Sweco's Journey to Mexico.

Sweco left the Great Salt Lake a little over a week ago. He made a stop at Tremaine Lake in Arizona on the 27th of October before making it to Mexico on the 28th. He had a short stay near Guaymas, Mexico before moving further south to the state of Sinaloa where he remains.

Clara now in Mexico!

On October 6, Clara was detected in Mexico.  She is now located south of Puerto Peñasco in Sonora Mexico.  Her last signal from Great Salt Lake came just before midnight on October 2.  Fifty two hours later we received a signal from her in Mexico over 720 miles away.  Because the transmitters only send out signals to satellites for five hours, followed by a 20 hour off-cycle, we don’t know her exact time of departure.  However, for birds that can travel 30-50 miles per hour, a 700 mile flight could be accomplished in as little as 14 hours.  She continues to slowly move south along the coast of Mexico.

The other birds continue to provide signals at Great Salt Lake within Farmington Bay.

First migration report

Yesterday morning (September 30, 2014) we received an excellent signal from Simba.  He has left Great Salt Lake and is now over 600 miles southwest in Northern Mexico near the delta of the Colorado River.  Like Great Salt Lake, this location is also critical habitat for shorebirds.  The area is called the Estero Rio Colorado and is designated as a site of "International Importance" through the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.  Check out Simba's map for his most recent location.

We have received good signals from Torito, Florence, Clara and Sweco over the last several days.  All of these birds are still at Great Salt Lake.  Interestingly Torito, Clara and Sweco seem to be using the same area of Farmington Bay, near the southeastern corner.  We expect the remaining avocets here at Great Salt Lake to be leaving any day.

We will update maps again early next week.

Weekly Update

We are waiting for the Avocets to begin migrating any time now. As of today, Florence is near the causeway to Antelope Island; Clara remains in Farmington Bay and Foxey is at the South end of the lake. No recent data has been received from Torito, Sweco, Nala, Simba, or Leah.

Weekly Update

Foxey has been on the move lately; she has moved from Farmington Bay to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge then to the South and Southwest side of the lake. Many PTTs have only given us intermittent data during the last week or two. The last data from Sweco was from 08/29 and Florence 08/28. No recent data has been collected from Leah, Simba and Nala. Some good news is that Torito and Clara continue to give us continuous data.

Poor quality data

Today I was rather disappointed to see only a few good signals coming from our birds.  We only have signals from Torrito, Florence, Clara and Foxey.  I'm not sure what has happened to the other 4.  We've had several days of overcast skies here in northern Utah which could be interfering with the ability of the solar panels to fully charge up the batteries.  Hopefully we'll get data soon.

Torrito is currently at the south end of Farmington Bay near the Turpin unit of the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.  Florence is back near the Gillmor sanctuary south of Brown's Island.  Foxey has moved from Farmington Bay across the Antelope Island Causeway to Ogden Bay near Pintail Flats.  I believe Clara is still in Farmington Bay but her signal quality is too low to get a good location.

 

Weekly Update

This week Simba remains near Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and Florence is found today near Gillmor AUDUBON Sanctuary. We have not received any data from Nala since the 3rd of August and still no data coming in from Leah since the 9th of July. All other birds are found within Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.

On the Move

An interesting move has been observed. Simba, who was captured at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge when he was fitted with his transmitter, has now returned after a stay at Farmington Bay. Additionally, Foxey may have also made a move to Bear River from Farmington Bay although no data points of good quality have been recorded yet.

End of July

Most of our birds are at Farmington Bay and seem to grouped near the edge of the lake. Sweco remains at Gillmor Sanctuary. There is still no signal for Leah.

First Post

All PTTs were successfully added to American Avocets (AMAV) this breeding season!  Our first bird, Leah, was captured on May 31 with the final bird, Torito tagged on June 27.  We were able to place transmitters on 6 females and 2 males from 3 different sites at Great Salt Lake - Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area and Gillmor Audubon Sanctuary.

Most of the birds are now starting to move into Farmington Bay at Great Salt Lake. We have seen several large flocks of AMAV in the Bay but have not been able to visually re-sight our marked birds.  Anyone that sees a color banded AMAV should contact us at Weber State University.  We are particularly interested in their behavior, flock size and their stage of molt.  Many AMAV in the Bay have started their prebasic molt.  In addition to replacing flight feathers, the prebasic molt also returns the stunning reddish-orange head back to the nonbreeding white condition.

Sweco was the last bird confirmed to have young.  Ella Sorensen, National Audubon Society and Manager of the Gillmor Sanctuary, spent several days in the field relocating both Sweco and Florence to determine their status.  Sweco and his mate successfully hatched 4 young and as of our last report was seen foraging with them.  Florence, the other Gillmor bird is furthest south of all our birds but has been moving back and forth from Farmington Bay to Gillmor.

We have one transmitter (Leah's) that has been failing to provide us with a consistent signal.  Unfortunately, we don't yet know what has happened.  The transmitter provided several weeks worth of good data and Leah was observed with young in early June.  However, on June 9 we received a signal but then it quit transmitting until a couple of signals in early July.  These signals were of low quality so we're unable to get a good location for it.