Bar-tailed Godwit's marathon migration 7,200 miles nonstop

Bar-tailed Godwit E7 few nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand last fall 7,200 miles in 8 days 5 hours. The USGS Alaska Science Center offers a web site to track the migration of the Bar-tailed Godwit's returning to Alaska in a two stage migration. The return flight makes a refueling stop at the Yellow Sea in China. The following link will take you to the site:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/barg_updates.html
This photo of the three stage annual migration is from the USGS site.
Gary


This message was edited Mar 31, 2008 10:40 AM

holy cow!

Saw this last year (I think there's already a thread on it in this forum!). The exact distance covered was 11,570 km, starting on 29 August 2007.

Resin

It is amazing!

Yep:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/773267/

Resin,
The link I posted is tracking the current spring migration. It is a direct link to the Alaskan part of the international study group.
Gary

Very interesting Gary..thanks for the link! Looks like no E7 yet? Will you be seeing these birds when they arrive in Alaska...or have you ever seen them? This is very exciting and I do hope E7 shows up on the radar soon...what an amazing feat!

All I can think of ........ is I hope someone has some good food for them at the end of their flight!

I am always humbled by the endurance and tenacity of migratory birds.

Quite likely E7 isn't being monitored any more - the batteries to power the radio tags don't last forever!