Young female Osprey M47379 ”Kaarina”

The young female Osprey ”Kaarina” was caught at her nest at Kuhmalahti 31 Aug 2003. Along with the aluminium ring that she had been fitted with earlier, she was fitted with the id ring W4 and a solar-powered satellite transmitter (weighing 35 g, manufactured by Microwave). Kaarina, who weighed 1760 g on 31 Aug, was the youngest of three, and her elder sister was among the Ospreys moved to Spain.

Autumn migration 2003

Kaarina was literally fitted with her transmitter at the last moment. On the evening of the day following after the fitting of the transmitter (1 Sept), Kaarina was already in Estonia, whence she continued through Latvia and Lithuania (3 Sept) to Belorussia, to the northern edge of the vast Polesje marsh area. Kaarina stayed there four and a half weeks (4 Sept–6 Oct), before she continued across the Ukraine (7 Sept) to Turkey. Kaarina crossed the Black Sea during the night of 9–10 Oct. Since 11 Oct, Kaarina stayed in Turkey for over two weeks, most of the time in an area 130–160 km to the Southwest of Ankara, where there are many small lakes and rivers.

The last reading from Turkey arrived on the evening of 27 Oct. Kaarina spent the following night (28–29 Oct) on the coast of Lebanon, 63 km North of Beirut and 562 km from the previous place where she spent the night. After that she spent the night (29–30 Oct) on the border of Israel and the Palestinian West Bank, 23 km West-Northwest from Jerusalem.

On the afternoon of 31 Oct the readings showed us that Kaarina had arrived in Egypt. She had already crossed the Sinai peninsula and the Bay of Suez, and she was flying over the Arab desert c. 100 km from the Hurghada tourist resort on the Red Sea. By the following evening, Kaarina had crossed the Nile and spent her night on the mountains to the West of the Nile, 42 km West-Northwest from Luxor. However, she returned to the Nile valley promptly on the next day, because the satellite showed on the night of 2–3 Nov that Kaarina had spent the night on the shore of the Nile, 48 km South of Luxor.

It took Kaarina 62 days to travel from Kuhmalahti to the Nile valley, covering 4443 kilometres, so she made a total average of 71 km/day. Because she stopped for a total of 40 days, her average speed on the actual travelling days was 202 km/day.

After flying Southwards 46 km along the Nile to an area about a hundred kilometres from both Luxor and the Northern end of Lake Nasser, Kaarina interrupted her migration for two and a half weeks (5–23 Nov).

Kaarina continued on her journey on 24 November, progressing 224 km and spending her night on the East shore of Lake Nasser, 45 km South of the Tropic of Cancer. By the following night (25–26 Nov), Kaarina had reached Sudan, near the Northern bend of the Nile. From there, she continued along the Nile valley toward the South–Southwest, but c. 100–150 km from the main riverbed, and West of e.g. Khartoum (27 Nov). Kaarina re-crossed the Nile near the No lake on 28 Nov, after which she headed Southwest and spent the night 29–30 Nov in Southern Sudan, at a distance of 140 km from the White Nile.

During the next day (30 Nov), Kaarina continued to the Southwest and left the Nile valley behind once and for all. She arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the evening and spent the night in the tropical rainforest at the source of Uelen, the Northern main bed of River Kongo.

Two days later (2 Dec), Kaarina crossed the Westwards-flowing Uele main bed, and continued Southwest. She crossed River Congo on 4 Dec. Kaarina spent the night before the Finnish Independence Day (5–6 Dec) at the Lopori river, 50 km South of the main bed of the Congo and 175 km North of the Equator.

Kaarina’s migration of 7683 km from Kuhmalahti to the Lopori river took a total of 96 days, of which 38 were actual travelling days and as many as 58 stopover days. Up until now, Kaarina’s migration speed totalled an average of 80 km/day and for the actual flying days, it was 202 km/day.

The reading of the following night (6–7 Dec) surprised us. Kaarina had turned West-Northwest and returned to the Congo, 308 km West of the previous reading by the Congo. Against all expectations, she determinedly continued her journey from there towards West-Northwest and even due Northwest. She crossed the border river Ubangi of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo on 8 December. During the following few days (9–11 Dec), Kaarina travelled across the Central African Republic and arrived in Cameroon on 12 Dec. Two days later (14 Dec), the satellite showed that Kaarina had arrived at the large reservoir of Tibati, which was the first wintering area for Mirja from Pälkäne the previous year.

Kaarina stayed in the Tibati area for six days (14-20 Dec). After that (from 21 Dec), the readings have been coming from a very small plateau area 130 kilometres due west from the western end of Tibati, and only 15 km from the Nigerian border.

After leaving the southernmost point of her migration, the Lopori River, behind her, Kaarina covered another 1,316 km, so in total, Kaarina flew 8,999 km before reaching her ’final’ wintering place in Cameroon. If Kaarina would have ’known’ the shortest route, her trip would have been ’only’ 6,234 km, meaning that so far, 2,765 km (30%) of the trip has consisted of the uncertain wanderings of a newcomer to an unknown destination.

After spending five weeks (21 Dec 2003 – 26 Jan 2004) in an area of 108 The last readings were received on 1 Feb 2004, less than 30 km north-east of the eastern end of the reservoir. We might never know what happened then. In any case, the transmitter died...