Satellite tagged Eurasian Whimbrel 2017:
Migration just started again for our
satellite tagged Whimbrels. After the non-breeding season in Australia, it is a
delight that all three satellite tags are still working fine.
During the Broome
Bird Observatory’s Public Migration Watch on 14-Apr-18, about 100 interested
members from the public witnessed probably 500 Whimbrels departing Roebuck Bay
with another 550 shorebirds at dusk. Two days later, on 16-Apr-18 morning,
signals show that satellite tagged Whimbrel JX was flying pass Sulawesi,
Indonesia (approximately 1,650km from Broome).
Fig 1: JX’s departure
from Broome
As a measure to
conserve solar battery power, our satellite transmitter switch “OFF” for 48
hours after each 10 hours “ON” period. Unfortunately, the migration happened
during the “OFF” hours and therefore the exact departing time of JX cannot be
determined.
JX northward
flight continued and entered Southern China Sea this morning. At 11am today it
was just about 500km away from landing. Two days later when the transmitter is
switch “ON” again, its first landing location will be revealed.
Fig 2: JX’s northward
migration on 18-Apr-18
You might still
remember that JX didn’t fly to the breeding ground in Siberia last year and
stayed in Palawan, in the Philippines for more than 3 months before coming back to
Broome. So, it is of big interest whether it will make it to the breeding
ground this year.
Meanwhile, KU and LA
are still at Roebuck Bay and Eighty Miles Beach respectively. It is expected
that they will start migration at any moment.
Satellite tagged Grey-tailed
Tattler 2018:
During this year AWSG’s
North-west Australia Waders and Terns Expedition, the team have also deployed
five 2g satellite transmitters on Grey-tailed Tattler at Eighty Miles Beach on
16-Feb-18. Unlike the 5g satellite transmitters on Whimbrel, these 2g tags
transmit signals whenever the solar battery is sufficiently charged. Over the
past 2 months, these five tattlers utilize areas up to 23km south to 48km north
to the location where they were first captured (15km south to the Anna Plains
entrance to the beach).
These birds are
expected to start migrating north by the end of this month and their news will
also be updated here.
Stay tuned!
Katherine Leung
18 April 2018
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