Blog #357Graduating Class of 2021

Lilibit flying over Salt Point before migration, courtesy of Karel and Cindy Sedlacek. 

The graduating class of 2021 Cayuga Lake Ospreys have winged their way to the Caribbean and South America and are looking for places to live on the coast or along a tropical river.  Before migration, the young Ospreys were in the constant company of their siblings eating,  sleeping, and playing together as a family. But for the last six weeks, each juvenile has been on a solitary quest southward to a place it has never been, unaided by including parents,  siblings, friends, or a map humans can detect.  

Migration is one of nature’s great mysteries. While theories abound, no one knows how  juvenile Ospreys know where to go. Instinct must play a major role, acting like a sixth  sense compelling an inexperienced bird to move southward, but other inexplicable  forces are at play. 

Tracking Ospreys wearing miniature satellite transmitters, researchers have revealed an  Osprey's general flight path. The birds will follow the sun, stars, and coastline of North  American to the tip of Florida where they cross the Straits of Florida to Cuba before 

Migrating adult osprey with GPS satelitte transmitter, courtesy of Fred Woodman. 

flying east to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. From the Caribbean, the juveniles undertake a fly 500-mile open water crossing to winter in South America. The juveniles  chose fish-filled waters along rainforest rivers and lakes into the Amazon Basin ranging  from Venezuela and Columbia to Brazil. Adults tend to winter farther south with adult  females nesting as far south as Argentina. 

Basic fall migration route of Ospreys, courtesy of Laura Erickson. 

It's a 3,500-5,000 mile journey, depending on the route the juvenile takes. Many  dangers face during the fall migration. These first-time migrants have deadly collisions  with cars, ships, or power lines and are shot by subsistance aquaculture farmers for  poaching fish. These young-of-the-year birds can be blown off course by severe storms  and hurricanes or get lost in open-water crossings. However, the juvenile Ospreys that  do survive their first 18 months year have a better chance of living through future  migrations. The Class of 2021 should return to Cayuga Lake in the April of 2023. The 

new males will look in this general area for places to nest while the females look for  mates within a 100-mile radius of their natal nest. 

Goodbye to Cayuga’s Class of 2021, who will return in April, 2023. Salt Point, by C.E. Cornell. 

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell 

Friends of SaltPoint 

Lansing, NY 

Cayuga Lake Osprey Network 

NY cec222@gmail.com 

Get outside: Hawk watch!  

New York has multiple premier Hawk watch locations, with many of them having  designated hawk counters. HawkCount gives you the ability to find hawk watch  locations across North America, contacts of designated hawk counters or coordinators,  and new and historical data that has been collected at these locations. To learn more  about hawk watching and to find great resources, visit the Hawk Migration Association of North America’s website.

EYESTOTHESKY! 

WATCH! 

Salt PointOspreyNest Cam 

READ! 

OnOspreyTime Ospreys of Salt Point 

VISIT! 

Cayuga LakeOspreyTrail

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