11/29/2024
Greetings Shorebird Friends,
With the holidays and beginnings of our season of reflection, we're taking a moment to update you on our most recent and final shorebird banding event of 2024, in Indianola, MS. Across our 3 days and 4 sessions of banding, we captured a total of 125 shorebirds, deploying 54 Motus radio tags, as well as 15 Druid Bluetooth/"GPS" tracking tags. Of particular surprise, from an experiential and scientific perspective, was the flock of 20 Dunlin that hit the net simultaneously, making a controlled and calm frenzy for net removal and subsequent banding and tagging with the entire retrieved flock receiving Motus or Druid tags. This was a delight as we only captured one Dunlin during our October sessions, and this is a Near Threatened species of conservation concern across it's worldwide range, which depends heavily on the MS Delta for stopover during its migration (see map).
Among the hundreds of shorebirds captured this October and November, our most frequently captured species (248 banded + 55 Motus tagged) was Least Sandpiper, our smallest shorebird, slightly larger than a sparrow. Its rate of population decline, estimated to fall between 20-29% over the past three generations and for the period projected to the near future, makes this Near Threatened species' future uncertain. Breeding across ranges from the extreme northern tundra and boreal forests of the Arctic to the dunes of Nova Scotia and British Columbia, these tiny travelers are the most widespread sandpiper in North America, wintering from the southern US through the mangroves, tidal sloughs, and riparian areas of northern South America.
As we celebrate and take gratitude for the research success this fall, our bird conservation partners at Bird Collective just updated part of their Delta Wind Birds-partnered shorebird apparel with the Least Sandpiper corduroy hat (https://www.birdcollective.com/collections/sale/products/least-sandpipers-corduroy-hat), which, to date as a campaign, has collectively contributed more than $8,500 to help protect and create wetlands and temporary stopover habitat for migratory birds in the Mississippi Delta.
With Black Friday and Giving Tuesday around the corner, we hope you'll consider supporting shorebird conservation and research in the MS Delta by adopting a wind bird for yourself or as a gift (https://www.deltawindbirds.org/blog/adopt-a-shorebird-opportunity), and share in the fascinating wonders these remote monitoring devices reveal as these avian marvels visit our beloved state during fall migration and winter!
For a donation of $250 for a Motus radio tag, or $500 for a Druid Bluetooth tag, these symbolic adoptions help provide critical data on migration patterns, particularly informing stopover site locations and durations, as well as localized movement within our study sites in the MS Delta. Motus radio tags not only tell us how long a tagged bird remains present but also have the potential for fascinating off-site detections on radio towers throughout the Motus network in the Western Hemisphere. Druid Bluetooth tags collect detailed GPS-style location data, tracking movements to the nearest 10 meters, and providing us the data as long as tagged birds remain in our area (within range of our Bluetooth detectors). After you adopt or give an adoption, you’ll receive an alert when your bird is tagged, including: the bird species, age, s*x, banding date, the US Fish and Wildlife band number, and the opportunity to monitor its tracking data.
