December 20, 2007
Latest update on the trans-Pacific Bar-tailed Godwit migration
E5 foraging on a NSW Central Coast shoreline. Image: © 2007 Matthew Jacobs. Press image for enlargement.
Missing Bar-tailed Godwit found alive and well in NSW
E5, last heard from in New Caledonia in November, has been seen (and photographed) alive and well on the east coast of Australia.
In February this year, sixteen Bar-tailed Godwits were fitted with satellite transmitters for the tracking of the extraordinary migratory flights of these birds from New Zealand and return via the Yellow Sea and their breeding grounds in Alaska. The transmitters have now all switched off after nine months of operation. However birds are still being found and tracked by observers in New Zealand and Australia. The latest surprise was the chance location of a female 'E5' on central coast of NSW by an astute observer, Matthew Jacobs, who not only recorded and reported the birds flag details but took photographs of the bird feeding among a small group of godwits on the tidal mudflats of Pretty Beach, near Gosford, NSW.
For those who have been following the story of the satellite tracking program, E5 was the bird that changed course on her way back from Alaska to New Zealand (presumably due to adverse weather conditions along her intended route) and landed in New Caledonia where her transmitter finally switched off in November. This latest finding has made some hard working researchers very happy! All of the satellite tracked birds found so far are in good health and acting normally despite their ordeal, added to by having to carry satellite transmitters.
Researchers are now asking anyone looking at shorebirds in the Asia Pacific to look out for coloured and numbered leg flags and to report them as soon as possible to help to piece together the movements of shorebirds along their migration and at their stopover sites, even those birds not carrying transmitters.
The story of E5 so far.
On 31 March she left NZ for Asia, and flew to Tsushima, an island between Japan and South Korea. She subsequently made her way to South Korea before continuing on to the Yukon Delta in Alaska in early June. She left Alaska on her southward migration in late September but instead of returning to New Zealand she turned westwards just before Fiji and landed at New Caledonia after a 10,000-km 7-day flight. She stayed there from 29 September until at least 10 November when the last transmission was received from her. New Zealand researchers had volunteers looking for any of the satellite tagged birds but so far few have be seen. Then on 8 December 'E5' was found fit and well feeding with 4 or 5 other godwits on intertidal flats about 100 km north of Sydney, Australia. The information was quickly sent to the research team via the Asia Pacific Shorebird Network.
The next step
The same research team are planning to satellite tag another 6 male and 4 females before their northward migration from New Zealand. This time using the same transmitters used on E5 and E7 on all the birds. The team will also tag birds in the north west of Australia (Broome). The birds in NW Australia (Limosa lapponica menzbieri) breed in eastern Russia and are a different subspecies to those on the east coast of Australia and New Zealand (L. l. baueri) that breed mainly in Alaska.
You can help!
Birdwatchers throughout the Asia Pacific Region can help with the research on migratory shorebirds, and their conservation, by looking out for colour flagged or banded birds and reporting their sightings to the APSN website coordinator philstraw@shorebirdnetwork.org who will immediately pass on the information to the research team responsible. We need to know which colour is on which leg and which colour is above or below the other (Visit the Leg Flags page for images).
for more information visit http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/barg.html.