Taking over this project from Nathan, provided me with a lot of opportunities: a previously banded population, known wintering areas, etcetera. Nathan got most of the information about wintering grounds and migration pathways from using a piece of technology called a geolocator or data logger.
Geolocators are small data collectors - basically a computer chip and battery that have been made small and light for several years. They are just developing them now (within the last year or two) to be small enough for warblers. Unlike radio transmitters which have been small and lighter for decades they actively collect and store data - not requiring someone to receive the signal. Unlike most satellite transmitters, you can’t access that data remotely. You have to retrieve or collect that computer chip again in order to download the data off it. While celebrated for their compact size and ability to collect data that only the larger bulkier satellite transmitters can by biologists, they pose a logistical nightmare. You have no data unless you retrieve it.
Nathan used them for their small size, but he also knew that most adult godwits return to the same breeding territory year after year. In order to retrieve the data he would just have to find the nest and catch the bird again. From that motivation (and others) we have nearly every HUGO nest from his years here and nearly every adult captures every year.
Nathan glued the geolocator to the flag we use to resight HUGOs - a standard method. But the glue gets worn away over time with abrasions from salt water. He wanted to collect them every year to be sure he would get the data. He wasn’t sure how long they’d last. Once he searched for the nest for a bird that had been seen with a dangling geolocator. They found the best and tried to capture that bird two days later, but the geolocator had fallen off along with its two years of data.
So, when I took over last year I told everyone to keep an eye out for geolocators on the birds knowing it would be against all odds to retrieve one. It’s still in the protocol this year, even though I didn’t think it was a possibility.
But we did.
My technicians had been reporting weird things to me. Unreadable flags. Plastic peeling off. Weird globs. It sounded like a geolocator, but the reports were coming in from all over. Since I knew it was a one in a million chance that a bird would still have its geolocator, I told them that they had the find the nest regardless.
But they did.
Unfortunately, the bird’s identity was still a bit of a mystery. What they thought was a geolocator was blocking their view of the identifiable flag code on one side. Reads of the other side were inconclusive. Finally, I was walking onto plot hoping to capture at that nest when a female came flying in. I got two great, clear looks - a geolocator on one side and U0 on the other. At last a definitive ID!
I looked her up later that day. She had been banded for the first time in 2009. In 2009, she was given a geolocator - it was retrieved in 2010 and she got a new one. In 2011, Nathan swapped it out again. In 2012, her nest was found and two days later, when they went to check it, it had failed. A predator had gotten it. His only chance to retrieve that geolocator was gone. (Nathan had his last field season for his doctorate research in 2012)
Well, remember how I said I had been trying to capture at the nest when I got the ID? I had been trying before that, but then I knew I really had to get her. One of my techs and I had almost caught her. We had laid the net down over her while she incubated, but her nest is in a lot of shrubs and she managed to fly out underneath my net in the gap provided by the taller shrubs. After that day, she wasn’t going to put up with me anymore. Anytime we walked on plot she was off the nest flying in to alarm call 3 or 400 m away from her nest. Every time I was on plot I wanted to try to capture her. We tried every trick I could think of. We wore different clothes (I almost always have my raincoat on so I switched coats). We approached from different angles. We snuck on plot. We tried to go out at night. Nothing was working. I was about to give up, and say she was uncatchable.
But I didn’t.
I decided to try one more time. I had one last female to capture on plot at a nest that had just been found. Kyle, the technician who had helped me the first time I tried to catch her, was helping me again. The first capture went smoothly and quickly. We decided to take the time to try one last time to catch U0.
It was eerily quiet as we approached. She hadn’t flown in alarm-calling. We approached the nest with the mist net. I was nervous and walking fast. Could it be? Did I have a second chance?
We got within a few meters of the nest. She was incubating, but very aware of me - she was watching me. Just as we got the net above the nest she flushed. I dropped my side to the ground thinking surely she couldn’t have flown out. She was inside the net but barely. There is a large hole I haven’t had time to repair and she was right next to it working her way towards it. I took three big quick steps and grabbed her. She was caught.
It was close - she almost escaped a second time, but we captured her. I did a quick extraction from the net and Kyle and I retreated to where we had left our backpacks in order to process her. I radioed the crew to let them know we had succeeded, and got to work processing her. She left with a new identity - VY, I had to cut the flag off her to retrieve the geolocator - and a little less weight to carry around on her legs.
What’s next? I let Nathan know we recovered it, and we’ll send it in to download the data as soon as I can. This way I can give back a little to Nathan’s dataset, since his four years of data have aided me so much.
It was a pretty good day. When I got home I ate some celebratory chocolate and put that geolocator in a safe place where it won’t get lost between now and when I can mail it in.
Geolocators are small data collectors - basically a computer chip and battery that have been made small and light for several years. They are just developing them now (within the last year or two) to be small enough for warblers. Unlike radio transmitters which have been small and lighter for decades they actively collect and store data - not requiring someone to receive the signal. Unlike most satellite transmitters, you can’t access that data remotely. You have to retrieve or collect that computer chip again in order to download the data off it. While celebrated for their compact size and ability to collect data that only the larger bulkier satellite transmitters can by biologists, they pose a logistical nightmare. You have no data unless you retrieve it.
Nathan used them for their small size, but he also knew that most adult godwits return to the same breeding territory year after year. In order to retrieve the data he would just have to find the nest and catch the bird again. From that motivation (and others) we have nearly every HUGO nest from his years here and nearly every adult captures every year.
Nathan glued the geolocator to the flag we use to resight HUGOs - a standard method. But the glue gets worn away over time with abrasions from salt water. He wanted to collect them every year to be sure he would get the data. He wasn’t sure how long they’d last. Once he searched for the nest for a bird that had been seen with a dangling geolocator. They found the best and tried to capture that bird two days later, but the geolocator had fallen off along with its two years of data.
So, when I took over last year I told everyone to keep an eye out for geolocators on the birds knowing it would be against all odds to retrieve one. It’s still in the protocol this year, even though I didn’t think it was a possibility.
But we did.
My technicians had been reporting weird things to me. Unreadable flags. Plastic peeling off. Weird globs. It sounded like a geolocator, but the reports were coming in from all over. Since I knew it was a one in a million chance that a bird would still have its geolocator, I told them that they had the find the nest regardless.
But they did.
Unfortunately, the bird’s identity was still a bit of a mystery. What they thought was a geolocator was blocking their view of the identifiable flag code on one side. Reads of the other side were inconclusive. Finally, I was walking onto plot hoping to capture at that nest when a female came flying in. I got two great, clear looks - a geolocator on one side and U0 on the other. At last a definitive ID!
I looked her up later that day. She had been banded for the first time in 2009. In 2009, she was given a geolocator - it was retrieved in 2010 and she got a new one. In 2011, Nathan swapped it out again. In 2012, her nest was found and two days later, when they went to check it, it had failed. A predator had gotten it. His only chance to retrieve that geolocator was gone. (Nathan had his last field season for his doctorate research in 2012)
Well, remember how I said I had been trying to capture at the nest when I got the ID? I had been trying before that, but then I knew I really had to get her. One of my techs and I had almost caught her. We had laid the net down over her while she incubated, but her nest is in a lot of shrubs and she managed to fly out underneath my net in the gap provided by the taller shrubs. After that day, she wasn’t going to put up with me anymore. Anytime we walked on plot she was off the nest flying in to alarm call 3 or 400 m away from her nest. Every time I was on plot I wanted to try to capture her. We tried every trick I could think of. We wore different clothes (I almost always have my raincoat on so I switched coats). We approached from different angles. We snuck on plot. We tried to go out at night. Nothing was working. I was about to give up, and say she was uncatchable.
But I didn’t.
I decided to try one more time. I had one last female to capture on plot at a nest that had just been found. Kyle, the technician who had helped me the first time I tried to catch her, was helping me again. The first capture went smoothly and quickly. We decided to take the time to try one last time to catch U0.
It was eerily quiet as we approached. She hadn’t flown in alarm-calling. We approached the nest with the mist net. I was nervous and walking fast. Could it be? Did I have a second chance?
We got within a few meters of the nest. She was incubating, but very aware of me - she was watching me. Just as we got the net above the nest she flushed. I dropped my side to the ground thinking surely she couldn’t have flown out. She was inside the net but barely. There is a large hole I haven’t had time to repair and she was right next to it working her way towards it. I took three big quick steps and grabbed her. She was caught.
It was close - she almost escaped a second time, but we captured her. I did a quick extraction from the net and Kyle and I retreated to where we had left our backpacks in order to process her. I radioed the crew to let them know we had succeeded, and got to work processing her. She left with a new identity - VY, I had to cut the flag off her to retrieve the geolocator - and a little less weight to carry around on her legs.
What’s next? I let Nathan know we recovered it, and we’ll send it in to download the data as soon as I can. This way I can give back a little to Nathan’s dataset, since his four years of data have aided me so much.
It was a pretty good day. When I got home I ate some celebratory chocolate and put that geolocator in a safe place where it won’t get lost between now and when I can mail it in.