We did more car tracking this weekend – on Friday, two of our volunteers took off upriver in search of Floyd and others who had perhaps escaped our initial study section.
They again located Floyd (#014) and Stanley (#011). Â Floyd’s tag was giving off a very strong signal, very near the bank. Suspicious.
While I was standing by the highway trying to pinpoint the location of 014, Jeff and Kelly came by and stopped to help. The signal was so strong (signal strength ~200 at gain of 30) that we wondered whether it was actually in the water. On the bank was a tall tree that would be a perfect osprey perch, and the blackberry vines below it were covered in bird droppings. The signal seemed to be strongest in those blackberries. We searched there for a while but it was like a needle in a haystack, and we didn’t find a tag. We can go back and look again when we have work gloves and boots to sort through the briars; a metal detector would come in handy if anybody has one. We can’t rule out the possibility that the tag is in the water just off the bank, but it didn’t look like good trout holding water.
Two other volunteers went up on Saturday to try to pinpoint Floyd’s location.
The volunteers were able to determine that Floyd was indeed in the water. As you can see in the attached video, the signal is coming from calm water in Leaburg Lake. The pile of logs directly in the center of the frame is the likely resting spot for Floyd (or Floyd’s tag). Without a boat or snorkel gear to recover the tag, we cannot say for certain whether or not Floyd is dead. If he moves upstream or at least out of the log pile in the next few weeks, we’ll know he’s alive!
This video shows only part of the process – we’d narrowed down Floyd’s location to a few dozen yards already. The antenna we’re using is highly directional and resolves best when held vertically. The numbers we’re counting are signal strengths – ranging from 0 to 255, with 255 being strongest. The gain of the receiver is turned down to nearly nothing, so a strength in the 200-255 range means we’re within just a few feet of the tag!