Belle's Journey: An Osprey Takes Flight

by Rob Bierregaard, Kate Garchinsky (Illustrator)

Overview

Take flight with Belle, an osprey born on Martha's Vineyard as she learns to fly and migrates for the first time to Brazil and back--a journey of more than 8,000 miles.

Dr. B. and Dick, two osprey scientists in Massachusetts, observe ospreys and their offspring, tagging one special fledgling with a transmitter to better study migration habits. Follow Belle as she attempts her first flight, conquers her first fishing endeavour, and heads south for her first migration all while her tracking device transmits information about where's she been. Based on information garnered through twenty years of research by the author, Belle's Journey will soar into reader's hearts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632896155
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Rob Bierregaard has studied ospreys in New England since 1971. In 1998 he restarted an intensive census of the population on Martha's Vineyard. Beginning in 2000, he started tagging ospreys with satellite transmitters that enable us to follow their migration to South America and back. Belle's Journey is Rob's first children's book.

Kate Garchinsky is the illustrator of Belle's Journey and The Secret Life of Red Fox. Prior to creating children's books, Kate designed toys, birdbaths, and trail maps. She lives with her husband, Brian, in Pennsylvania. http://kategarchinsky.com

Read an Excerpt

Foreword
Have you noticed that some birds disappear in the winter? If you live near water where big fish-eating hawks called ospreys live, you know that they all leave in the fall. Did you ever wonder where they go? And how they find their way there and back again? Can you imagine an adventure where you leave your home behind and fly over the ocean alone, and all you can see—all the way to the horizon—is open water? Would you keep flying for two days straight on the first leg of your trip, not knowing what lay ahead of you?
            This is the story of a young osprey named Belle, who migrated four thousand miles from Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, to Brazil, at the southern edge of the Amazon rain forest in South America.
            This is also a story about four people (I’m “Dr. B.”) who followed Belle’s travels and what they learned about a young osprey’s first migration. I study ospreys and track them by putting small radio transmitters on them. The radios send messages via satellite so I can follow the ospreys as they migrate south in the fall and north in the spring. Over sixteen years, my fellow scientists and I have put transmitters on ninety-five ospreys from South Carolina to New Hampshire. Thirty-one of these birds were from Martha’s Vineyard.
            There are lots of reasons why scientists track ospreys with transmitters, but the most important one is what makes all scientists do what they do—curiosity. A scientist looks at the world and just has to ask questions. Scientists find the world wonderful—what they notice around them makes them full of wonder. They want to know why this insect is so brightly colored and why that one is camouflaged. Why do most trees drop their leaves in the fall? What about the trees that don’t? Scientists collect data to answer questions. When they find an answer, it almost always raises another question. I was curious about where Martha’s Vineyard ospreys go when they leave the island each fall. One question led to another, and before I knew it, I had been studying osprey migration for sixteen years. What do you wonder about when you are out in nature?
            This is a mostly true story. Belle is a real osprey who flew across the ocean from Massachusetts to South America and spent her first winter in southern Brazil. We know this from the transmitter she wore. We don’t know exactly what she did on that trip, so I have imagined some details—the fish she caught, the other animals she saw, and the adventures she had. All my imagining is based on behaviors I have seen in other ospreys and in the other animal species that live where Belle traveled. I’ve also imagined the migration of her parents. Their trips are based on those of adult ospreys from Martha’s Vineyard that were outfitted with transmitters. We know where Belle’s mother was born because a scientist had placed a small numbered band on her leg when she was a nestling, and I read the band number when we caught her a few years before we met Belle. These bands were the only way we had to find out where birds migrate before satellite transmitters were invented. We and many other scientists still use bands sometimes.
            Belle continues to make her journey to the Rio Madeira each year. Unlike Belle in this story, the real-life Belle has not mated yet, which is not unusual. Ospreys sometimes mate during their first year back north, but others take many years before they find a partner and first lay eggs and raise young. Each year Belle has come back earlier than the year before. She visits Martha’s Vineyard and Long Pond, and flies across Buzzards Bay to Marion, Massachusetts. Someday soon, we hope, she will find a male osprey sky dancing with a fish in his talons and begin a family of her own.
            So join me, my good friend Dick, and two kids from Martha’s Vineyard as we follow the young osprey Belle, exploring her world and traveling to South America and back.
            —Rob Bierregaard

Table of Contents

Foreword iv

Chapter 1 Reunion on the Marsh 1

Chapter 2 The Scientists 5

Chapter 3 First Flight 9

Chapter 4 Captured! 13

Chapter 5 First Fish 21

Chapter 6 Migration 29

Chapter 7 Island Hopping 35

Chapter 8 Hurricane 41

Chapter 9 Over the Mountains 47

Chapter 10 The Sea of Green 51

Chapter 11 A Long Vacation 57

Chapter 12 A Busy Summer 61

Chapter 13 Homeward Bound 65

Chapter 14 Across the Gulf 71

Chapter 15 A Meal Lost 77

Chapter 16 Homecoming 81

Chapter 17 A New Pair of Ospreys 87

Chapter 18 A Final Reunion 93

Chapter 19 Journey's End 97

Information and Resources 99

Osprey Basics 99

Migration 100

Injured Wildlife 101

Resources 102

Acknowledgments 104

Index 106

Editorial Reviews

A young osprey named Belle completes her first 4,000-mile solo migration from Massachusetts to South America and back. One spring, Dr. B., a scientist on Martha's Vineyard who studies ospreys, selects Belle, a large, young female, to be equipped with a satellite transmitter dispatching messages tracking her movements every three days. By September, Belle has become an expert fish catcher and a strong flier, and she is poised for her migration south. Launching from Martha's Vineyard, Belle flies nonstop for two days over the open Atlantic before resting on a cargo ship. Resuming her journey, Belle traverses a Bahamian island, Cuba, and the Caribbean Sea. A hurricane blows her into Colombia, and she eventually arrives in Brazil. A year and a half later, Belle returns to Martha's Vineyard, taking an inland route to begin the next phase of her life. In this "mostly true story," Bierregaard (the real Dr. B.) uses the real-life Belle, whose migration he tracked, to convey this lively, personalized look at migrating ospreys. Rendered in watercolor pencil, ink, and aqua crayon, the realistic, atmospheric illustrations rely on line and color to capture the drama of Belle's amazing adventure. An engaging, informative introduction to ospreys for budding birders. 
—Kirkus Reviews

Jim Arnosky fans who are ready for a lengthier nature study will be inspired by this story, based on Bierregaard’s (or Dr. B., as he calls himself) study of osprey migration. Opening in Martha’s Vineyard, the lightly fictionalized account describes how Dr. B., his assistant, and two local children observe ospreys on the island before selecting a strong, healthy young female, Belle, to receive a transmitter that will record her location via satellite. The author interjects osprey facts in his lovely, and sometimes harrowing, descriptions of Belle’s first migration to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. After more than a year in South America, Belle feels a stirring inside and heads back to Martha’s Vineyard, where she eventually meets a mate. Beautiful, impressionistic mixed-media illustrations accompany Belle’s experiences, and readers will cheer for her survival against such forces as a hurricane and a seven-foot caiman. Extensive back matter includes more osprey and migration basics, related resources, and color photos of Bierregaard and the real Belle. An incredible journey for budding birders. –Booklist

Written in an easy-to-follow and authoritative style, this narrative nonfiction tale recounts the story of a young osprey from her early days in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, to her first migration to South America and back. Bierregaard, who has studied the birds for more than 40 years, explains that this is mostly a true story, but that he has imagined some of the details. He caught Belle as a young chick and fastened a radio transmitter to her (worn like a backpack), which sends an account of Belle’s travels to the scientist every three days. He knows where she’s been, how long it took her to reach certain places, and the weather she encounters along the way. Belle’s flight is an instinctual one, readers are told, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. She travels many miles each day, survives a hurricane, visits the Japurá river in Brazil, and avoids threats from humans and other animals. Students will be easily caught up in Belle’s story, especially when she encounters dangers for the first time in her young life. Garchinsky’s illustrations—done in watercolor pencil, ink, and aqua crayons—are not only lovely to look at but match the book’s lively tone. There are also two photographs of the real-life Belle included at the end. VERDICT A page-turner for animal lovers, this book is a good choice for libraries in need of engrossing nonfiction.–School Library Journal

From the Publisher

04/01/2018
Gr 3–6—Written in an easy-to-follow and authoritative style, this narrative nonfiction tale recounts the story of a young osprey from her early days in Martha's Vineyard, MA, to her first migration to South America and back. Bierregaard, who has studied the birds for more than 40 years, explains that this is mostly a true story, but that he has imagined some of the details. He caught Belle as a young chick and fastened a radio transmitter to her (worn like a backpack), which sends an account of Belle's travels to the scientist every three days. He knows where she's been, how long it took her to reach certain places, and the weather she encounters along the way. Belle's flight is an instinctual one, readers are told, but that doesn't make it any less exciting. She travels many miles each day, survives a hurricane, visits the Japurá river in Brazil, and avoids threats from humans and other animals. Students will be easily caught up in Belle's story, especially when she encounters dangers for the first time in her young life. Garchinsky's illustrations—done in watercolor pencil, ink, and aqua crayons—are not only lovely to look at but match the book's lively tone. There are also two photographs of the real-life Belle included at the end. VERDICT A page-turner for animal lovers, this book is a good choice for libraries in need of engrossing nonfiction.—Marie Drucker, Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

2018-03-04
A young osprey named Belle completes her first 4,000-mile solo migration from Massachusetts to South America and back. One spring, Dr. B., a scientist on Martha's Vineyard who studies ospreys, selects Belle, a large, young female, to be equipped with a satellite transmitter dispatching messages tracking her movements every three days. By September, Belle has become an expert fish catcher and a strong flier, and she is poised for her migration south. Launching from Martha's Vineyard, Belle flies nonstop for two days over the open Atlantic before resting on a cargo ship. Resuming her journey, Belle traverses a Bahamian island, Cuba, and the Caribbean Sea. A hurricane blows her into Colombia, and she eventually arrives in Brazil. A year and a half later, Belle returns to Martha's Vineyard, taking an inland route to begin the next phase of her life. In this "mostly true story," Bierregaard (the real Dr. B.) uses the real-life Belle, whose migration he tracked, to convey this lively, personalized look at migrating ospreys. Rendered in watercolor pencil, ink, and aqua crayon, the realistic, atmospheric illustrations rely on line and color to capture the drama of Belle's amazing adventure.An engaging, informative introduction to ospreys for budding birders. (map, further information, resources) (Nonfiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews