Michigan birds are flying south for the winter - and you can watch them.
MichiganOsprey.org has an osprey migration tracking map that shows the birds migrating south.
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The site explains the project:
We’ve all been watching the return of our Ospreys and during the past decade have experienced the thrill of seeing them expand their nesting range into Michigan’s southern Lower Peninsula. Their recovery since the era of DDT is very gratifying. What makes it more exciting is that this expansion was facilitated by the 1998 – 2007 hacking project. The goal of the Reintroduction Program was 30 nesting pairs by 2020. It’s a job well done as we achieved that number and more in 2010.
The projects goals are:
- Track migratory paths of Michigan Ospreys,
- Determine arrival/departure dates,
- Track foraging habits,
- Identify stopover sites and feeding grounds during migration,
- Track movements on the wintering grounds,
- Locate dangerous areas to their survival,
- Fill in the gap for regional migratory data.
- Educational outreach to schools and the public
- Conservation of habitat
The map shows that some of tracked osprey have already made it down to South America!