Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Settling in. Pressing on.


Three satellite-tracked Swallow-tailed Kites have returned safely to the US, beginning to settle into their summer home ranges, while four others continue to press north. 
Tracks and locations of seven satellite-tagged Swallow-tailed Kites from 1 March - 16 March 2015.
Since back in Florida, Day has been traveling along a 17 mile corridor from Ormond Beach to south of Port Orange.

MIA is settling into his past summer territory in south Miami.

Gulf Hammock touched US soil on 8 March after a grueling 68 hours over water, fighting strong winds in the Gulf of Mexico. It pushed her farther west than she wanted to be, making landfall in Louisiana. She took some recovery time for rest and refueling before beginning to inch east to Florida.

Pace took a very similar path as Gulf Hammock, cutting the same “corner” crossing the Bay of Honduras. As of 16 March he was in northern Quintana Roo, Mexico and almost in position to make the cross-Gulf flight to the US.

At 500 miles south of Pace on 16 March, Palmetto was in Nicaragua on the same course as the two kites north of her. Her mate, Bluff was yet another 600 miles south of her just entering into the Darien of Panama.

PearlMS was last in Amazonas of Colombia and about to cross the high peaks of the Andes Mountains.