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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