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Migration: Peregrines / Island Girl
Alison:
Island Girl has continued her southern migration. The site was down for some days, but came back online.
From October 8; by then she had travelled 3,118 miles.
And the relevant blog entry, from Donald McCall:
08 October, 2016
Island Girl Has Almost Reached Mexico
Island Girl followed the Texas coastline for 333 km (207 mi) yesterday (Friday, 7 October), and nearly reached Mexico. Her southwesterly course took her farther inland by the end of the day; she roosted last night in the town of Pharr, 11 km from the Rio Grande (and Mexico), and 100 km (62 mi) west of South Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico. Google Earth shows her location to be a small strip mall, where the tallest nearby object appears to be a large billboard (visible on Google Street View).
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: Dagny on October 07, 2016, 19:18 ---I found an interesting article on an eagle website about how they may use barometric pressure to navigate during migration. I suppose this would apply to peregrines as well.
--- End quote ---
I've wondered about this - if it is barometric pressure that answers how they get around storms and take advantage of weather fronts to move fast but a) where do they know where to go generally and b) specifically why such a huge range in where our birds go? One of our birds remained in Winnipeg all winter for many years, another spent time in Iowa (ack it was Iowa or a state further north), others have gone to Mexico (all over Mexico), others have gone to or via Florida to the islands and another made it all the way to Brazil. Why not just keep flying as far south as the Tundra birds like Island Girl? Glad they don't go all the way north like she does but I'd love to know how they know ... though the mystery of it is pretty cool as well.
Dagny:
I found an interesting article on an eagle website about how they may use barometric pressure to navigate during migration. I suppose this would apply to peregrines as well. Note: this is aimed at schoolkids.
https://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/eagle/WeatherBarometer.html
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: GCG on October 07, 2016, 05:30 ---I'm curious and concerned. Will hurricane Matthew have some effect on the migration? TPC?
--- End quote ---
Birds (all birds) have to be good at reading changes in barametric pressure if they plan to survive given that they live in flight. It is entirely possible that NA's birds knew about Matthew long before we did. As for Island Girl I would expect her to tuck down out of the hurricane's path if it is between her and Chile. Otherwise I would expect her to head west as Matthew is heading northeast. Just because she (or other migrating peregrines) have a preferred route doesn't mean they aren't perfectly capable of changing their plans en-route.
GCG:
I'm curious and concerned. Will hurricane Matthew have some effect on the migration? TPC?
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