Project OspreyTrack: Wausau Map

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July 29, 2016
Wausau and his mate were not successful this year. During an early June visit I found poor Wausau defending the nest from a very aggressive intruding female Osprey. He was trying to drive the interloper off while also trying to incubate the eggs. There was no sign of his mate (which was strange). After watching for a couple hours and seeing poor Wausau trying to do it all by himself I was concerned. His data over the next couple days showed him on the nest (incubating) for long chunks of the day (much more than normal for a male). A check in late June showed no activity at the nest. I can only assume that something happened to his mate and without her he was not able to sit on the eggs and hunt and he has to abandon the effort. His data for the rest of the summer shows that he is remaining close to the nest. He may have attracted a new female. He will remain close to home until he heads south in September

May 30, 2016
Wausua and his mate are sitting on eggs and should be hatching in the next couple weeks. Since his late arrival, his behavior has been very normal and he has followed the same patterns as last year within the same geographic range.

April 19, 2016
Wausau made it home yesterday to his nest in Groveton after his winter vacation in Colombia...and I was there to see him arrive. A data upload at 11am showed that he was near Tilton, so I raced north to Groveton to try and see his arrival. It was a bit of a soap opera. His old mate had a new male with her at the nest. He was bringing sticks and looking very settled. Wausau is late so it's not surprising that she had a new guy. At 2:45, Wausau announced his arrival with a spectacular skydance and tried to land on the nest but the new male saw him off. An hour later Wausau returned and reclaimed his nest. After another spectacular skydance he flew to the nest, mated with his girl, rearranged some sticks...and it was back to normal...her nagging him to get dinner!! Welcome back Wausua.

April 15, 2016
Wausau continues to move northward and is just south of Washington, D.C. Hopefully he'll be back to his nest by early next week.

April 13, 2016
Wausau reached the very northern edge of South Carolina on Tuesday morning. By mid-morning he would have been in North Carolina. He’s still got at least five days of travel to get back to his nest and will no doubt have to fight to regain it. I haven’t had a chance to check the nest for myself, but by mid-April I would expect that all these north country nests will be occupied.

April 5, 2016
Wausau is now making excellent progress (after his 10-day turn around!). On Sunday, he crossed to Haiti and his last data point of the day showed he was continuing on to Cuba. The cold arctic blast that hit the north-east may actually benefit Wausau, as it buys him some time to get back before his nest is stolen by another male.

March 31, 2016
March 31, 2016 Wausau looks like he means it this time!! He has travelled about 290 miles north into Venezuela over the last couple days. He should hit the coast by tomorrow and start his crossing of the Caribbean. He’s probably going to have to fight for his nest when he gets back, as a prime, seemingly vacant nest location like his – with a hungry female – will attract other males looking for a nest.

March 29, 2016
Wausua has restarted his migration and is following the exact same route that he set off on 10 days ago. I assume he forgot to forward his mail or shut off the utilities!! He’s now well behind other Ospreys, many of whom have already reached their nests in New Hampshire.

March 28, 2016
Wausau has demonstrated that just when you think you know what to expect . . . Ospreys are full of surprises. After travelling 140 miles north-east, he stopped for a couple days on a the Cano Colorado in northern Colombia, but then he turned around and headed back to his winter home. Did he forget something? . . . Odd! Will he restart his migration right away . . . on the same route. Did he head off on the wrong bearing and needed a reset. Who knows.

March 22, 2016
Both Staddler and Wausau started their spring migration on March 18. Staddler left between noon and 1pm and Wausua left between 1-2pm. 750 miles apart but something triggered them both to head north within an hour of each other! They both traveled about 50 miles before roosting for the night. Now that they have started, the drive to get to their nests will be strong and they will likely average over 200 miles in a day. All the lakes and ponds and rivers are open here in NH, so they will have a much warmer welcome than last year.

March 3, 2016
Wausau has spent a quiet winter on the remote Rio Tua, a tributary of the Rio Meta in the Vichada region of Colombia. He should be heading north in the next couple weeks.

October 28, 2015
It looks like Wausau has now found his winter spot. He has been here in an area of wetlands next to the Rio Meta for a week now. If this is his winter home, his updates should get nice and boring. I’ll only update maps and blog if he does something noteworthy. You can still check in on him via the interactive maps and the phone app.

October 22, 2015
Wausau is the only one of our birds still on the move (Staddler, Donovan and Gundersen have all settled in at their winter homes). He has moved nearly 400 miles further south from his stopover in the Magdelana Valley in Northern Colombia. He is showing the experience of a mature bird and pacing himself. Before climbing up over the Andes, he stopped off for most of a day on a small river before making the push up and over (at over 10,000 feet). He dropped down into the Rio Meta river valley (a tributary of the Orinoco). Where next . . . only he knows.

October 20, 2015
Wausau had me fooled. He was just taking a 5-day break on the Quebrada Barro Blanco and has now resumed his migration south deeper into Colombia.

October 17, 2015
It looks like Wausau has reached his winter home. He has been hanging out on a river (Quebrada Barro Blanco) in Cesar, Colombia for several days now. Looks like a good spot.

October 13, 2015
Wausau is pushing south into Colombia. He ended the 13th on a nice river near Floresta.

October 5, 2015
Wausau is chilling near Guantanamo on a nice river that may be the Guantanamo River. He seems in no hurry to move on . . . yet.

October 2, 2015
Wausau is bringing up the rear, but is pushing on through Cuba. He ended October 1 near Guantanamo Bay.

September 29, 2015
Wausau departed Florida at 2pm on September 25 and reached Cuba by about 11pm that night. He rested on a small island in the Bahia de Cardenas and was on his way again by 9am on 26th. He pushed on another 230 miles over the next two days and ended the 27th just west of Camaquey.

September 25, 2015
Wausau reached the northern edge of the Everglades on the 24th and spent the night deep in the swamp. He was still there at 7am this morning. He’ll likely cross over to Cuba later today.

September 22, 2015
Wausua left his nest area on September 11 and followed the Connecticut River down to Massachusetts and Connecticut. He flew right over New York city (which many of our Ospreys have done) and then into New Jersey. He took a more inland route through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina and arrived in South Carolina on September 21. He ended the day fishing along the Santee River near Alvin, S. Carolina. He is not in a great hurry and in the last few days has been doing about 120-130 miles a day.

August 25, 2015
Wausau has followed the same pattern all summer. He has remained close to his nest throughout.

July 8, 2015
Nothing much new to report. Wausau is sticking close to the nest. I’m delighted to report that our three new bird (including Wausau) have now been added to the Animal Tracker app at MoveBank, so you can now follow all our Ospreys on your phone.

June 27, 2015
Wausau’s nest has apparently failed. I checked the nest on June 3 and the female was sitting tight. Chris Martin checked on June 24 and saw no sign of the female at the nest and no indication of chicks. Wausau was perched nearby. Wausau’s data shows he’s been making frequent visits to the nest, so this apparent failure was a surprise to me.

May 23, 2015
On May 20, 2015 we caught the breeding adult male at a nest in Groveton, NH. The sixty foot pole was no match for the extending arm of Chippers Tree Service's big bucket truck. A huge thanks to Tim Bergquist of Chippers who brought the truck and skillfully and safely brought Rob up to the top (in the cold gusty wind). We banded the female and fitted a transmitter to that male who we christened Wausau (for the old Wausau paper Mill that was such an important part of the town of Groveton for so many years). We were assisted that day by Jill Kilborn from the NH Fish and Game office in Lancaster and Tim Bergquist's son Chris who played hooky from school that day for a once in a lifetime experience. Wausau and his mate are incubating three eggs.
As usual my colleague Rob Bierregaard helped with trapping and outfitting of the transmitters and Chris Martin of NH Audubon was also present and helping.