McKenzie Seeds - 2011 / Brooklyn & Hurricane

[The Peregrine Chick]

Thought I had posted this but maybe not 

One of the Brandon chicks decided to take the water route - was 90km offshore south of New Orleans a week and a bit ago and there was no land in sight under/near him.  He made it to shore in southern Mexico and is doing a wee bit of sightseeing in the area. 

The other Brandon chick's transmitter is offline and has been off for a couple of weeks.  Transmitters are notorious for malfunctioning and the hope is that it will come back online on its own.  Could also be that the chick has run into trouble except that he was in a pretty safe location when the transmitted fizzt (technical term).  Haven't had any reports, so the Rule applies, "no news is good news". 

[dupre501]

TPC, please thank your contact for me. I really appreciate them sharing the information on the Brandon chicks.

[RCF]

Well, it looks like the pigeons are getting wwwaaaaay too comfortable on the Scotia and McKenzie building.  Spring is just way too far away for my liking!

[RCF]

 The last time I saw any of our falcon family, it was Hurricane on Oct 6th when I took her picture on the south light on the McKenzie building.

[eagle63_1999]

Migration is an amazing phenomenon for birds but think of the Monarch butterflies, they fly to Mexico.  In the spring they have 3-4 generations of monarchs that make the migration but in the fall it is the final generation that makes the flight to Mexico from Canada!!

[photosbydennis]

Nice photo RCF...thanks 

[susha]

I absolutely love the above photo of Hurricane, rcf! 

Ditto!  Beautiful shot rcf!

[Kinderchick]

I absolutely love the above photo of Hurricane, rcf! 

[RCF]

It was very windy here Thursday afternoon but I saw Hurricane on the south light keeping an eye on the pigeons that were flying all around her.  I didn't see her at all on Friday, so maybe she went south finally.  She was here until October 8th last year, so she probably did leave. I hope she has a safe trip there and back.

[Saoirse]

Migration is truly an amazing phenomenon.

Definitely! It's funny how we know how far the various birds travel each year but, once we start thinking about "our" birds, knowing more details of where they are and how far they've travelled, somehow it seems more real. At least, that's the way it strikes me as I read the details in TPC's post.

[susha]

I agree bdbird!  And technology allows us to be a part of it - so cool!

[bcbird]

100km or more per day!
I always knew the birds travel great distances to get to their winter location, but when you give us these updates in real time, it gives me pause to think of the epic feat they do twice each year.
Migration is truly an amazing phenomenon.

[Kinderchick]

That's amazing! Thanks for the update, TPC. So nice to hear where they are located.

[The Peregrine Chick]

For those who are keeping a map of the USA by their computer keyboards this migration season, the Brandon chicks are both in Arkansas at the moment though not together - one is just about at the Arkansas-Texas or Arkansas-Lousiana border.  Sorry, I don't know which is which, just their general locations ...

Sorry, meant to add - straight line distance from Brandon to the middle of Arkansas (riough average for both birds) is 1780km.  Looks like they left on September 20th so that is about 17 days of flying so averaged is about 100km/day - about the same distance, straight line from Winnipeg straight south to the US border, Brandon to the US border is about 90km straight line.  They probably have actually travelled further than that in their wanderings and I don't know the exact start/end dates for these readings, but it does give us all a rough average for interest sake.  It is likely that some days the birds flew more, others when they just hung out hunting or resting or avoiding poor weather.   

[RCF]

Hurricane on north side ledge of Scotia building today