Dear Tweetsters,

I once again would like to direct you all to the Falcon Research Group website frg.org.
As you may recall several peregrine falcons, wintering in Chile, were outfitted with state-of-the-art satellite transmitters, last spring, in Chile and we could follow their migration north (some of them, some turned out to be locals) on our computers. The automatic plotting of satellite data onto Google Earth maps has won acclaim worldwide. It helped establish some pretty exciting peregrine data: roosting at 16,000 feet elevation in the Andes; 537 miles covered in a single 24-hour period, etc.
Two birds that flew to the high north have started moving south. "Linda" is moving slowly around Hudson Bay but "Seven" is racing south along a completely different trajectory than his northbound migration. Check it out! He's been flying across the Gulf of Mexico and may cross over Padre Island, a well know peregrine migration hot spot (a spot he bypassed on his northbound route).
The maps on the website are being updated as reliable signals come in (thank you Don McCall!).
Bud Anderson (FRG Director) has driven north in his truck and is sitting somewhere south of Linda's position, waiting to "intercept" her and try and follow her south, with the help of Don, feeding him satellite data as it becomes available. Bud's goal is to keep a blog going with information on what kind of habitat she's flying over/through. So far she's not been very cooperative. As of a few days ago she had not crossed any roads yet, which has stymied Bud and his GPS transmitter-outfitted truck........
Once she gets to more inhabited areas, Bud hopes to alert schools along the route and start educating people on what is going on in their back yard or front lawn, whichever the case may be.

For us homebodies; we'll just have to get our kicks by checking the website and travel along vicariously.

Martin Muller, Seattle, WA
martinmuller at msn.com<mailto:martinmuller at msn.com>