Natural History Wanderings

Shorebird Science has an article about the use of geolocators to learn about the migratory routes of Semipalmated Sandpipers. They report that

Surveys conducted by the New Jersey Audubon Society have shown an 80% decline over the past 20 years in numbers within the core wintering range in northern South America. At the same time, data from the Arctic show that breeding populations are apparently stable at some sites, especially in the western part of the arctic breeding range in Alaska. We need to understand the migratory pathways of the species in order to know where the decline is occurring, and what can be done to reverse it. Light-level geolocators are a cutting edge technology and their use has helped revolutionize our understanding of shorebird migration, but they have never been used on Semipalmated Sandpipers before this project.

They trace the migratory path of one bird’s migratory route in detail to show what is being learned by the geolocators .

Read the full story at The Remarkable Odyssey of a Semipalmated Sandpiper | Shorebird Science.