Report on the travels and status of NW Australian satellite-tagged Bar-tailed Godwits

Please remember when reading the information below that this is not the ‘final story’, these are the initial findings and may change when the final analysis is done. We also ‘join the dots’ between each signal, however the birds are so skilled at navigating that this is most likely the route they travel.

Dear Godwit watchers

This is possibly the last or last but one update as one of two things will happen soon, either the batteries will run out of power on the transmitters or all the birds will be back in Roebuck Bay!

In summary we have 8 birds alive in the Yellow Sea, on southward migration, with the batteries for the transmitters still working, 3 birds in Roebuck Bay (they never left), 1 battery has run out of power, we have lost contact with 1 bird and 2 have died. 

Updates on each individual bird

This will only be a brief update with the current situation of the birds and their location in relation to where they staged on northward migration, most being exactly or very close to the sites they used during the northward (spring) migration season.

H0 is very much sticking to the rich inter-tidal mudflats in the NE of Roebuck Bay around the Crab Creek area.

H2 is using similar areas of mudflat for foraging as H0 but a little further south.

C0’s movements are very similar to H2.

C2 is back in the Liaoning Bay exactly where she was on northward migration.

C3 is currently 95km north of Chongming Dongtan National Nature Reserve the same site as she fueled up on northward migration. She spent about 7 days in the southern area of North Korea, a site no other satellite tagged bird has used, on her way back there.

C4 we lost contact on northward migration as she was flying along the coast of China.

C6 is back in the same region as she used on her northward trip but 75km to the south.

C7 is back in exactly the same area she was on her northward journey, southern Bohai Wan.

H3 arrived back at Yalu Jiang on July 13 or 14 and is sticking to the east of the reserve close to the Yalu River which separates China and North Korea. This is exactly the same area as she used on northward migration.

H7 unfortunately she seems to have died around June 9 based on the readings from her temperature sensor.

H8, our only male carrying a transmitter, is back at Yalu Jiang National Nature Reserve but he ‘roams’ more than the other birds there from east to west. Being up to 120km between different sites.

H9 is back in North Korea and roaming 40km between the 2 areas she used on her northward stopover.

A3 she seems to have died or been killed on about June 9. Her temperature sensor indicates this was her fate.

A7 battery apparently ran out of power on July 18th.

A9 is staging at Yalu Jiang on her southward migration some 850km NE of her site on northward migration.

Many thanks to all involved with the project and particularly to Lee Tibbitts for all her regular updates summaries and Google Earth grabs.

For those of you not yet following the tracks of the NZ and Broome birds I recommend you do! It is fascinating stuff (but I would say that wouldn’t I?) To view the birds follow the information below.

The best way to follow the project is to visit the USGS site. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and there is a godwit icon: Click the godwit to download the kmz file/icon to your desktop. Click on the icon and this will open Google Earth, where you can view the globe with the travels of the godwits marked out on it. To view the birds follow the information below. When you click on the icon with a number you will be given a list of information. Note that the date is month/day/year and the time is UTC/Greenwich meantime, add 7 hours for WA and Chinese time. Korea is another one hour ahead.

• You will need Google Earth installed on your computer. It is a free download which you can get here »

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