View Quest Travels October 2009 in a larger map

The last several days’ locations have Quest moving to the east, away from Port Hope and Wesleyville. In fact, with the exception of one trip west to Nanticoke Ontario on the 15^th all of her movements have been eastward.

Her current location is the northern shore of Lake Ontario near Amherst Island. Position data for the past two days places her at the Lennox power station, which has a pair of tall smokestacks; perfect Peregrine perches (thanks to viewer Chrissy for the station ID)! There’s no telling whether she’ll stay here for the winter. Last year at this time she was ensconsed on Cape Cod. Time will tell if she decides to migrate or stick close to the lake.

View Quest Travels October 2009 in a larger map

If Quest were driving a car it seems she’d be wearing out the pavement on Highway 401. After spending a few days in the Kingston area she’s back at Port Hope. With colder weather coming in already, we can only wonder what plans she may be hatching for her winter lodgings. Thankfully we’re back online with her transmitter so we’ll be able to watch the details unfold and bring them to you!

We’re going to try something new for our weekly Quest updates. Instead of building separate maps of her movements every few days, we’ll plot her positions for the entire month on a single map. We’ll use the same colored icons that we use on the Where Has Quest Been rolling map to show her most recent locations, and indicate older ones with gray icons. We think that a monthly map provides a more “strategic” view of her wanderings. Comments are welcome!

View Quest Travels September 2009 in a larger map

In a break from our regular weekly plots, we’ve mapped her entire month to give you a fuller view of how she spent the last few weeks. The big news for Quest in September was, well, not very big at all. She spent nearly all her time in and around Port Hope and Wesleyville. The exception was that on four occasions she ventured west in the vicinity of Clarington. But the great majority of her locations placed her at Port Hope in the wedge of neighborhood streets between Walton Street and Mill Street North/Ontario Street. In fact, she showed up there so often that it would be surprising if she wasn’t spotted by at least one resident (though we haven’t heard of any sightings).

Now that we’re up to date on Quest’s September travels and her data feeds are flowing again, we thought you might benefit from learning a little more about the satellite data we recieve and how it’s interpreted. Basically, we receive an email every evening. It’s sent by the satellite tracking agency at Midnight, Greenwich Mean Time (also known as GMT, or Zulu time, for those in the know). The Eastern Time zone is 5 hours behind GMT, but because we’re currently experiencing Daylight Saving Time, the differential is 4 hours. Thus, we get the emails around 8PM local time here in Rochester.

Each email contains the most recent set of data sent from the transmitter. ARGOS has a constellation of satellites in low-earth polar orbit. That means that the orbit of each satellite takes it over both the north and south poles. The transmitter is set to send a signal each hour, but depending on time of day, weather conditions and the relative positions of the orbiting satellites we may recieve more or fewer transmissions on any given date. Sometimes we get as many as one transmission every hour. Sometimes we get only one or two (or even none) for an entire day. So when we plot Quest’s position we look for the best of the day’s signals.

How do we choose the best? Well, it’s a bit of an art, but for the most part it follows some pretty consistent rules. To see how it works it might be helpful to look at some of the actual tracking data we receive. Here’s a typical example:

59783 Date : 25.08.09 08:11:44 LC : 3 IQ : 66
Lat1 : 43.953N Lon1 : 78.295W Lat2 : 47.255N Lon2 : 95.459W
Nb mes : 005 Nb mes>-120dB : 000 Best level : -131 dB
Pass duration : 362s NOPC : 3
Calcul freq : 401 672154.4 Hz Altitude : 61 m
164 112 02 01

It looks complicated, but it’s not that bad. Let’s break down the data. The transmission begins with the 5-digit number that identifies Quest’s PTT (Platform Transmitter Terminal), followed by the date and time of the transmission. The date format is european, with two digits each for day, month and year separated by periods. So our example above is for the 25^th of August, 2009. The time is in 24-hour notation with two digits each for hours, minutes and seconds (8:11 and 44 seconds in our example). The time shown is in GMT, so subtract 5 hours to get Eastern Standard time (subtract 4 for Eastern Daylight Time).

Following the date and time are two more items, the LC (Location Class) and the IQ (Quality Indicator) numbers. The LC and IQ values tell us about the accuracy of the signal. Location Class numbers indicate the accuracy of the transmitted latitude and longitude coordinates. An LC of 3 is the best, indicating that the coordinates are accurate to within 150 meters of the stated position. LC 2 signals are accurate to between 150 and 350 meters, and LC 1 signals are accurate in a radius of 350 to 1000 meters from the stated position. LC values of 0, A, B, or Z also exist, but their accuracy is negligible because the satellites didn’t receive enough signals from the transmitter to generate accurate coordinates.

The IQ value looks like a two-digit number but it’s actually 2 single-digit values, XY. These are fairly technical indicators, but suffice it to say that X can be any digit from 1 to 6, and Y can vary from 1 to 8. Higher numbers are better for both of these values, so the best IQ is 68, but 67, 66, 58 and 57 are also good.

The second line contains the actual coordinates, expressed in standard latitude and longitude notation. We use only the Lat1 and Lon1 values to pinpoint Quest’s location. The Lat2 and Lon2 coordinates are only used for error checking; they don’t correspond to the transmitter’s actual location. To plot the location in Google maps, we just plug in the Lat 1 and Lon1 values.

The next three lines contain diagnostic information that’s used to verify the accuracy of the signal, including the duration of the transmission, received frequency and number of signals received during the satellite pass (more signals means better accuracy, with 4 or more providing the best accuracy). The last line has values for up to four sensors on the PTT. Quest’s transmitter has 2 sensors, so only the first two positions are used. Values for each sensor vary from 0 to 256 (8-bit numbers). Sensor 1 records the internal temperature of the transmitter. It tells us something about the ambient weather conditions. We use a formula to translate the value transmitted by the sensor into an actual reading between 0° and 58° Centigrade. Sensor 2 indicates the voltage in the transmitter’s battery, with the 8-bit number corresponding to a voltage range between 3.2 and 4.2 volts. Sensor data are not sent with every transmission.

Now that you know what the data means, you’re probably wondering how we put it all together. First we look for transmissions with high LC and IQ values. Next we check to see if any of these good quality signals has a temperature reading. Finally, we look for signals at various times of the day (morning, afternoon, evening, night) on different days. We know that time of day has an effect on Quest’s likely behavior, so we try to get a mix of times so that we can see her positions when she’s at rest, during typical hunting times, and so on.

So there you have it, a crash course in satellite telemetry interpretation. Finding a signal that meets all these requirements means that sometimes we trade off one item against another. For instance, we may choose a signal with LC2 over an LC3 signal if the IQ is better, or if the LC2 signal has a temperature reading. If we have a few good signals in the day, we’ll try to choose one that’s at a different time from the day before, and so on. Sometimes our only choice is a relatively poor LC1 transmission. Sometimes we don’t get any good signals for a given day. But overall, plotting positions day by day, we’re able to build up a pretty decent picture of what Quest is doing and where she’s been.

View Quest’s Week in a larger map

We’ve updated the Quest’s Week map with her movements for the past week. As you can see, she only recently left the Port Hope area. It looks like she’s bouncing back and forth over the border near the east end of Lake Ontario, perhaps waiting for favorable weather before making a more decisive move.

We haven’t had a chance to comb through the older data yet but we’ll work on getting more maps published in the coming days!

Five weeks after losing our data feed for Quest and many phone calls and emails later, we’re overjoyed to report that we are once again receiving our daily updates for Quest. You’ll be happy to know that she’s alive and well, and on the move again!

Given her previous pattern you won’t be surprised to learn that she’s made a mostly lateral move along Highway 401. This morning she was near Kingston, Ontario, but in the afternoon she jumped the lake over Cape Vincent and landed just outside of Watertown, New York.

As you may imagine we have a lot of data to sort through so look for updated maps to begin appearing in the next couple of days. In the meantime we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we’re back online with Quest.

The Rochester Falconcam wants to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the folks at the DEC, and especially Barbara Loucks, who went above and beyond to track down the right people with the satellite data company in order to get the email feed restored. Many thanks also to June Summers who’s been our point person trying to get this tangle unraveled. Great work everyone!

We have good news and not so good news…

The good news is that the account and payment issues have all been resolved. Quest’s transmitter data is now being paid directly through an account set up by the Genesee Valley Audubon Society instead of the DEC.

The not so good news is that getting the emails restored is going to take a couple more weeks. This is a little complicated, so bear with me… It seems that during the transition from the DEC’s account to GVAS, the daily emails containing the tracking data were discontinued. Even though GVAS is paying the bills for Quest’s data directly, her transmitter still falls under the New York DEC’s satellite tracking program. For whatever reason the folks who process the satellite data will only accept a request to resume the emails from the program manager.

So what’s the bad news, you say? Well, it turns out that the program manager is out of the country, and he won’t be back until the middle of the month. We’ve contacted the DEC to see if they can get in touch with him but they have not been able to do so. That means, unfortunately, that we’re stuck until his return.

Its frustrating news to be sure. Now’s the time when we can expect Quest to be on the move. We’ve all grown accustomed to being able to see where she’s going, and this six-week blackout is tough to take. Be that as it may, we appreciate everyone continuing to be patient, and we hope you’ll accept our apology for all of the delays and confusion.

UPDATE: As seems to be the norm in this situation, we’re getting information in bits and bites. After more communication with the ARGOS folks, it appears that the DEC program manager didn’t explicitly request the emails be stopped (as we previously reported), but as a consequence of making the account changes, that’s how the instructions were interpreted. So it appears the DEC may not have been at the heart of the problem (though we’ve had 5 weeks without email, which presumably should have caught someone’s attention in Albany). However, nothing in our reporting on this issue should be construed as assigning blame or pointing fingers. All the evidence is that this was an honest misunderstanding, nothing more. For now we are in the unwanted position of waiting for a solution.

We’re not idle though. June Summers continues to be in contact with the DEC and the satellite data folks. We have provided them with the original emails from the DEC to GVAS, which spell out the actual intent of the account switching. The satellite data people have also let us know they’re reviewing the information, and we’re cautiously hopeful that we might be able to get data flowing sooner rather than later. So stay tuned, and Specto Subitus!

-Jess

We can’t blame you really. It’s been about 2 weeks since we’ve posted one.

The problem isn’t with the data, it’s with the money. You may recall that the money for the Quest tracking project came to the Genesee Valley Audubon Society (GVAS) in the form of a grant made by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Meanwhile, the DEC set up an account with the company which provides the satellite tracking data, in their name. So, in a typical example of governmental bureaucracy, GVAS had to send a check back to the DEC for each payment, then the DEC cut a check to the people who handle the satellite data.

To their credit, the DEC decided to get out of the ‘middleman’ game a couple of months ago. They worked with ARGOS to set up an account directly with GVAS for Quest’s satellite data. We thought everything was OK, but at the end of August we stopped receiving the daily data feeds. We’ve gone a couple of days without data in the past, and it was due to problems with the satellite company’s data processing systems, so at first we thought that’s what was going on this time. After several data-less days, we got in contact with them and found out that they hadn’t received our latest payment. We made immediate payment arrangements but they only take checks, so we won’t receive any data until our check works its way through the snail mail and the bank. We’ll keep an eye on things and get more updates out as soon as we can. In the meantime, we appreciate everyone being patient while we work through this little monetary snafu.

View Quest Travels August 19-28 in a larger map with a legend. 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.

Position data for the end of the month point to Quest making a move to Port Hope. Many of her early morning and late evening plots are clustered in Port Hope, with only a couple at the Wesleyville power station and another near Highway 401. The Port Hope locations are somewhat more distributed than the last set we posted, though they’re close enough to the creek (or river) running along Mill Street to indicate that the bridge over the waterway at Barrett Street may indeed be a perching or sleeping spot.

The map for the whole of August shows a definite pattern with two well-defined clusters of activity at the power station and in Port Hope. As we move toward the beginning of fall, it will be interesting to see whether Quest will “migrate” or remain on Lake Ontario’s north shore.

View Quest Travels August 10 – 16 in a larger map with a legend. 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.

In our last update we noted that Quest has staked out an apparent base of operations at the Wesleyville power plant. The latest week’s data reinforce the point, with five of seven locations in a 1-mile (1.6km) cluster near the plant’s smokestack.

The other two points are interesting all on their own. Besides being in a residential neighborhood near Cavan Street in Port Hope, they are both adjacent to a creek that runs south along Cavan and Mill Streets until it empties into the lake. The two data points may indicate an alternate hunting location, or possibly secondary perches.

One location early in the morning on the 11^th is directly over a house on Cavan Street. The other, from the evening of the 16^th (long after sunset) may have come from a bridge on Barrett Street that passes over the creek. A structure like that could provide a sheltered spot for her to spend the night, and there are likely some opportunities to hunt birds that live and forage along the shores of the creek.

View Quest Travels August 1 – 9 in a larger map with a legend. 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.

August finds the intrepid Quest whiling away the days in pleasant Wesleyville and the surrounding ‘burbs. Four of the seven most recent location plots place her in close proximity to the power station there. The data leave little doubt that she’s made it her base of operations, most likely hunting from the facility’s tall smokestack.

It looks like she took an early morning jaunt over Port Hope on the 4^th. Her location at the corner of Strachan and Bramley Street South looks to be an upscale neighborhood to judge by all of the backyard swimming pools nearby. You can’t say she doesn’t have good taste! Consistent with the summer season we’re also seeing some of the highest temperature readings yet from the sensor in Quest’s transmitter.

From everything we can see, it seems she couldn’t be doing better. Now all Quest needs to do is to settle down and attract a mate for next year.