Bar-tailed godwit E7 photographed after
it was fitted with its transmitter in Feburary this year,
just prior to migrating to Alaska.
E7 arrives on schedule but
no photos please!
Watch the 3 News item
E7 is back at Miranda after becoming the first godwit to have
her migration monitored by satellite, but has confounded attempts
to photograph her after her epic journey. Massey ecologist Dr
Phil Battley, who tagged 16 bar-tailed godwits to identify how
they made their way to and from Alaska, says E7 is back at her
favourite spot on the south side of the Firth of Thames.
“Unfortunately it’s a muddy spot with no access so while it
would be nice to have pictures we just haven’t been able to photograph
her,” Dr Battley says.
“She probably arrived late on Friday night. Her transmitter
is on for six hours every 36 hours and on Friday afternoon she
was south-west of Ninety Mile Beach in Northland. By 3am on Sunday
morning she was back at Miranda.”
E7 will stay in the Firth of Thames resting and “refuelling”
until about March, when she will make her way back to Alaska
to have her chicks. Data provided by the transmitter means that
Dr Battley now knows for sure her route, with her entire migratory
journey clocking in at close to 30,000 km, and the southern return
leg at more than 11,500km.
“She had the option to fly down to the Alaskan peninsula and
take off from about 500 km further south but she didn’t do that
– this indicates the long journey is not such a problem to her
or that she’s needing to find a shorter route.”
Dr Battley is now awaiting the arrival of four other birds with
transmitters still working. Eight birds fitted with backpack
tracking devices have not been monitored because the devices
appear to have fallen off. The transmitters on three of the eight
birds which had the devices surgically implanted also appear
to have stopped working.
The next project for Dr Battley is to undertake similar work
with a sub-population of the bar-tailed godwit in northwest Australia,
allowing comparison of the migratory habits of the two populations.
Earlier stories on the godwits can be found at:
http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2007/Press_Releases/09-07-07.html
http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2007/Press_Releases/03-27-07.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6988720.stm
The satellite track of the godwits’ travels can be viewed online
at:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/pacific_migration.html |
