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Ospreys in strange places....



John Lindfors posted the following:

>Just a note about an osprey that I saw soaring over the east side of Jackson
>Park in Hendersonville, NC south of Asheville, NC.

>I expect them during migration at our local lakes but I have never seen them
at Jackson Park.

>Ron Selvey told me that yesterday (Wed. 7/10/02) he saw Worm-eating Warblers
>along the Nature Trail.

>John Lindfors

[end]

I've collected data from Ospreys wearing satellite transmitters that 
shows that Ospreys whose nests have failed can do some very 
impressive wandering. Birds tagged on Martha's Vineyard would commute 
back and forth between MV and ne Connecticut routinely. One bird, a 
male, made several trips back and forth between MVY and the New York 
City area after his nest failed and before he took off on migration. 
(See the maps for last summer's movements for Ospreys KB, KD, and HX 
posted on the Carolina Raptor Center website: 
http://www.birdsofprey.org -> 'migration').

So Ospreys seen in Hendersonville, or the one I saw last June over 
Whiteside Mt (!) in Highlands, are probably birds whose nests have 
failed and they could be several hundred km from their nests but are 
not yet migrating. There's a decent population in TN, so maybe these 
western NC birds have wandered over from there. (Were any of them 
wearing orange and singing that "Rocky Top" thing?)

Rob Bierregaard
Charlotte
-- 

Rob Bierregaard

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