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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

As you can see from our latest map, Quest is still moving along the Cape. But take a closer look at the southeast corner of the map, and you’ll notice that there are three locations for her, almost stacked on top of each other. Zoom in (click the + sign on the map) and use the satellite overlay (click the Sat button), and you’ll see she’s been hanging out in the town of Chatham Port. Her location data on the 14^th, 16^th and 17^th place her at the Chatham Middle School. In fact, it looks like she was playing a little baseball, hanging out in deep right field on the 16^th! Maybe she’s sitting in on a couple of classes too, brushing up on her geography.

Of course, having been raised in a city Quest is no stranger to populated areas, and the school is probably one of the tallest structures she’s found recently. We’ve sent a message to the school to let them know about their distinguished visitor. We’ll have to see if anyone there has a Quest sighting to report. If they do, we’ll be sure to bring the news to you!

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Quest continues to stay at Cape Cod. The locations for the past several days show that she’s spending her time flying up and down in the vicinity of State Rt 6, no doubt taking advantage of all of the prey available to her.

Meanwhile, the sharp-eyed birders at the Cape continue to report Quest sightings. Here’s a recent one, posted on the Massbirds message list from Alex Krofta.

On Thursday 9/6 at about 5PM we saw a peregrine falcon cruising along the beach (harbor side) near Corn Hill Landing Road in Truro. Since we were standing at the top of the dunes, the bird was quite close to us [and] appeared to have an antenna sticking up from its back. It continued south along the beach and out of sight but returned a few minutes later. ( We assume it was the same bird, but of course can’t be certain.) This time we got a better look at the antenna, and there also seemed to be a lump at the base of it, probably about halfway down the bird’s back. The antenna was maybe 8″-12″ long and looked “striped” with thick dark and light segments. Again, the bird moved south down the beach.

Some of our readers have wondered how Quest fared after the remnants of Tropical Storm Hannah passed over the Cape. We’re happy to report that she was spotted by John Kaar, on the 7^th of September. John was able to observe Quest’s ID band and he reported them to the Bird Banding Lab at the US Geological Survey, who forwarded his report to us. Here’s what John told us about his sighting.

Sunday, September 7 was beautiful on the lower Cape, tropical storm Hannah having passed by overnight. I was walking with my wife and friends on Chatham’s South Beach, down near the low tide surf, when I noticed Quest sitting on a pile of wrack up at the high tide level near the dune grass. At a distance I wasn’t sure it was a bird, despite the silhouette, because her front markings blended in so well with the dried seaweed. She watched as I approached and shot pictures, then seemed to lose interest in me and started preening. After shooting several pictures, we walked on down the beach. Quest was still there when we returned 20 minutes later, so I got some more photos, which included good views of the color leg bands. I was a little surprised that Quest stayed in one place while we circled around her (albeit at a distance), but she seemed to be in good shape, so I assumed she was just tired after the previous day’s storm.

Even better, John took a few pictures of Quest with his new digital camera!

John tells us that he bought his camera specifically to get better birding pictures. We think he did a great job!

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Quest continues to make the eastern edge of Cape Cod her home. The last few days’ location data place her mostly in the southeast corner of the cape. It looks like she’s settled down, and we’ll just have to see when, or if, she decides to go elsewhere. It’s a bit boring to watch, perhaps, but you can hardly fault her. She’s found a place where she can thrive, at least for now. It’s good fortune for a young falcon like her, to be able to hunt and keep herself fed. Hopefully the skills she’s practicing now will serve her well when she decides to seek her fortunes elsewhere.

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Quest seems to be settling in to her summer “territory” very well. As with the rest of August, she has continued to roam up and down Cape Cod. In contrast to some of our recent maps, we’re showing her over the water at a couple of points in this one. Transmitter data from the last two days of August were not of the highest Confidence Level, (degree of accuracy), so the specific locations may be off by as much as several kilometers. Nevertheless they fall within the expected range of her travels so we feel confident including them here.

A few days ago we received another eyewitness report of Quest at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Refuge from Rich Johnson. Here’s what he had to say:

“Three days ago I noticed a peregrine strafing [Goose Pond] here at WellfleetBay and the volunteer naturalist there (Ivan Ace) put his binocs on it and saw the antenna profile… The photos are from Aug 17…”

And here are the pictures that Rich sent along!
          

On behalf of the Rochester Falconcam team and all of Quest’s fans around the world, we want to thank Rich and Ivan for their sharp eyes and great camera skills!

If anyone happens to see or photograph Quest, we’d love to hear from you!

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

There’s little question that Quest has found a place to spend the rest of the summer, as the location data from her transmitter continues to place her on Cape Cod. It’s an attractive spot for a Peregrine. Prey is plentiful, because of the high concentration of shorebirds. It’s also a migration route for other birds, so getting food is probably not too hard for her. That’s an important consideration for a young bird like Quest, who is still honing her hunting skills.

We’ve had another eyewitness sighting, this one from August 7^th when Quest was near Nantucket Island. Here’s the report from Falconcam fans Lyn & Bill Howard:

“Witnessed Quest on Aug 7th at 9:45am on north shore of Tuckernuck Island west of Nantucket Island and observed with binoculars, Quest gain altitude and perform a stoop. Kill obscured by land. Kayaked to sand spit and observed Quest on a Tern Kill at eye level 15 feet away. Quest flew off 70 minutes after first siting to the southeast after being dive bombed by 2 terns repeatedly and headed right for a startled Blue Heron working a tidal pond then disappeared over a bluff of land. Nothing left of kill except feathers. What an experience. Only saw a silver leg band on right foot and the transmitter wire. Any other bands might have been obscured by leg feathers-also a small red area on her breast was observed assumed where feathers had been lost [ed. note: This is most likely the transmitter harness, which is made from red neoprene material]. We look forward tracking Quest’s voyage wherever she goes… Thank you Quest for letting us be there with you…”

Thank you Lyn and Bill for providing us with a terrific account of Quest on the hunt! Knowing that she’s feeding herself by stooping on prey is welcome news. Birds like terns are relatively slow, abundant targets, and a single successful hunt could provide enough nutrition for a few days. And since there are a lot of them around, she might just stay until the birds embark on their winter migration. If she continues to feed herself successfully there, it could be a month or more before she makes any significant moves, likely following her prey as they head south.

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Quest continues to enjoy her time at the Massachusetts shore. She spent the past week exploring up and down State Route #6 on Cape Cod, where she is presumably dining on a smorgasbord of shorebirds.

And now for a really special treat… A couple of days ago the DEC’s Barbara Loucks forwarded an email to us from Shawn Carey. Shawn is a professional wildlife photographer and a member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. It turns out that on August 17^th Shawn was photographing at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on the cape, when he came across a banded juvenile Peregrine. It was Quest! Shawn took some fantastic photos of Quest, and he reports:

“She sat there for about three hours with many people walking by, stopping to view and photograph [her]… [She] was a fun bird to see and photograph and needless to say that has never happened to me in my many years of wildlife photography.”

We need to invite Shawn to spend some time with us at the High Falls next June or July! Many thanks to Shawn and the Massachusetts Audubon Society, as well as Mike Amaral at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Barbara Loucks for connecting the dots needed to identify Quest.

Quest looks great, and she doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to leave. It’s likely there’s plenty of prey nearby, and hopefully few predators. It’s possible she could spend the rest of the summer where she is. In any case, we’ll keep watching to see what her next move will be.

-Jess

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Quest continued her eastward trek in August, reaching the Massachusetts coast in the first week. She looks like she’s taking a little vacation, visiting tony Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Cape Cod. We’ve omitted some data points with signals that weren’t as strong (keep reading for an explanation), but the majority of data indicate that she’s having a great time exploring the far eastern reaches of the US. Most of Mariah’s offspring whose locations are known– and all that previously had transmitters– went north or west. So Quest’s eastern movement is an unexpected surprise.

By the way, it looks like our earlier announcement that she’d flown north to Maine and Quebec may not have been accurate (sorry about that!). The data placing her there is included in her August travels, but its reliability is questionable, based on the transmitter’s signal strength at the time those data were received. It’s possible that she headed north, but since all the rest of the data for the month so far puts her firmly in the Nantucket/Cape Cod area, we’re skeptical of our earlier announcement.

WARNING!!! Technical Content Ahead!
Quest’s satellite transmitter has a small battery that is recharged by a solar panel mounted on top of the transmitter body (here’s a picture). The battery supplies power for the radio-frequency transmitter that sends its signal to a bunch of satellites orbiting the Earth. To save power, the transmitter only sends data for a few hours at a time. Then it shuts down for many more hours. This “transmit and rest” process is called a Duty Cycle. Its timing was programmed into the transmitter before Quest received it.

The power of the transmitter is pretty low– about 100mW– so the signals that get up to the satellites may not always be very strong. The variability in the signals, differences in terrain, even local weather and time of day can create uncertainty about the accuracy of the data. So each time the satellites receive data from the transmitter, they assign a confidence value to the location based on the strength of the signal and other factors. The data we receive includes the location information, and also the confidence value assigned to each piece of data. We try to post the data with the highest confidence levels, but sometimes the only data we get in a duty cycle is of questionable accuracy.

So, it looks like Quest really can’t go much farther east, unless she hitches a ride on a fishing boat or a cargo ship! It’ll be interesting to see what move she makes next.

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

We’re happy to offer the first of what we hope will be twice-weekly updates on Quest’s travels. Since we have some older data we thought we’d show you where she’s been, then work our way forward. So our first map plots her July journey.

As you can see, Quest spent most of her time hanging out in Rochester. In fact, for the first four weeks the strongest data we received placed her in and around the downtown and High Falls areas.

Then, at the end of the month she decided to head east. In just a few days she made it all the way to Duanesburg, just east of New York’s fabled Leatherstocking region. That’s what we at the Rochester Falconcam like to call good flying!

Check back soon for more updates.

-Jess