From: "Glasco, Don" <[[email protected]]>
Date: April 14, 2005 4:02:16 PM PDT
To: <[[email protected]]>
Subject: FW: anyone seen a sandpiper wearing a transmitter?
Umm. Wonder if some hawks or windmills got a lot of little shocks ;}
FYI, Bob if you wanted to post on the SF Bay Bird list. I already did
for Monterey Bay.
Cheers,
Don
-----Original Message-----
From: Kerstin Wasson [mailto:[[email protected]]]
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 2:58 PM
To: Kerstin Wasson
Subject: anyone seen a sandpiper wearing a transmitter?
Hi, All
A research team has lost their radiotagged flock of Western
Sandpipers. They could be in our area. If you see a sandpiper
wearing a transmitter, please immediately email Ron Ydenberg
([[email protected]]) [that's Simon Frasier in Canada, not San Francisco,
CA]!
Sounds like he might even be interested in any report of a Western
Sandpiper flock, to get a sense of where they are in their migration
now. His message is below
Best,
Kerstin
*******************************************
Kerstin Wasson
Research Coordinator
Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
1700 Elkhorn Road, Watsonville, CA 95076 USA
www.elkhornslough.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Ydenberg" <[[email protected]]>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 14:51:21 -0700
Subject: where are the WESAs?
Some of you know that Pat Baird has been putting radios on western
sandpipers in Panama and Mexico so that we can track northward
migration. We have successfully tracked birds up to Sinaloa, but they
have since gone missing, and we're not hearing the radioed birds we
expected in southern California. In fact, we are not even seeing any
western sandpipers there. According to what we know of the migration
schedule, they ought to be streaming through steadily, and the first
birds are due here in BC next week. So, where are they?
I'd appreciate hearing from you if you have any information that might
help. Some possibilities are that our radioed birds are travelling
along the Sierra Nevadas, or that they jumped over southern California
and are in San Francisco, perhaps because it has been a very wet year?
Sightings of large flocks of westerns would be welcome to help us
understand what has happened. Please record the date, time, location,
and estimate the flock size(s).
For those who have radio receiver capability and might care to listen,
all our birds are broadcasting on 164.320 (at ~ 4 to 6 s intervals, in
daylight). Unless you have the specialized receiver you will not be
able to identify each transmitter's individual code, but you should be
able to hear the 'beep' confirming that one or more of our radioed
birds is in your listening range. (Beeps at intervals less than ~4s
indicate that you are hearing more than one radio.)
Please contact me if you have questions, if you might be able to help
but need more direction, or if you have an idea that might help us.
Thanks for your help!
Ron Ydenberg
Professor and Director
Centre for Wildlife Ecology
http://www.sfu.ca/biology/wildberg/
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby BC
Canada V5A 1S6
604 291 4282
fax 604 291 3496
Administrative Assistant
Judy Higham
604 291 5958