Lesson 15 - The Road South

By Carolyn Lane and Mike Kennedy
©The Raptor Center State

Goals for Environmental Education
(as per the Minnesota State Plan for Environmental Education, Greenprint, 1993)

Students will:

1. Provide experiences to assist citizens to increase their sensitivity and stewardship for the environment.
2. Understand that ecological interrelationships cross political boundaries and effects can be global.
3. Understand ecological systems.

Students will:

1. Explain the route that Minnesota ospreys follow during spring and fall migration.
2. Describe the important ecological characteristics of the places that ospreys pass through during their migration.
3. Determine where ospreys from the metro area of Minnesota spend the winter.
4. Determine if there is more than one location Minnesota ospreys spend the winter.

• latitude
• longitude
• satellite
• migration
• technology

• yardstick
• two types of differently colored small stickers
• map of South and Central America (must have latitude and longitude in a minimum of every 15 degrees)
• Osprey Profile
• Data
• one piece of notebook paper
• pencil

In late August of 1995, a team of biologists fit two ospreys, a male (#25659) and a female (#25658), with satellite transmitting backpacks to track their southward migration to Central and South America. It has been determined through the traditional method of banding that Minnesota's ospreys go to these areas of the world for the winter.

Recovered bird bands in the wintering grounds have been few and far between, indicating a wide range of places where Minnesota ospreys spend the winter.

Satellite technology is a rapidly advancing research tool, often used in field biology. Our study uses ARGOS, a company based in Landover, Maryland. The ARGOS satellite orbits the earth every 101 minutes and pinpoints the backpack signals. The location is then beamed to a receiving dish in Toulouse, France, which in turn transfers the information to a receiving station in Suitland, Maryland. From Maryland, the location is sent to The Raptor Center through electronic mail. When The Raptor Center receives the data, we then must compare the two sets of readings that ARGOS sends and interpret them for accuracy. We have given you both sets of readings in the Data File. One set of readings is correct; the other is not. You have the opportunity to interpret the readings and discover for yourself "The Road South."

1. Choose which bird you want to plot first, either the male(#25659) or the female (#25658).

2. Using the 1995 Osprey Male Data, or Osprey Female Data plot latitude 1 and longitude 1 in the first satellite recording of your chosen bird. Now plot latitude 2 and longitude 2 in the first satellite recording. The satellite gives two readings, a correct one and an incorrect one, it will require you to figure out which coordinate is the correct by plotting them both and making an intelligent guess as to which point makes most sense. Remember the birds were trapped in the western area of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. You can also plot data from 1996 but students will only have one point, the correct one, to plot.

4. Once you have determined the correct set of coordinates for each date plot the correct set of coordinates for the bird you have chosen on the map using small stickers. Use the same color stickers for one bird. Save the other colored stickers for the other bird.

4. On a piece of notebook paper, write down the date for each numbered sticker and the name of the town which is closest to the sticker. Do this for each bird.

5. Write a "1" on the sticker farthest north and number them as they move south on the map.

6. On a piece of notebook paper, write down the date for each numbered sticker and the name of the town which is closest to the sticker.

7. On your map you should now have one set of colored stickers, which are numbered, representing the migration route for your chosen bird. You also have a separate paper with the dates and places that osprey has visited during the migration this year.

8. Repeat steps 1 through 8 for the other bird.

9. Now the map should show two different migration routes with different colored stickers representing the migration routes of the male(#25659) and female(#25658) birds.

1. Two longitude and latitude readings are given for each weekly reading. What factors did you consider when choosing your readings?

2. Look at the weekly locations. Are there any rivers, lakes or other waterways which would attract ospreys?

3. Minnesota's osprey population and many other birds have a lifestyle in which they winter in a tropical country and nest in a northern country. What might make this lifestyle difficult? Can you think of things that might go wrong on such a long journey?

1. Write a short story about a make-believe journey of an osprey from Minnesota. Include the things, both positive and negative, that the bird would encounter on such a journey.

2. Write a list of things you would need on such a trip.

3. Write a letter to a Central or South American country which has wintering sites of Minnesota's ospreys. Tell them how important it is to have clean forests, lakes and rivers available for migrating birds, such as the osprey.

• Ospreys: A Natural and Unnatural History. Alan F. Poole, Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN 0 521 30623 X
• A Field Guide to Hawks of North America, The Peterson Field Guide Series. William S. Clark, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987. ISBN 0 395 44112 9(pbk.)
• Hawks, Owls, and Other Birds of Prey. Denise K. Fourie, Blake Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0 918303 18 4
• Birds of Prey: Natural History and Conservation of North American Raptors. Noel and Helen Snyder, Voyageur Press, 1991. ISBN 0 89658 131 4

The Raptor Center
1920 Fitch Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108
1-612-624-4745