Latest Little Curlew update.

Inka Veltheim has sent us this latest update about the Little Curlew migration.

After a brief hiatus, there are some more news on the the little curlew migration.

Little curlew 131947 (BB) has been progressively moving further north-north west and is tracking very closely to the path of 131945 (BD).

Map 1

At the time of the last update on 2nd of June, 131947 was near the town of Lianyungang, China. Since then it has moved some 1000 km and stopped briefly in the south eastern part of Nei Mongol province, 150 km west of where 131945 stopped in mid-May. On 14th of June it arrived at Hulun Lake, 50 km south west of 131945 stop over location. Maps 1 & 2 show both of these tracks for comparison.

Map 2

After spending almost three weeks on Lombok, it was looking like 131943 (BC) was very unlikely to continue its journey. It is therefore exciting to see it finally moving north, having departed Lombok on 10th of June. It flew an amazing 1700 km before landing on the tiny island of Mapun, Philippines, near Lake Sapah. A few days and 650 km later it stopped again on the Philippine island province of Palawan, where it is using an agricultural area. Map 3 shows its track.

Map 3

Maps 4 & 5 show close ups of stop over locations. It will be very interesting to see if this bird continues northwards. 

Map 4

Map 5

I have also attached on Map 6 the movements for 131945 for the last two weeks, showing that the bird is roaming within a 5 km radius, but appears to have quite a tight centre of activity at the breeding grounds.

Map 6 

There is more to come, so stay tuned!