Woody - Migrating From the Severn River to Venezuela

Woody was trapped at the Holly Beach Farm near the Annapolis end of the Bay Bridge on April 24th 2014. His nest was a Dr. Zeuss-like structure, built atop a pole tilting at a 45-degree angle in Whitehall Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation installed a new nest pole in the Spring of 2015. When Woody cruised back into Whitehall Bay at noon on April 1 2015, he did not use the new nest but in the afternoon flew north and spent the night close to the old Bay toll booths. In early April Woody inexplicably abandoned his old nest and spent a lot of time in trees along Burley Creek. The photo shows Woody’s April travels around Whitehall Bay, around Greenbury Point, and over to Burley Creek. This tracks show how Woody uses an 6 square mile area for fishing that is referred to as his “Home Range.”

Woody made his 2,964 miles trip south from Whitehall Bay to his winter home range in Venezuela in 15 days (tracking maps right). He spent his 2014-2015 winter in the Ciengas swamps of the Juan Manuel National Park, which lies southwest of Lake Maracaibo. Woody was near to a juvenile Buck, from South Carolina, who spent his first 18 months in the same general area. In November 2014, Woody settled down along the Catatumbo River where he spent the 2013-2014 winter. Woody was a very content homebody during December with a .5 square mile fishing range. It is believed that during winter, Osprey do not need to catch a lot of fish since there is no young to feed.