Summary of Nad and Charlie's journeys and stop overs. Grey Plover Project.

The Journeys

Now that our birds are busy breeding, it is a good time for us to look back at the magnificent journeys that they have made.

Nad fitted with transmitter at the Broome Bird Observatory (photo by Robert Bush)

Nad had used 51 days in total migrating from Broome to breeding ground in Sakha Republic, Russia. The total distance travelled is 10,942km. Charlie spent 2 days less than Nad from Broome to breeding ground also in Sakha Republic (49 days). The total distance travelled is also slightly shorter (10,642km).

Both Nad and Charlie used 4 days to migrate from Broome to China non-stop. Nad covered 4,873km with average speed of 47kph, which is the longest non-stop flight recorded for Nad. Charlie covered 4,651km with average speed of 45kph, which is the maximum average speed recorded.

They have both made 5 stops in China but with very different tactics. Nad spent 32 days in China in total, with over 90% of time (29 days) spent at the east coast of Bohai Bay in Hebei Province in the Yellow Sea area, the rest of the time was spent at 3 inland locations. Charlie only spent 24 days in China, with only 54% of the time spent in the Yellow Sea area, the rest was spent in the coastal area of Southern China. The “longest stay” stop-over site was on the north coast of Bohai Bay in Liaoning Province for 9 days.

Both Nad and Charlie crossed the Chinese-Russian border in late May. Nad had made 2 more stops in Sakha Republic (one inland location, one coastal location) before reaching its breeding site, while Charlie had only made 1 stop at an inland location in Sakha Republic before reaching its breeding site.

Details and some other fun facts of their journey are shown in the table below:

	Nad	Charlie
MIGRATION: BROOME to CHINA
Date of Departing Broome	11th Apr (night)	12th Apr (midnight)
Date arriving China	16th Apr (morning)	16th Apr (morning)
STOP-OVER: CHINA
1st stop-over (time spent)	Guangdong Province  (2.5 days)	Guangdong Province (5 days)
2nd stop-over (time spent)	Jiangsu Province (3 hours)	Fujian Province (4.5 days)
3rd stop-over (time spent)	Jiangsu Province (4 hours)	Zhejiang Province (2.5 days)
4th stop-over (time spent)	Hebei Province (29.5 days)	Shangdong Province (3.5 days)
5th stop-over (time spent)	Jilin Province (3 hours)	Liaoning Province (9 days)
Total stop-over time in China	32 days + 10 hours	24 days + 22 hours
Total stop-over time in Yellow Sea	29.5 days  (91% total stop-over)	13 days (52% total stop-over)
MIGRATION: CHINA to BREEDING SITE
Date of Departing China	27th May (morning)	22nd May (night)
Date arriving breeding site	2nd Jun (night)	31st May (night)
FUN FACTS:
Total time from Broome to Breeding site	51 days	49 days
Total distance travelled	10,942 km	10,642 km
Total displacement from Broome	10,139 km	10,137 km
Max. speed recorded	Jilin, China to Sakha  (50kph)	Broome to China (45kph)
Longest stopover	Bohai Bay, Hebei (29.5 days)	Bohai Bay, Liaoning (9 days)
Longest non-stop flight distance	Broome to China  (4,873km)	Broome to China  (4,651km)
Longest non-stop flight time	Broome to China (4 days)	Bohai Bay to Sakha (6 days)

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

Ecosure (white), Mymi (red), Nad (blue) and Charlie (orange)

Distance travelled by our Grey Plover since departing Broome:

Name	Leg Flag	Distance travelled
Ecosure	LLA	4,650km
Mymi	LLH	4,300km
Nad	LLJ	10,942km
Charlie	LLK	10,642km

The Grey Plover project team:

Katherine Leung

Clive Minton

Ken Gosbell

Chris Hassell

Grace Maglio

Inka Veltheim

Maureen Christie

More details:

Australian Wader Study Group
BirdLife Australia

28 June 2016