Hi all, Rapunzels Wanderings - serial novel chapter 23 THE BIG SCARE! I have not sent you news of Rapunzel for a while. Last week I was looking at satellite data, and I got a real shock – it looked like she died!! On her last wanderings, she left the Milk River area of Alberta (upper right cluster of points in the first pic) on 26 July and flew just across the border into Montana (the lower left cluster of points). However, when I zoomed in to look more carefully at her movements, my heart sank. She did not appear to have moved for many days. This is a typical mortality signal. And even worse, all the points were showing up coming from right near a power pole (second pic). So I suspected that she was electrocuted on the power lines (a lot of raptors go that way), and then perhaps was dragged around by a coyote or something. I was having nightmares about Rapunzel dying, and waking up in the middle of the night with cold sweats. But she is still alive!!! We only get an update on the satellite data every fourth day. We opened the most recent data files with great trepidation, suspecting that they would confirm our worst fears. But she has been moving around and spending time fishing along the creeks in the area!! So she is still alive and well near Cut Bank, Montana. So I suspect that she is just tired out and was spending lots of time resting on the power pole. Who can blame her since she has basically spent the last couple of months flying all around the northwest? She does not appear to be making these huge road trips anymore, and seems to be concentrating more on fishing. So I also suspect she has shifted gears, and is in “fill the tank” mode and boosting her energy reserves in preparation for migrating south. It will be so fascinating to see how she migrates south. Any bets from any of you about where she will end up and how she will get there? Cheers, Erick Greene PS We have changed the color of the symbols to yellow and orange. Color blind people could not see the red dots on the green backgrounds! Sorry folks!!
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:03:47 +0000
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