As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 11 February 2016

Little bird, big journey: A tagged Georgia shorebird flies 60,000 miles


Posted: January 27, 2016 - 10:22pm  |  Updated: January 28, 2016 - 5:22am

A shorebird nicknamed Postel, tagged on the Georgia coast in 2012, flew nearly 60,000 miles before his tag stopped transmitting in late November.

The whimbrel, which returned to the coast each spring over the three and a half years its satellite tag was active, has already given scientists insight into the importance of Georgia’s seemingly lifeless sandbars and spits.

Postel was captured in the marshes of St. Simons Island near Postel Creek in May 2012 by a team of biologists, including Tim Keyes of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

They caught Postel in a snare and immediately fitted him with a tracking device. The satellite tag comes with a tiny solar panel and a whip antennae. Weighing just a third of an ounce, it attached to Postel with a figure-eight harness that looped around each leg.


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