Holly - Over 5,000 miles to North East Brazil
Holly has a unique and complicated story. She covered an extensive area all the way from the Eastern Shore across to Rockville and down south into the Bay around the mouth of the Choptank River during 2016. If we track her Fall 2016 trip south, Holly makes Woody to be a lazy chump. Holly traveled all the way from Whitehall, down through the Caribbean, across Northern South America, flying further east than Woody in Venezuela. She carried onward across all of Venezuela and another 800 miles east into Brazil across the Amazon river near the port city of Belem and another 1000 miles east past the famous city of Forteleza into the state of Rio Grande Del Norte. The total distance travelled from Whitehall Bay was around 5,500 miles!
Holly relaxed in the winter warmth surrounded by the famous Samba music of Brazil in the largest reservoir in Rio Grande do Norte. This water body (shown in the Google map and aerial photo) provided sufficient sustenance for Holly during her winter stay. Osprey Survival Concerns. Brazilian scientists have been conducting reservoir water quality studies throughout the state of Rio Grande del Norte Research for years. They suggest that the severe drought conditions in this semi-arid region drastically reduces the volume of water in these reservoirs and alters the light and phosphorus conditions of these aquatic ecosystems. Under such circumstances, eutrophic conditions prevail which increases algal biomass and toxic cyanobacterial blooms. Furthermore these scientists have also found heavy metal contamination in these waters. They warn of the hazards and environmental concerns from these metals. Such concerns might impact the long term health of wintering Ospreys, such as Holly.