Godwits, godwits, godwits « Grassroots Science

Godwits, godwits, godwits

Published 2008 May 4 H5N1 , Updates , birds , maps 2 Comments
Tags: Bumsted, Grassroots Science, YKAlaska

Track their progress yourself–
2008 Bar-tailed Godwit Updates
and their progress against the sea ice melting Where is… ice pack and the tundra thawing, Where is… breakup freezeup

Scientists track bar-tailed godwits on marathon migration to and from Alaska
By GEORGE BRYSON Anchorage Daily News
Published: March 31st, 2008 12:02 AM
Last Modified: March 31st, 2008
http://www.adn.com/front/story/360937.html

Previously noted–
The godwits are coming
More on the godwits
Our birds Polynesia
YK Bird Study Protocol
Birds sampled 1988-2004

Site Search Tags: godwits, New+Zealand, Polynesia, Australia, ice+pack, migrations, satellite

2 Responses to “Godwits, godwits, godwits”

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1 mpb 2008 July 18 at 6:53 pm

Godwit watcher in for the long haul
The Nelson Mail – Nelson,New Zealand

Working for two months in damp, freezing conditions to monitor birds would not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but for Marlborough Sounds-based ornithologist Rob Schuckard it was a dream come true.

He was with a core group of four, camping in the Yukon Kuskokwim Refuge, a reserve slightly smaller than the North Island, here the bar-tailed godwits breed …

Sadly, the population of bar-tailed godwits is in steep decline, dropping from about 155,000 in the 1990s to an estimated 90,000 today.

Schuckard said seeing and hearing the courtship activities of godwits on the breeding grounds, with their noisy aerial displays, was incredible.

…He arrived in Alaska on April 24, when temperatures were well below 0degC, in time to see flocks of godwits arrive. The first godwits were seen on May 7, with up to 300 birds passing through daily. [...]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/nelsonmail/4624144a19260.html

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2 mpb 2008 October 22 at 6:41 am

Birds Fly More Than 7,000 Miles Nonstop, Study Shows

from the Washington Post (Registration Required)

The bar-tailed godwit, a plump shorebird with a recurved bill, has blown the record for nonstop, muscle-powered flight right out of the sky.

A study being published today reports that godwits can fly as many as 7,242 miles without stopping in their annual fall migration from Alaska to New Zealand. The previous record, set by eastern curlews, was a 4,000-mile trip from eastern Australia to China.

The birds flew for five to nine days without rest, a few landing on South Pacific islands before resuming their trips, which were monitored by satellite in 2006 and 2007. As a feat of sustained exercise unrelieved by sleeping, eating or drinking, the godwit’s migration appears to be without precedent in the annals of vertebrate physiology.

http://snipurl.com/4lhwa

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