ARCI’s second-oldest satellite-tracking project, after our 18-year study of Swallow-tailed Kites, is on Short-tailed Hawks. When Microwave Telemetry Inc. began making solar powered satellite transmitters small enough for medium-sized raptors, the Short-tailed Hawk was a perfect candidate. From 2001 to 2007, we raised enough funds to tag four Short-tails.
Of these four birds, one is still alive and transmitting. Hidden Lake, named after her capture location in Everglades National Park, is a dark morph female tagged on 22 November 2006 when she was about 6 months old. Soon after, Hidden Lake moved farther north for the rest of the winter, to the northern boundary of the Big Cypress National Preserve. We also observed this pattern of early-and-late wintering sites in other Short-tailed Hawks we tracked. By March 2007 she started exploring to the north in Manatee, Hardee, and Highlands counties, then settled into a summer home range in western Hendry County. In September, she moved south again for the winter.
In March 2008, Hidden Lake established her first nesting territory seven miles east of Fort Myers on the south side of the Caloosahatchee River. Her mate was a light morph male and together they fledged one dark morph juvenile. Hidden Lake has continued to nest on this same territory, the core area of a relatively small annual home range.
Today we celebrate her “tagging anniversary” as she begins producing her 8th year of valuable telemetry data. This is the longest-running satellite transmitter we have ever deployed! Thanks to Microwave Telemetry, Inc., for producing these amazing devices, and thank you Miss Hidden Lake for teaching us so much about the secret lives of your elusive kind.
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