GWCT Woodcock Watch Blog
Nastasia has returned to South-west Ireland having not sent any data since November when she was in Latvia and Quill is once again sending data from Durham.
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Follow the progress of the woodcock taking part in the GWCT's pioneering satellite tagging project.
Showing posts with label Nastasia - Na. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nastasia - Na. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 March 2015
More great news - now Nastasia and Quill have reappeared
Following the recent reappearance of Remy we are pleased to report that two more of our tagged woodcock have sent new location data for the first time in months.
Nastasia has returned to South-west Ireland having not sent any data since November when she was in Latvia and Quill is once again sending data from Durham.
Please help us continue our woodcock research
Nastasia has returned to South-west Ireland having not sent any data since November when she was in Latvia and Quill is once again sending data from Durham.
Please help us continue our woodcock research
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Latest November location updates - Amy, Monkey III, Nastasia & Rocky
Nearly half-way through November and several of our tagged woodcock are getting closer to returning to the UK including Monkey III, who had been silent for three months until we received an update on 11th November:
Please help us continue our woodcock research
In order to find out more about these elusive birds we need to monitor more of them. Please help us tag more woodcock and continue our research. Click here to donate >
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| Monkey III is currently in the Netherlands after leaving Russia |
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| Amy has flown through Belarus on her way back from Russia and is in Lithuania |
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| Nastasia has passed through Latvia on her return and is now in Lithuania |
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| Rocky is in Germany having stopped off in Poland on the journey back from Russia |
In order to find out more about these elusive birds we need to monitor more of them. Please help us tag more woodcock and continue our research. Click here to donate >
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Autumn Progress
In early October the first few migrant woodcock begin to arrive. The vast majority, however, will not be here until November or even later; in an average year birds are still arriving through December. Last week I heard the first reports of migrants seen on the east coast but our satellite-tagged birds are showing little in the way of migratory behaviour.
The GWCT’s Woodcock Watch project tracks the migrations of British wintering woodcock across Europe; over the last three years the project has followed the fates of thirty-nine individuals using state of the art tracking technology.
In February and March, woodcock are caught and fitted with lightweight tags which are able to provide a near real-time relay of their outward spring migration. The devices are equipped with tiny solar-panels, and providing they receive enough sunlight, they should remain charged to track their returning journeys in the autumn and in some cases, in subsequent years. In 2014, we tracked twenty-five woodcock; seventeen of which were caught this spring and eight of which were tagged in previous years but whose transmitters were still active. All but one tag provided useable data and twenty of our birds completed a spring migration.
Eleven of these migrated to breeding sites in Western Russia. There were three woodcock that chose relatively southern locations in the area west of Moscow and east of the Belarussian border, whilst another eight settled in the more northerly region east of Finland. One of these birds, James, was amongst the most northerly breeders Woodcock Watch has tracked, visiting a site close to Arkhangelsk on Russia’s White Sea. Other tagged woodcock this year headed for Finland, Latvia and Norway.
The birds we have been able to track in multiple years have demonstrated that woodcock remain loyal to the same breeding site year on year. Rebecca, in particular, has been a striking case in point and has returned annually to the same wood in Russia since being tagged in February 2012. In just the three years we have monitored her, she has covered a total distance of 15,000 km from Wales to Russia and back two and a half times. We have yet to conclusively prove it, but we believe that birds like Rebecca are returning to breed at sites close to where they hatched as chicks; research suggests this to be so in most other wading bird species.
We are still receiving data from many of the tagged woodcock and transmissions have remained encouragingly frequent this year, but so far most are only showing small scale movements on the summering grounds. Instinctively, the woodcock will be anticipating the long flight ahead of them and are probably busy trying to find sufficient food to reach an optimum physical condition.
The only bird that appears to have begun her autumn migration is Nastasia. She was tagged in County Cork, Ireland, in March 2014. During the first two weeks of April she made her way to Western Russia via Belgium, Germany and Poland, ultimately settling in a site not far from St. Petersburg. Here she remained until early October. On the 18th October her tag sent fresh data showing her to be in Lativa, having flown the first 600 km of her westward migration.
It remains to be seen when the rest of the birds will depart. The weather in Finland and Western Russia is still relatively mild, but this appears to be changing. If the temperature continues to drop, we would expect this to prompt migration in those woodcock that have yet to leave. Typically, the average woodcock migration consists of a long, sustained flight over a relatively short time period, followed by a break of a week to ten days’ rest before the next long flight. Migrating in stages keeps the birds ahead of the oncoming cold weather and gives them an opportunity to feed and recover en route. This could mean it is another month or more before they are back in the UK and Ireland.
Support our research - sponsor a woodcock
A small sponsorship of £36 covers the cost of downloading location data each month, helping us to monitor a bird’s location throughout the year. Each bird provides more vital data to help our drive to conserve the woodcock in the UK. Sponsor a woodcock >
The GWCT’s Woodcock Watch project tracks the migrations of British wintering woodcock across Europe; over the last three years the project has followed the fates of thirty-nine individuals using state of the art tracking technology.
Eleven of these migrated to breeding sites in Western Russia. There were three woodcock that chose relatively southern locations in the area west of Moscow and east of the Belarussian border, whilst another eight settled in the more northerly region east of Finland. One of these birds, James, was amongst the most northerly breeders Woodcock Watch has tracked, visiting a site close to Arkhangelsk on Russia’s White Sea. Other tagged woodcock this year headed for Finland, Latvia and Norway.
The birds we have been able to track in multiple years have demonstrated that woodcock remain loyal to the same breeding site year on year. Rebecca, in particular, has been a striking case in point and has returned annually to the same wood in Russia since being tagged in February 2012. In just the three years we have monitored her, she has covered a total distance of 15,000 km from Wales to Russia and back two and a half times. We have yet to conclusively prove it, but we believe that birds like Rebecca are returning to breed at sites close to where they hatched as chicks; research suggests this to be so in most other wading bird species.
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| Nastasia |
We are still receiving data from many of the tagged woodcock and transmissions have remained encouragingly frequent this year, but so far most are only showing small scale movements on the summering grounds. Instinctively, the woodcock will be anticipating the long flight ahead of them and are probably busy trying to find sufficient food to reach an optimum physical condition.
The only bird that appears to have begun her autumn migration is Nastasia. She was tagged in County Cork, Ireland, in March 2014. During the first two weeks of April she made her way to Western Russia via Belgium, Germany and Poland, ultimately settling in a site not far from St. Petersburg. Here she remained until early October. On the 18th October her tag sent fresh data showing her to be in Lativa, having flown the first 600 km of her westward migration.
It remains to be seen when the rest of the birds will depart. The weather in Finland and Western Russia is still relatively mild, but this appears to be changing. If the temperature continues to drop, we would expect this to prompt migration in those woodcock that have yet to leave. Typically, the average woodcock migration consists of a long, sustained flight over a relatively short time period, followed by a break of a week to ten days’ rest before the next long flight. Migrating in stages keeps the birds ahead of the oncoming cold weather and gives them an opportunity to feed and recover en route. This could mean it is another month or more before they are back in the UK and Ireland.
Support our research - sponsor a woodcock
A small sponsorship of £36 covers the cost of downloading location data each month, helping us to monitor a bird’s location throughout the year. Each bird provides more vital data to help our drive to conserve the woodcock in the UK. Sponsor a woodcock >
Monday, 20 October 2014
Nastasia first to head home
New data received on 18th October shows Nastasia to be the first of our tagged woodcock to begin the journey back. Having left Ireland in March, Nastasia flew to a site near St Petersburg in Russia and is now in Latvia:
Follow Nastasia's journey online >
Follow Nastasia's journey online >
Friday, 9 May 2014
New chart shows latest Woodcock Watch data at a glance
Our woodcock are continuing their journeys across Europe and we've just received location updates for each of them.The new chart below shows details for each bird and updates automatically on our website and blog as soon as we enter new data:
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