In the 2018/2019 season QWSG continued monitoring the birds fitted with Satellite devices in the previous season but also fitted transmitters to an additional 1 Whimbrel, 3 Far-Eastern Curlew, 2 Black-tailed Godwits and 4 Bar-tailed Godwits.
The Godwits (Leg Flags on the Black-tailed Godwits CAA and CAB, the Bar-tailed Godwits AWN, AWR, AWS) and the Whimbrel (leg flag AAH) were caught on the 3rd March 2019 at Manly Artificial Roost with one Bar-tailed Godwit (leg flag BJV) caught at the Port of Brisbane on the 27th January 2019. The three Far-Eastern Curlew (leg flags AAL, AAN and AAP) were also caught at Manly but earlier in the season on the 13th January.
From last season, Far-Eastern Curlew AAD, AAH, AAJ and AAK are still transmitting giving us 7 curlew we are tracking this season, three of which have commenced migration already. In addition, 3 of our 5 Whimbrel from last season are also still transmitting giving us a total of 4 Whimbrel we will track on migration this season.
This year updates will be posted as a series of regularly produced PDF files to keep everyone informed. The first ones, covering the season up to end of March are below. The first update covers Far-eastern Curlew only and updates will be posted here as the other species start their migration.
As always, any questions, please get in touch with Jon Coleman janetandjon@hotmail.com
Thanks also to Brad Woodworth for collating the maps and pdf’s for sharing with everyone
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All our remaining shorebird species are now on the breeding grounds with three Whimbrel on territory in Northern Kamchatka, Southern Chukotka in Siberia and two of our Bar-tailed Godwits on station near Barrow in Alaska, unfortunately we lost the transmission on the remaining Black-tailed Godwit near Japan so will wait to see if the bird returns having lot the transmitter. However we did get an enormous amount of data on the birds migration stopovers as it moved up the East Coast and onto the Gulf of Carpentaria before migrating. A third Bar-tailed Godwit appeared to have cyclone issues and turned back due to whether and has stayed near Townsville for the Austral Winter. The attached pdf had maps for all birds, thanks to Fudan University and Fenliang Kuang for producing the maps
