Grey Plover Breeding locations confirmed!

Over the past week, both Nad and Charlie have settled down near the northern coast of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic and we can now finally confirm that they are at their breeding site.

Nad’s and Charlie’s reached breeding site

Nad’s breeding location near Lake Bustakh in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Russia

Nad’s breeding location is just 35km from the north coast of Sakha Republic, very close to a large freshwater lake called Lake Bustakh.

About 600km away, Charlie is breeding at a relatively more inland location about 75km from the coast. The breeding site is surrounded by three small lakes with an area of less than 1km²  close to a river about 3km in the west.

They are likely to stay around the breeding location with no significant movements until several weeks time. We hope that the transmitters will continue to operate and show us their southward migration journey.

Charlie’s breeding location in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Russia

On the other hand we also received good news from CYA and CYB, the South Australia Grey Plovers carrying satellite transmitters put on by Maureen Christie and the FoSSE team. Although they spent their non-breeding season further south than Nad and Charlie in South Australia, CYA and CYB are now breeding further north than them on Wrangel Island, sharing the area with Snow Goose, Reindeer and much other arctic wildlife.

CYA and CYB breeding locations on Wrangel Island.

 The migration route of the southern birds is shown in the map below:

Distance travelled by our Grey Plover since departing Broome:

Name	Leg Flag	Distance travelled
Ecosure	LLA	4,650km
Mymi	LLH	4,300km
Nad	LLJ	10,940km
Charlie	LLK	10,640km

The Grey Plover project team:

Katherine Leung

Clive Minton

Ken Gosbell

Chris Hassell

Grace Maglio

Inka Veltheim

Maureen Christie

Tony Flaherty

Reece Pedler

Roger Standen

Roz Jessop

Graham Parkyn

Eric Miller

Ila Marks

Vivien Holyoake

11 June 2016