November 2009 moves

Both adult and immature eagles went south in November, both crossed the Tatar strait between the Sakhalin and mainland on 17-18 November, and by the last week of November reached the Kuril island chain. The routes of the last stretch was a bit different. The adult female went along the Sakhalin island and crossed over to Hokkaido, and then, demonstrating a steady pace of migration crossed over from Siretoko peninsula to Kunashir.
The immature bird made a spectacular crossing from the Sakhalin island to Urup Island within 2 days. One fix on 19 November 2009 was obtained 20 km in the open sea. The fix for the 20 November was timed out, but on the 21 November the bird was at a small volcanic island of the Vavilov's spur, off the Urup Island coast.The bird arrived to the Urup island proper on 28 November, and then continued south to the Iturup island. On the Iturup the bird appeared on 12 December.

Encounter of our instrumented birds

To my amusement I see that our 2nd year old bird and the adult eagle have met each other at an estuary of a small river in the Russian Far East. The GPS parser still does not pick it up (see red and yellow lines in the pix), but the automated system does (in lower picture, both lines are white).

The river is not on the Steller's Sea Eagle maps, but it not far from the Belaya Gora village with its infamous clearcuts.

View of Magadan

Here is the web-cam's view of the Magadan. Currently there is some snow on the mountains.

http://89.28.252.218/view/index.shtml

Below is a graph of temperature

Adult eagle start migrating

The adult eagle has started it s journey away from the first snowfall on 12 October 2009. In one day it managed to cross over from the Motykley Bay to the Okhota river valley (over 300 Km). For 3 days (and counting) it stayed at the Okhota river valley.

Young eagle is on the move!

The second-year old Steller's Sea Eagle has left the treacherous Okhota river and went south to the Nurki Bay, and currently is near Ayan town. Hope he will pass this place safely.

Adult and young eagle had the same stopover place, but in different time

The adult Steller's Sea Eagle stopped over on the Okhota rive, at the same place, as the young Steller's stayed. The departure of the young eagle coincided with the arrival of the adult eagle. A coincidence?

New Yamaha outboard

By mid-June the new outboard Yamaha-30 hp, purchased thanks to the funds of the San-Diego Zoo was broke into full extend. Break-in period required to ride the outboard on "not-very heavy" boat with half-trottle. Both conditions are difficult to meet.  In addition the gas/petrol has to contain double amount of 2-stroke oil. After the Odyan trip it was time to reduce the oil to the normal level. From now on we are ready for 'full throttle ride' in the sea!

The old Mariner 30Hp with damaged low gear unit was converted to a Jet outboard and await to be deployed in rivers. The engine head (now 10 years old) is still firing on all cylinders.

Thank you San Diego Zoo!