Friends of the Osprey Telemetry Project
The Friends of the Osprey in conjunction with Bird Studies Canada had planned to use Telemetry to track and record the migration habits of a male osprey over the winter months this year. However, we were fortunate to been able to put devices on two females instead and will be showing their GPS signals starting in the fall.
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Osprey Tracking
Bird Studies Canada is partnering with the Friends of the Osprey in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario to track the migration of adult Ospreys. In May 2010, two nesting adult female Ospreys were fitted with solar-powered satellite transmitters. The transmitters were attached to the Ospreys using a backpack-style harness made of neoprene and Teflon.
The objectives of this project are to determine the migratory routes and wintering areas of Ospreys from the Kawartha Lakes region. Locations will be received every two days and will be displayed on Bird Studies Canada's Osprey Tracker site once the birds begin their migration.
To view the map that is tracking the Osprey, please click here.
Bird Studies Canada and Friends of the Osprey gratefully acknowledge the support of the following funders: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, The Lindsay Post, Osprey Media, Georgian Bay Osprey Society, Hydro One, Lunge Haven Cottages, Bushnell, Kawartha Spirit Boat Cruises, Kawartha Lake Classic Flowers, the City of Kawartha Lakes, and Shell Environmental Fund.
But what is Telemetry?
It is a process of tracking the movement of birds or animals in their day to day activities. A small transmitter PTT (Platform transmitter terminals) weighing 14 grams is placed on the bird or animal and a signal is sent to a satellite in space. The company being used for this project is North Star. North Star uses the Argos Satellite system. The Argos System is a polar orbiting, LEO constellation of French-owned receivers. Mounted on five US weather satellites are receivers that pick up the signal from the PTT’s and track the location of the bird.
The Friends of the Osprey will locate a suitable male bird and with the help of representatives of Bird Studies Canada capture the bird temporarily, and attach the PTT to its back. This will in no way affect the bird in any of his activities. Male birds tend to return to the same nest year after year so we will then be able to locate the bird when the battery expires on the PTT. There is speculation that Osprey winter somewhere in the Amazon but this is not a sure fact; they may winter anywhere in between. By tracking the movement, we will have a better understanding of the migration pattern of this one bird and be able to answer some 
important questions. With a successful installation of the PTT and if the bird does not come to any harm during its migration, we will be able to keep a record of its progress on a day to day basis both to and from its wintering habitat. Does it travel the same route to and from its wintering spot or does it return by a different route. These are some of the questions we will be able to answer through this study. Bird Studies Canada will monitor the progress and send the Friends of the Osprey regularly updates of the progress plotting its journey to the winter migration and back to Canada. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources have been conducting similar studies since the early 90’s but it is believed that this is the first of its kind to occur in Ontario and possibly Canada.
The Friends of the Osprey would like to get local school children involved to give them a better understanding of this unique and beautiful raptor. The future of this species is sometime tenuous. They were on the endangered species list because of the use of pesticides etc. but they were removed a couple of years ago. Recently declining number put them back on the watch list again. Future generations must take an interest to help Osprey. We of the Friends of the Osprey hope this study will generate, enthusiasm, and interest in the future of these birds.