Jun
6
2017
Bohai 2017 Update 6
And so here we are at update 6 and the end of another GFN field season on the Luannan Coast, birds, flags, bands, Ambassadors, good food, good people and smog. The full report for the season will be out in the coming months and will go into more detail on the issues we have briefly covered during our updates.
Thanks for reading and we hope you have found our updates interesting and even entertaining on occasions.
Read more here Update 6
Jun
3
2017
Bohai 2017 Update 5
The Red Knots have started to use the complex of ponds to forage in during the last few days. As in previous years they prefer the large shallow ponds and forage on any exposed wet sediment and in very shallow water.
Read more here Update 5
May
29
2017
Far north colourbanded records
GFN have just recieved our most northly records from Pavel Tomkovich
May
23
2017
Bohai 2017 Update 4
In Update 3 we mentioned we had ‘lost’ the Red Knot and then ‘found’ them.
The area we found them is between the Hangu Power Station and the Hangu Wind Farm it is a 29km direct flight form our main Luannan Coast study site. The habitat is exactly the same, extensive mudflats with myriad salt, shrimp and fish ponds just over the seawall (and a major road and through the wind turbines). And the birds use the area in the same way, as far as we can tell from our 8 days of visiting.
Find put more here; Update 4
May
12
2017
Bohai 2017 Update 3
Well a lot has happened since the last update it has been a busy 10 days!
We have a new addition to this year’s team, Bob Loos from GFN-Netherlands has joined us again as he did in 2015 and 16. GFN’s scientific leader and general head Honcho, Theunis Piersma, also dropped in for his annual visit.
The New Zealand Ambassador to China and Chinese dignitaries visited the Luannan Coast.
We have been pondering why the Red Knot subspecies proportions have changed this year.
And exploring new areas and seeing lots of bands and flags along the way, of course.
May
3
2017
Bohai 2017 Update 2
The weather this season has been amazing, as it was last year. This fine weather has allowed us some great scanning from the sea wall where we do most of our resighting work, either on incoming or outgoing tides, while the birds are close enough to read colourband combinations, engraved leg flags (ELF) and score breeding plumage and abdominal profiles. Mornings are by far the best for observations as the sun is behind us.
Apr
24
2017
PTT 36 likes to be photographed Update
The idea with satellite transmitters (also called PTTs) is that once attached to your study subject, you don’t need to see the bird again as the PTT is tracking it on your behalf. When we put PTTs on birds in Roebuck Bay, however, we expect to resight them as the bay is an excellent site for resighting, with large flocks easily observable from low cliffs and sand dunes. And indeed we do resight tagged birds often, and are able to assess the status of the birds and their PTTs. PTT 36 likes to be photographed Update »
Apr
24
2017
Bohai 2017 Update 1
The Global Flyway Network are back at the Luannan Coast, Bohai Bay, China. Since 2010 we have been here covering most of the northward migration period. That is about 56 days of field work every year for the last seven years and this 2017 season makes it our eighth consecutive year.
We hope you enjoy the updates this season. Our work is rather repetitive, scan, data entry, scan, data entry, scan, count, data entry…but we get to eat some great food, do some cool birding and have a laugh, so we hope we can convey some of that to you.
Nov
22
2016
PTT 36 likes to have their photograph taken
The idea with satellite transmitters (also called PTTs) is that once you have attached them to your study subject you don’t need to see the bird again as the PTT is tracking it on your behalf. However PTT 36 likes to be photographed
Nov
15
2016
Benthos Survey 2016
Apparently the shorebirds only come to Roebuck Bay as the mud flats are choc-a-bloc full of invertebrates.
