This is an astounding story from shorebird research in Virginia. Note the stops in our area!

Tom Schooley
bucephala at comcast.net
Olympia WA
________________________________________________________

Flight of Hope
(Williamsburg, VA)---Hope, a whimbrel carrying a satellite transmitter, is
far out to sea flying south over the Atlantic toward her wintering grounds
in South America. The bird had been staging (building up energy reserves
in
preparation for a migratory flight) on Southampton Island in the northern
reach of Hudson Bay since 15 July before leaving on a non-stop flight south
on 10 August. The bird flew south over Hudson Bay, crossed the interior of
Canada and New England to emerge from the coast of Maine and out over the
open ocean. Flying more than 1,600 kilometers (1000 miles) out over the
ocean and east of Bermuda, Hope then turned south and is now moving toward
the Caribbean. She has already flown non-stop for more than 5,100
kilometers (3,200 miles) but is still 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the
nearest land in the Virgin Islands. So far, Hope has been on the wing for
4
days with an average flight speed of 60 kilometers/hour (37 miles/hour).

Hope was originally captured and fitted with a satellite transmitter on
19 May, 2009 while staging on the Delmarva Peninsula of Virginia. She left
Virginia on 26 May and flew to the western shore of James Bay in Canada.
She staged on James Bay for 3 weeks before flying to the MacKenzie River
near Alaska and then on to the Beaufort Sea where she staged for more than
2
weeks before flying back to Hudson Bay. Hope has traveled more than 13,000
kilometers (8,000 miles) since late May.

Hope is one of several birds that have been fitted with state of the
art
9.5-gram, satellite transmitters in a collaborative effort by the Center
for
Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary - Virginia
Commonwealth University and the Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy
to discover migratory routes that connect breeding and winter areas and to
identify en route migratory staging areas that are critical to the
conservation of this declining species.
Updated tracking maps may be viewed online.
http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm

Background

The whimbrel is a large, holarctic, highly migratory shorebird. The
North American race includes two disjunct breeding populations both of
which
winter primarily in Central and South America. The western population
breeds in Alaska and the Northwest Territories of Canada. The eastern
population breeds south and west of Hudson Bay in Manitoba and Ontario.
Both populations are of high conservation concern due to dramatic declines
in recent decades.

Satellite tracking represents only one aspect of a broader, integrated
investigation of whimbrel migration. During the past 2 years, the Center
for Conservation in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has used conventional transmitters to examine
stopover duration, conducted aerial surveys to estimate seasonal numbers,
collected feather samples to locate summer and winter areas through
stable-isotope analysis, and has initiated a whimbrel watch program.
Continued research is planned to further link populations across staging,
breeding, and wintering areas and to determine the ecological requirements
of whimbrels staging along the peninsula.

Media Contacts: Bryan Watts, Executive Director, Center for Conservation
Biology, College of William and Mary & Virginia Commonwealth University,
Williamsburg, VA. Phone 757-221-2247, email bdwatt at wm.edu
Barry Truit, Chief Conservation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy, Virginia
Coast Reserve Program. Phone 757-442-3049, email btruitt at tnc.org

forwarded by:
Mike Wilson
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William & Mary / Virginia Commonwealth University
PO Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
phone: 757-221-1649
fax: 757-221-1650
email:mdwils at wm.edu
www.ccb-wm.org