wader Dick & Jean Hoffman
The Shorebird Watcher
 		wader
Report of Banded Bar-tailed Godwits in Alaska

Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 15:21:35 SAST-2
Subject: COLOR-FLAGGED BAR-TAILED GODWITS

COLOR-FLAGGED BAR-TAILED GODWITS. From 4-10 September, Bob Gill and Brian McCaffery observed staging bar-tailed godwits in western Alaska on the southern Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Earlier aerial surveys (Gill and McCaffery 1999, Wader Study Group Bulletin 88:49-54) indicated that the delta supported thousands of godwits, and we were not disappointed on our recent trip. We estimated at least 9,000 along the 10-km stretch of coastline where we worked.

By following foraging flocks, as well as working high tide roosts, we had a chance to scan many thousands of legs for color flags. We made dozens of observations of color-flagged godwits during our week in the field, including at least 28 different individuals. We still need to contact banders in Australia and New Zealand to confirm their color-flagging protocols, but our preliminary conclusions indicate that we observed 12 individuals from southeastern Australia (orange flag), 8 from northeastern Australia (green flag), and 8 from New Zealand (white flag). A proposed link to wintering grounds in New Zealand and possibly eastern Australia had heretofore been based on reports of only three marked birds obtained during the previous 45 years. This information confirms that the Alaska breeding population of about 150,000 birds is distinct from those breeding elsewhere in Asia and that Alaskan birds winter in both eastern Australia and New Zealand. Further, our failure to see any birds that were marked on nonbreeding areas in northwestern Australia (over 5,000 marked to date) supports the idea of the East Asian-Australasian flyway having at least two distinct populations of godwits, which are segregated from each other during almost their entire annual cycles.

Posted on behalf of Robert Gill, replies to Robert_Gill@usgs.gov

Bar-tailed Godwit

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Sep 17,1999