In late June 2007, we satellite-tagged 15 Bristle-thighed Curlews on their breeding grounds in the Andreafsky Wilderness of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in western Alaska http://yukondelta.fws.gov/. We then used satellite telemetry to track the movements of the tagged birds. We found that they remained on the breeding grounds for 2–5 weeks after chicks hatched and in mid-late July they flew to sites in southwest Alaska to rest and fatten-up prior to their southbound migration. In early August the first birds left Alaska and, over the next few weeks, we tracked several of them as they flew to atolls and islands in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, The Republic of Kiribati, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and the Republic of Nauru.
In December 2007, we traveled to the Republic of the Marshall Islands to observe curlews at non-breeding sites and meet local citizens, scientists, and naturalists interested in bird conservation in the region. While there, we observed one of the satellite-tagged curlews (Y5). Click here to read a description if that trip. |
