Satellite tagging Bar-tailed Godwits in New Zealand: February 2007

(Photos by Nils and Noah Warnock unless otherwise noted)

South Island, New Zealand

Noah showing North and South Island of New Zealand on the great map of the world at the Auckland International Airport.

Just outside of Collingwood

Our first trapping site was in Golden Bay region of the north end of the South Island between Collingwood and the Farewell Spit at a place called Totora Ave

View of trapping site at Totora Ave. with roost of Pied Oystercatchers

Setting up the cannon nets to catch Bar-tailed Godwits with our colleagues Rob Schuckard, Ingrid Hutzler, and Willy Cooke (not pictured) who work with the New Zealand Ornithological Society.

A successful shot! Bob Gill extracting a godwit.

A female Bar-tailed Godwit with an implanted satellite tag (PTT) and a male godwit with a solar powered PTT attached by a harness. Our USGS vet, Dan Mulcahy, did the implants with help from Brett Gartrell who is a vet at the University of Massey and the Director of the New Zealand Wildlife Health Centre.

A female godwit with an implanted PTT being released. Note the alphanumeric tag that allows us to resight this individual (Z0).

(Photo by Rob Schuckard)

After being tagged, some of the godwits have moved up to Farewell Spit, a 29 km long sand spit with large mudflats on the inner side (see picture below) and a lighthouse at the end. Farewell Spit is a favored spot in New Zealand for shorebirds including Bar-tailed Godwits. We did some resighting of roost flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits on the Spit and saw many color-marked birds including some banded in Alaska over the past few years.

Bob resighting color-banded and flagged Bar-tailed Godwits on Farewell Spit.

Farewell Spit Lighthouse