previous period, though nowhere near as successful as at the fishing range in Finland; now 10 fixes were successful, i.e. only 42 % of the programmed 24 attempts. On 22 Sept Pete continued his migration 192 km to the southwest and ended up spending the night in the vicinity of Pila.

23 Sept

On the next day (23 Sept), Pete was airborne at the time of the fixes at 10 and 13 o’clock (GMT). The satellite measured his velocity at 29 km/h and 35 km/h at those moments. During those three hours, Pete traversed 85 km, i.e. he reached an average speed of 28 km/h. This means that the momentary speeds measured by the satellite seem fairly reasonable. At night, Pete settled down on the bank of the river Pliszka, only 5 km from Oder at the border between Poland and Germany.

24-25 Sept

The fixes from the nights of 24-25 Sept also came from the same area, some 21 km southeast of Frankfurt an der Oder and 100 km east-southeast of Berlin. During his first week, Pete has travelled 1,239 km, i.e. an average of 177 km a day.

28 Sept

The information packet the satellite received on 28 Sept did not contain one single reliable GPS fix! Instead, the satellite could make one Argos fix with an accuracy of about 1 kilometre. It showed that Pete was in eastern Germany on the morning of 28 Sept, in the state of Saxony, 33 km southwest of Dresden and 100 km northwest of Prague, and only 8 km from the Czech border. After his stopover at River Pliszka, Pete has clocked only 185 more kilometres on his travels.

The packet received three days later (1 Oct) differed completely from the previous one. Between 11 o'clock on 28 Sept and 23 o'clock on 30 Sept (GMT), only three fixes were missing of 21 possible! According to the manufacturer the large variation in received data is partially due to the radio interference; the interference fills the airspace in central and especially south Europe, and it is often hard for the weaker transmitter signal to penetrate it.

All the GPS fixes received between 28 Sept at 11 and 29 Sept at 05 came from the area in Germany that the Argos fix had already shown us. Pete spent the afternoon and night at a lake (or reservoir) that is circa 3 kilometres long.

29 Sept

In the morning, Pete first flew 5 km southeast, but then he veered to the west-southwest, following the northern edge of the Erzgebirge mountain. After flying less than 50 km, he stopped again and stayed the rest of the day and the following night 29-30 Sept a few kilometres from a small lake that may well be a fish-farming reservoir and that Pete, used to the Pohtiolampi offerings, may have used for refuelling.

30 Sept

At 05 in the morning, Pete was already on his way, heading southwest from this area 20 km south of Chemnitz. He found his following stopover place after 98 km, in Bavaria, 26 km north of Bayreuth. There were small lakes in the immediate vicinity of this place, too – perhaps fish are farmed in them?

1 Oct

The latest GPS fix in this packet was made at 23 (GMT) on 30 Sept. However, a few Argos fixes were received on 1 October. According to them, Pete had turned towards the south-southwest; at noon, he was still in Bavaria, 47 km northwest of Nuremberg, and four hours later in Baden-Württemberg, 68 km due east from Stuttgart. These fixes (Argos accuracy class = 0) have not been entered into the map yet, since the following data packet may contain the corresponding and more accurate GPS fixes.

3 Oct

Pete continued his migration under a sky filled with radio interference: the packet received on 4 Oct did not contain one single useful GPS fix and only one Argos fix (accuracy level A, not on the map). The situation changed completely when we received the packet on 7 Oct. It contained all 31 possible GPS fixes from the period between 3 Oct at 8.00 and 7 Oct at 2.00 (GMT). During the information black-out, Pete had progressed 356 km as the crow flies from the previous GPS fix (on 30 Sept). At 8 (P46 = position 46) and 11, Pete was still in Germany, very near the Swiss border, 14 km northwest of Schaffhausen. At 14 (P48), Pete was flying at 616 metres over Switzerland, near Aarburg, and ended up in a copse of around one square kilometre at Wyningen (P49-54) for the night. It is located only 93 kilometres from his previous stopover.

4 Oct

At 8 (GMT, or 10 local time), Pete was still in his overnight copse, but three hours later he was speeding (53 km/h as measured by the GPS) past the southwest end of Lake Neuchâtel, and at 14 he was keeping nearly the same speed (44 km/h) while passing Geneva. After a day’s travel of 191 km, Pete found his stopover place on the French side of the border, 33 km southwest of Geneva (P58-61) and only 2 km from the River Rhine.

5 Oct

Both the fix at 8 (P62) and the previous night’s fix at 17 o’clock (P57) seem to show that Pete was fishing by a tributary circa one kilometre from his overnight place. The following two fixes showed that Pete continued along the Rhine valley. At 17, he had arrived at the tributary Chassezac (P65) to the west of the main river; he followed it a few kilometres upstream and found a suitable place to stay overnight by the shoreline (P66-69). This day, he covered 216 km.

6 Oct

The fix at 8 still came from a few kilometres from the stopover place, but then Pete picked up speed: during the following six GPS fixes, he was flying all the time. By 11, he had flown 61 km from his overnight place, and the Mediterranean coast was still 44 km ahead. After the 105 km flown during the following period, the following fix was received from the Mediterranean, 16 km from the coast by Narbonne. Then Pete progressed as fast as 64 km/h during the following three hours, 192 km due south, and by 17 (or 19 local summer time) he was at sea 100 km east of central Barcelona (P73). He continued through the night due southwest over the sea. Around midnight (23 GMT), Pete was traversing just about the middle of the 200-km broad waters between the Catalan coast and Majorca (P75).

7 Oct

At 02, Pete was 26 km southeast of the tiny Columbretes island group, 116 km east-northeast of Valencia and 120 km west of the western tip of Majorca. Between 17 and 02 he covered 91 + 87 + 97 km per three-hour period, totalling 275 km in nine hours. This means that his average speed, 31 km/h, was less than half of his quick dash between 14 and 17. The wind effect on Pete's flight at that time will be analyzed in due time. At the beginning of his flight over the sea (at 14-17), Pete was flying at about 200 m. During the night (20-02), though, Pete flew just a few metres above the sea.

The fix at 2 o’clock was the last GPS fix in the packet received on 7 Oct. After this, one exact Argos fix (level 2, not on the map) showed that Pete had still been at sea at 04.04, 41 km southwest of Valencia.

We have to be very pleased with the following information packet (10 Oct), since it came from a very difficult area of the Mediterranean. From 5 o’clock on 7 Oct to 9 on 10 Oct, 21 of the 26 GPS fixes programmed succeeded, i.e. 80 %. All the misses, unfortunately, occurred this day (7 Oct). Since the following fix after the 2 o'clock one was not recorded until 11, we do not know exactly where Pete was and what he was doing after his long trip at 5 and 8. However, thanks to the Argos fix mentioned above we can assume that Pete reached the shoreline at 5 in the morning, some 50 km south of Valencia.

To summarize: after leaving around 9 o’clock on 6 Oct, Pete travelled 770 km at the average speed 38.5 km/h for 20 hours in one go; 610 km of this stretch occurred at sea.

According to the GPS, Pete was in flight at 11, 12 and 15 (P77-79) at the altitudes 1,238 m, 751 m and 1,517 m and the speeds 38 km/h, 55 km/h and 54 km/h. Since Pete reached land only 13 km from the 11-o’clock fix, we can deduce that Pete took a break of around six hours after his long sea journey before he continued towards the southwest. This time, Pete flew over the continent, 40 km from the shoreline. He stayed overnight 26 km to the west-southwest of the town of Murcia (P80).

8 Oct

In the morning, Pete continued his journey over the continent, keeping a steady course to the southwest. At 12 (P83), Pete was flying at an altitude of 1,506 m over Andalusia, 51 km north of Almeria, and three hours later, he was already at sea, 41 km from the coastal town of Adra. (P84). By 18 o’clock, Pete was only 15 km from the coast of Africa, off the town of Al Hoceima (P85). This time, Pete flew at an altitude of 415 m and 405 m over the sea, and he traversed 138 km in three hours, i.e. his average speed was 46 km/h. That night, Pete stayed in the mountains only 5 km from the shoreline (P86-89).

Pete’s migration from his home territory in Häme to the coast of Morocco took 22 days. The route Pete took was 3,629 km long. As the crow flies, the trip would have been 3,516 km, meaning that 113 km (3.1 %) of Pete's route was 'extra.' Pete’s average speed so far has been 165 km per day.

9 Oct

From his stopover place, Pete proceeded to the south-southwest over the coastal mountains, and then he turned southwest following the ridge of the Atlas. After covering 264 km, passing the towns of Fès and Meknes, Pete stopped for the night at Sebt des Ait Ikkou, 144 km east of Casablanca – or Dar-el-Beida in Arabic (P93-97).

10 Oct

The last GPS fix (P98) of this packet was received at 9 o’clock, when Pete was 27 km southwest of his overnight place. During the day, a few Argos fixes arrived, but they have not been marked on the maps. According to a fix received at 17.34, Pete was near Atlas, 88 km east of Marracech.

The GPS fixes (P101-105) that arrived three days later (13 Oct) confirmed that Pete spent the following night east of Marakesh He flew a total of 230 kilometres this day.

11 Oct

At around 9 o’clock, Pete was flying 5 km from his stopover place. According to the GPS data, he was flying towards the south-southwest at an altitude of 777 metres and a speed of 37 km/h (P106). At noon (P107), Pete was taking a break at 897 m before setting out to cross the High Atlas, which elevates to nearly 3,000 m on the route Pete seems to be taking. At 15, the GPS measured Pete’s altitude at 1,275 m and his speed at 67 km/h (P108). After covering 128 km that day, Pete settled down for the night at the banks of a river running from the south to a reservoir east of Quarzazate (P109-113). The fix came from 9 km south of the town. With a population of 60,000, Quarzazate has become a haven for tourists with five-star hotels, and the centre of operations for movies filmed in the desert (such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Sheltering Sky).

12 Oct

At 9 (P114), Pete seems to have been fishing only 600 m from his overnight boulder. At noon (P115), he was 52 km southwards, flying towards the southwest at an altitude of 1,279 m making 26 km/h. Then Pete changed his mind. At 15, the GPS discovered Pete (P116), by the banks of River Draa that runs from the reservoir by Quarzazate all the way to the Atlantic, and 75 km to the northeast of the noon fix! For the night, Pete flew up to the mountain nearby (P118-121). This day Pete also covered 128 km, but he did not shorten his remaining migration by much.

13 Oct

We finally received all the data for this day in the information packet on 16 Oct. The fix from 9 o’clock (P122) from the Daar river 10 km west of his overnight place confirmed that Pete was in no hurry to continue south. At noon (P123), Pete was apparently sitting in the top of a small tree 51 km northwest of the previous position, and 230 m from the main road N10 that runs southeast of the Atlas mountains, towards Agadir on the Atlantic coast. According to an Argos fix (accuracy 0, not on the map) at 14.27, Pete was fishing at the western end of the reservoir 4 km from Quarzazate, and at 15 (P124) according to the GPS, he was flying by the east end of the reservoir at a speed of 40 km/h towards the north. All five night fixes (at 18-06; P125-129) were recorded some 20-40 m from an (electricity) pole 3.5 km northeast of the east end of the reservoir and only 230 km from the main road. Though the GPS fixes are supposed to be +-18 metres accurate, I believe that Pete stayed on this pole all night.

14 Oct

At 9 o’clock, Pete seems to have been sitting on the sand (P130), since there does not seem to be any better perches in the vicinity. The rest of the day and early night (at 12-00 GMT), Pete stayed at the east end of the reservoir, only 50 m from the banks of a river running to the reservoir (P131-135).

15 Oct

The fixes at 03 and 06 (P136– 137) unexpectedly show that Pete had had to interrupt his sleep and had moved over a kilometre away, to a pole by the main road. By 09 Pete was observing the traffic from another pole (P138) 250 m from the previous one. At noon and in the afternoon Pete was back at the east end of the reservoir (P139–140), and at 18 he was on top of a new pole by the main road (P 141). Apparently, he was on his way to a new overnight place 650 m north of the main road, 3 km northeast of the east end of the reservoir. Pete probably spent the night on a large power-line pole and not in the wadi underneath, whence the fixes came, 40-70 m from the pole (P 142-145).

16 Oct

At 9-15, Pete was in exactly the same place (P 146-148) on the banks of the river running to the east end of the reservoir, where he had spent two days before. For the next night, Pete returned to the north side of the main road, to another power-line pole (P149-153) 230 m from his previous overnight place.

17 Oct

Today, Pete continued his tediously repetitive agenda, spending the day fishing and hanging about at the east end of the reservoir (P154-156) and the night to the north of the main road, this time at the same place where he spent the night before last (P157-161).

18 Oct

Pete stayed seven nights and six days in the Quarzazate area, also known as the Hollywood of Morocco. He took his time, fishing at the reservoir Lac du barrage El-Mansour-Eddahbi dammed into the Draa river. Searching with this name on the web will bring up both images from this area and the travel descriptions of birdwatchers. You can also see photographs from Pete’s route on Google Earth. There is a menu to the left of the satellite image to display layers such as borders, roads, built-up areas etc on top of the image. If you click on Geographic Web with your left mouse button, some blue dots will appear on the map. Then you can click on a dot in an area that interests you to display a photo from that area.

During five days (13 Oct at 12 – 18 Oct at 9), all 40 programmed fixes on Pete were received, showing that Pete’s territory at that time only encompassed 5 km2! In reality, Pete probably moved around more, though not over a wider area during his break.

Up to this morning (18 Oct), Pete has been travelling for 30 days, i.e. one month, covering a total of 4,251 km. His average speed has been 142 km per day.

He continued his trip at 9, flying due south 2.6 km from his stopover place (P162) at a speed of 41 km/h. At noon, he was 38 km from the previous fix, and according to the GPS, he was flying at a speed of 55 km/h at an altitude of 1,851 m (P163). Pete was still flying at 15 o’clock, 124 km further on at a speed of 37 km/h and altitude of 1,764 m (P164). At 18, the numbers were 113 km, 51 km/h and 1,032 m (P165). After flying a further 11 km, Pete settled down for the night 288 km from his previous stopover, in Algeria 38 km from the Moroccan border (P166-169), some 600 m above the sea.

19 Oct

At 9 o’clock, Pete was flying southwest 25 km from his overnight place.

At noon (P171), Pete had just crossed the border to Western Sahara. The GPS measured his altitude at 1,059 m and his speed at that moment as 68 km/h. At 15 (P172), Pete was flying at an altitude of 1,789 m, and one hour later at 1,834 m (P173) over Mauritania. By 21, Pete had found a stopover place on the Mauritanian plateau (P174-177) some 300 metres above the sea. Pete covered a total of 463 kilometres during this day. His average speed during 9-18 o'clock was 41 km/h.

20 Oct

In the morning, Pete set out much earlier than usual. At 6, he was still at his overnight place, but by 9 (P178), when he has usually only just set off, he had already covered 146 kilometres. At 10.30, Pete crossed the Tropic of Cancer. His speed was 70 km/h and altitude 1,053 m (P179) at noon . It turned out to be a long day, because Pete was still flying at an altitude of 822 m (P181) at 18 o'clock, flying a route with a spectacular view of the dune formations of the Mauritanian erg (photo) opening to the east. This day trip totalled 506 km by the time he reached his stopover place (P182-183). In 12 hours (6-18 o'clock), Pete traversed 486 km, averaging 40 km/h.

For some reason, Pete had to find a new place to stay overnight at midnight, since the fixes at 3 and 6 o'clock (P184-185) came 2.3 km away from the evening fixes. The difference can hardly have been caused by the two latter GPS fixes being 2 km inaccurate compared with the earlier ones?

21 Oct

Halfway between the fixes at 9 and noon (P186 and 187) is the city of Atar , the capital of the region of Adrar. If you click with the left mouse button on the blue points around Atar in Google Earth, you can see photographs of the landscapes that Pete has passed over. During this day, Pete progressed 248 km, i.e. less than half of the previous day's daytrip. After a slightly unsettled evening (P189-190), Pete settled down for the night in a place (P191-193) 77 m above the sea, 280 km east-southeast of the famous wader shores of the Banc d'Arguin national park, 287 km east-northeast of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, and only 270 km north of River Senegal at the border of Senegal.

22 Oct

According to the GPS fixes, Pete had covered 16 km by 9 o'clock (P194), and at noon he was flying only 170 km from Senegal (P195). An Argos fix (accuracy class 0) at 16.11 advances the information that Pete had already crossed the border at that time.

The advance information was confirmed with the new information packet on 25 Oct. According to the GPS fixes it contained, Pete still had 67 km to the border at 15 o’clock (P196), but at 18 he was already on the Senegalese side, 26 km from the border (P197). He found his final overnight place 3.5 km further on (P199-201). It was situated on a sand plateau 30 m above the sea and 314 km from the point where he set out that morning.

23 Oct

At 9 o’clock, Pete was flying 68 km from his stopover place, at an altitude of 71 m and a speed of 24 km/h (P202). It comes as no surprise that Pete had covered 24 km during the following hour (P203)! At 13 the GPS measured Pete’s altitude at 927 and his speed at 52 km/h. He had progressed 125 km in three hours (P204). After flying a further 106 km, that evening Pete arrived in a place (P205-207) in Senegal, by the river Saloum, 32 km from the Atlantic shoreline and 61 km north of the Gambian capital Banjul at the mouth of the Gambia river. It is likely that Pete had now arrived at his final destination, well known to him from previous years of wintering along with Scottish, Norwegian and Swedish Ospreys in the Senegambia. Most Finnish Ospreys usually winter further east.

Pete made his 2,142-km trip from the Lac du Barrage El-Mansour-Eddahbi reservoir in Morocco to the Saloum River in six days. His average speed during 18-23 Oct was 357 km per day.

The migration from Finland to Senegal covered a total of 6,393 km, if we do not count Pete’s detour in the area of Quarzazate. Following the great circle of the earth, his flight would have been 6,165 km long. Pete only flew 228 km (3.7 %) more than the shortest possible route would have required in theory. This shows that Pete knew exactly how to reach his destination.

In all, Pete’s autumn migration from Häme to Saloum in Senegal took 36 days, of which he spent at least two days resting at the Pliszka River on the border of Poland and Germany, and six days in the area of Quarzazate. If we include all the days of his trip, Pete's average speed was 178 km per day. But if we leave out the days of rest, his speed during active migration was at least 228 km per day. Since some of the fixes from central Europe could not be registered, we cannot be absolutely sure whether we know quite all of the stop-over days.

Pete's winter 2007–2008 »