I was so moved by the migration story of this Osprey and because of my direct involvement in getting to know the story that I decided to share it in this forum despite the risk of being repetitious. On August 3rd of this year I took this photo of a female Osprey with leg bands, near Inverhaugh, Ontario, Canada. After I submitted the band number to Bird Banding Lab I came to know that the bird was banded in 2010, in a nest 6 km south of Luther Marsh, not too far from where I saw it. The bird is 8 years old now. In an e-mail to me on Oct 13, the bander, Mr. David Lamble informed me that the bird is reported seen recently in Santa Ana, Misiones, Argentina -- near southern Paraguay! After she left Ontario, most likely towards end of August, she has made safely to her wintering ground almost 9000 km away. What an incredible journey. She has been nesting in Southern Ontario three years now, this year she had three chicks. I hope that she safely comes back next year to raise another brood of young Ospreys. I am looking forward to that event. By the way I did some online reading to find out if this bird holds the long distance record for an Osprey. It appears that back in 1994, another Osprey made 10,000 km journey between Finland and South Africa - it is still the record as far as I could tell. However, this could be the first time that a Canadian Osprey was recorded wintering in Argentina.
A Heart Warming Story by
Dinusaur, on Flickr
