Future transmissions from Maji uncertain

09 Sep 2014
We have not heard from Maji since 10 August. When we last did, the temperature sensor readings on the tag indicated that he was still alive but the charge on his tag was very low.
 
Maji at first appeared that he would be using the southeastern migration route after crossing Germany, headed to the Austrian Alps. Many birds on the southeastern route have stopped in Italy's Po Valley, which Maji looked like he was going to do. . .until he overshot and ended up over the sea north of Corsica. The northern Appenine mountains in Italy would normally act as a catching feature to prevent this sort of overshoot, but Maji may have found the gap between the Appenines and the southern extent of the Alps, got confused when he ended up over the sea, and simply continued on until he reached the next bit of land - in this case, the Balearic Islands. At this point, he seemed to figure out where he was, as he oriented towards the nearest bit of land and headed for the Spanish coast south of Barcelona.  Here, his movements start to resemble John's in 2012. Maji headed north across the Pyrennes towards the Atlantic Coast of France in the Landes de Gascogne National Park. John also ended up in this same area. It is at this point that Maji’s tag stopped transmitting, and his fate remains unknown. It’s possible that his tag might start transmitting again, but this is looking fairly unlikely.


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