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Montana Osprey Cams
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Montana- ... 2613556909Hi all,
Rapunzel update!
Many of you have been following the amazing saga of Rapunzel during the past three years. But here is a quick update and reminder for others. Rapunzel is a female Osprey born near Lolo, Montana on the MPG Ranch (
http://mpgranch.com/) in the summer of 2012. My colleagues Rob Domenech, Adam Shreading, and Tyler Veto (from Raptor View Research Institute) put a satellite transmitter on her when she was a nestling. This solar-powered backpack sends her exact location up to a satellite every hour during the daylight hours. The satellite then sends us these data, so we know exactly where Rapunzel has been every hour for the past three years.
During her first migration, she made her way south by herself, eventually settling in Freeport, Texas (after some adventures through Oklahoma). She spent the next year near Freeport, often roosting at night near the Dow Chemical Refinery or the oil refineries. Last summer, when she was two years old, she headed north for the first time. She ended up in Alberta, Canada, but spent the summer making epic road trips all across the North West. She logged about 7,000 miles in her road trips that summer as she traveled in big loops across Alberta, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, always returning to the same ranch house in Alberta! She did not breed that summer, and headed back down to spend last winter in the exact same spot in Freeport, Texas.
This spring Rapunzel headed north in May, and instead of going back up to Alberta, she spent a lot of the spring in Montana to the east of Missoula. She seemed to settle in an area in a remote area of the Sapphire Mountains about 50 miles to the southeast of Missoula. In early June we were worried that she had died – the signal from her satellite transmitter indicated that she had stopped moving. When an animal stops moving for many days this usually means it died. However, in Rapunzel’s case it means that she was incubating eggs!
On Tuesday this week (14 July 2015) a small group of us made a 6 hour expedition in to see Rapunzel. Tyler Veto (raptor biologist with RVRI), Dylan MacArthur-Waltz (high school student), Dalit Guscio (with our Montana Osprey Project), Bill Munoz (photographer) and I headed down to see if we could spot Rapunzel. We went as far as we could on mountain dirt roads, and then hiked in along a spectacular creek. A lot of the woods are very dense “dog hair” lodge pole pine forests. Lodge pole pines are what telephone poles are made from, and they can grow in very dense groves that make hiking difficult. We got to a beautiful meadow along the creek, and high on a ridge overhead we saw a huge Osprey nest. There was an Osprey sitting next to it, and we scrambled to get our telescope focused on it. When the antennae and small backpack came into focus we knew it was Rapunzel!! Much laughter and rejoicing ensued!! Rapunzel’s mate showed up and they went off fishing along the creek. We hiked up the ridge, and the nest is in a huge dead Douglas fir tree.
Tyler Veto was especially moved by this experience. He made the custom harness to hold the transmitter out of kangaroo leather (which is exceptionally strong and light) and expandable cords. Attached is a picture of the sort of satellite transmitter we use. You can see the solar panel that recharges the battery and allows it to last so long. The entire rig weighs only as much as 6 quarters – a pretty light load for an Osprey.
So Rapunzel is alive and doing well with her new mate. More information to follow as we follow her adventure.
Cheers, Erick Greene