Interesting email below from Utah Birder about tracking Bar-Tailed Godwits
in New Zealand... Thought Tweeters would find it interesting...


Peter Sullins
The Sullins Family
In The Village of Silver Firs
Everett, WA
TheSullinsFamily at earthlink.net
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Skype - Grampa425




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-----Original Message-----
From: birdtalk-bounces at utahbirds.org
[mailto:birdtalk-bounces at utahbirds.org] On Behalf Of John CAVITT
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 1:45 PM
To: birdtalk at utahbirds.org
Subject: [Birdtalk] Godwit Migration

Information on Bar-tailed Godwit migration for those interested -

*--


March 29, 2007


The news yesterday morning is that the experiment of putting satellite
transmitters on Bar-tailed Godwits in New Zealand to track their northward
migration has been a resounding success.

One bird has just reached Yalu Jiang, at the northern end of the Yellow Sea
in China, in a non-stop flight from Miranda Nature Reserve, in the Firth of
Thames in North Island, New Zealand. The distance between these two
locations is 9,575 km but the actual track flown by the bird was 10,200 km.
This is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird. The flight took
approximately nine days. While this bird could have chosen to stop further
south on the tidal mudflats of China it chose to fly non-stop the extra
distance to the northern end of the Yellow Sea to stop and feed before its
final leg to their breeding grounds.

At least three other Bar-tailed Godwits also appear to have reached the
Yellow Sea after non-stop flights within 6.5 - 7.5 days from New Zealand.
Several others are still in flight and following the same track. Three out
of 10 satellite-tagged birds which have so far migrated appear to have
stopped off on their way. One diverted westwards and has stopped in the
Philippines, one is in Micronesia and the third has only reached Papua New
Guinea. The New Guinea bird appeared to have changed its mind about the
migration and has now flown south to Queensland.

These very exciting results are a reward for the perseverance and
development effort put in by the Alaskan/New Zealand team over the last
three years. It appears they have now really developed a satellite
transmitter that is not significantly affecting the flight capabilities of
the birds. We are now seeing a true picture of what happens during the
migration of these birds.

Only 10 to 15 years ago many people were sceptical that godwits and knot
flew from the north west of Australia 5500 km non-stop to Chongming Dao in
the Yangtze River Estuary. Since then it has become apparent that
Bar-tailed Godwits fly up to 11,000 km non-stop on southward migration from
Alaska to New Zealand and Australia. It was thought this was achieved
because the birds were aided by weather conditions which gave them an
extremely strong tail wind in the early stages of that flight from Alaska.
Researchers have now shown that Bar-tailed Godwits are capable of flying a
similar distance on northward migration, without apparent exceptionally
favourable wind conditions.

It has long been suspected that the very high weights reached by Bar-tailed
Godwits, and several other species, before they leave south east Australia
in March/April indicated the capability of the birds to reach China in a
single non-stop flight. It would have been impossible to prove this without
the use of satellite telemetry.

These results are a huge step forward in our understanding of the flight
capabilities of migratory waders and therefore of the migratory strategies
they employ. Congratulations to the whole US/NZ team on this hugely
successful exercise.

The Bar-tailed Godwits can be followed on:
www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html


John F. Cavitt PhD, Director
Office of Undergraduate Research
Associate Professor

Mailing Address
Dept. of Zoology
Weber State University
2505 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-2505

(801) 626-6172
(801) 626-8541
Avian Ecology Lab
(801) 626-8634
cell:(801) 791-4438
FAX: (801) 626-7445
homepage: http://faculty.weber.edu/jcavitt
http://departments.weber.edu/avianecologylab





"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability,
and
beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."


Aldo Leopold

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