Sad News on HLFM’s Tagged Ospreys
Osprey Charlie is Presumed Dead. Throughout early December 2015, the HLFM received cell-tower transmitter signals from tagged Osprey Charlie as he headed south through Cuba on his southern migration. He passed into the Dominican Republic on December 13th. The last transmitter signals from Charlie were received on December 19th. As the days stretched on with no new signals, ornithologist Rob Bierregaard reviewed the Google Earth maps of his last known location and concluded that Charlie had likely been shot at a fish farm after pausing for two days to hunt. Ironically, Charlie had survived the previous winter (2014/15) despite repeatedly crisscrossing a contested area of Columbia where FARC guerrillas were in active struggle with government troops. Poaching at a fish farm in the Dominican Republic ultimately proved more dangerous than intersecting with the longest running armed conflict in the western hemisphere.
Osprey Edwin is Confirmed Dead. After a migration that began on February 26, 2016 in Brazil, Edwin returned to Connecticut on March 23, 2016. He then returned to his peripatetic ways, making quick trips to Long Island and visiting his old fishing haunts along the Connecticut and Niantic rivers. Edwin’s last data transmission was received on the morning of April 12th from Miller Pond in Waterford, Conn. About a week and a half later, we heard from ornithologist Rob Bierregaard that an officer of the Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police had contacted him after finding a deceased raptor with an attached transmitter. The officer had been checking on some fishermen and just happened to see the body under some evergreen boughs far from any beaten path, but close to I-395. After the transmitter was returned, it was put in the sun to recharge. The recovered data confirms that we lost Osprey Edwin early in the morning of April 12th. Photos taken of the body and its severely broken wing led Rob Bierregaard to conclude that Edwin likely died after being hit by an automobile.
The transmitter is being returned to its manufacturer for a potential upgrade to new cell-tower technology. If upgraded successfully, we hope that it will be deployed on a new Fishers Island osprey either later this year or next. Please submit possible names to: fimuseum@fishersisland.net
