Island Girl, a satellite-tagged adult female Peregrine Falcon, is
"scheduled" to depart her breeding range on Baffin Island right about now.
She will be completing her fourth round trip migration south to the coast
of Chile which may be a record for a tagged peregrine (we caught her on 15
March 2009). We are all amazed that her solar powered GPS transmitter is
still going strong at this point. Traditionally, she departs within a 24
hour period on either 22 or 23 September so we expect to hear she is moving
at any time now. Of course, she may decide otherwise but we wanted to
remind our friends, supporters and all of those interested in avian
migration that you can follow her as she flies south.

You can monitor her progress at www.frg.org. Click on 2012 Southern Cross
Peregrine Project (in blue), select either the blog or tracking maps, pick
"Island Girl" and then scroll down to see her map and daily progress. We
usually get three signals per day (within 20 meters of her location) so we
know when she leaves, how far she goes each day, where she sleeps, what
route she takes, how long the overall migration lasts and when she arrives
on her winter range on the coast of Chile. All of these data are available
to everyone so please enjoy her adventure.

Here are a couple of tips to enhance your viewing. On the tracking map,
there is a "Map Type" box. Click to change the type of map, including a
Google Earth type habitat map. If you drill down on this one, you can often
detect exactly where and what she roosts on at night. For example, last
fall, she slept one night on the capitol dome in Springfield, Ohio. Other
nights she could choose a tree or cliff. In some cases, if you look hard,
you'll find a shadow indicating a cell or other type of tower.

Also, if you click on one of her location dots, you get data about how far
she flew between dots, how many days she has been traveling and how many
miles she has covered so far on this particular migration. This wizardry is
brought to you by my colleagues, Don McCall and Mark Prostor.

--
Bud Anderson
Falcon Research Group
Box 248
Bow, WA 98232
(360) 757-1911
falconresearch at gmail.com
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