People says “Life is like a roller coaster with ups and
downs”. This also applies to our Whimbrel satellite tracking project.
Hooray to KU’s
return to Australia after its more than 19,800km migration journey of 195 days
to and from the breeding ground! KU departed its breeding ground around
mid-July, after making 3 stops in Northern China, Sulawesi in Indonesia and
Timor-Leste, it arrived Australia Mainland
on 29-Oct-17.
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Fig 1: KU’s complete
migration journey
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Instead of heading
back to Roebuck Bay in Broome, KU chose to stopover at Dampier Peninsular near
Beagle Bay. It will be very interesting to see if it will finally come back to
Roebuck Bay later in the season.
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Fig 2: KU at
Dampier Peninsular
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On the downside, we
are very disappointed to confirm that we’ve lost signal from KS since late
September. Based on the fact that transmissions from the satellite tag has been
less constant in the final few weeks since KS arrived South-east Sulawesi, we
do hope that it was the transmitter which failed rather than anything bad has
happened to the bird itself. It is hoped that KS might be seen again in Roebuck
Bay later this season to prove that it is safe.
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Fig 3: KS’s movement between
reefs and farmland in September at SE Sulawesi
|
Meanwhile, JX and LA
are still doing very well at Roebuck Bay and Eighty Miles Beach respectively.
At Roebuck Bay, JX regularly utilizes the Dampier Creek, West Quarry and the
saltmarshes south of Crab Creek. Amazing that it has managed to escape from
birders’ eyesight since August. On the other hand, at Eighty Miles Beach, LA
remains at its favourite patch of the beach 40-50km south of the Anna Plain
station entrance.
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Fig 4: JX’s movement
around Roebuck Bay over the past month
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As
of 6 November 2017:
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Migration tracks of our Whimbrels:
|
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Migration summary on our Whimbrels:
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Katherine Leung
6 November 2017
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