Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Mr. Hannah goes to Brazil!

(Uncle Wiggly goes to Chicago) A few days ago I wrote about an osprey named "Mr. Hannah" who was radio collared in Nantucket. (The solar powered radio tracking GPS cost $5000 and was donated anonymously) just before his migration to points south. At that time he had just arrived in Venezuela. I thought you might like to know that he is now in Brazil. Below is an email I received today from the biologist (Robert Kennedy, PhD.) in charge of his receiver and mapping. Bob's email is on the bottom of his report if you would like to be placed on a Mr. Hannah tracking email list and also to receive fascinating google maps of Mr Hannah's whereabouts in SA. Here is Bob's email:

Hi Osprey Friends,
Mr. Hannah has not reached his winter home!
In my last email on 28 September it looked like Mr. Hannah was settling into a small area in north central Venezuela as he spent about 10 days in that area. I guess he was just having some R and R from his 11-day, 3,000-mile trip from Nantucket. Just after I downloaded the last data, which included up to 1 pm on 27 September, Mr. Hannah took off to the south at 2 pm on the 27th, arriving in the headwaters of the Orinoco River in Department of Apure, Venezuela on the 28th. He remained there until 3 October and then headed south again, crossing into Colombia on 4 October following sections of the Orinoco River along the border of Colombia and Venezuela until our last data point at 2 pm yesterday, 6 October, when he was still in Colombia but just 20 miles north of Brazil and the Rio Negro, one of the main tributaries to the Amazon. Also, he was just 2.5 degrees north of the Equator.
Since he arrived in South America, he has travelled over 750 miles south. His combined straight line flight from Nantucket is about 3,500 miles, which he has covered in 30 days.
I have attached three maps. One covers his flight from Nantucket until he reaches Colombia and Venezuela covering 6 to 17 September. The second covers his travels while in South America from 17 September to 6 October. The third is a Google Earth file that you can zoom in to see his travels more closely. Again just use the slide rule bar on the top center of the map and move the bar all the way to the right to see locations appear. You will need Google Earth downloaded on your computer to do this.
Yesterday he was flying south non-stop from 10 am to 2 pm at about 20 mph, so I am sure that he continued into Brazil and possibly is now south of the Equator. We still do not know where he will end up!
Will have another update in a few days. Enjoy,
Bob
Robert S. Kennedy, Ph.D.
Director of Natural Sciences
Maria Mitchell Association
4 Vestal Street
Nantucket, MA 02554

rkennedy@mmo.org
phone: 508-228-1782
cell: 508-577-4105
fax: 508-228-1031
MMA's Website: www.mmo.org

1 comment:

Kevin Clark said...

I've been following Mr. Hannah too, ever since I saw him fly by our deck on Sesachacha pond in August (I saw the antenna sticking out of his back). I found Rob Bierregaard's site, and have been tracking Mr. Hannah ever since. Very cool.