A few years back NNAS helped with some of the funding for this project.
----- Original Message -----
From: Smith, Fletcher M
To: Smith, Fletcher M
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 4:05 PM
Subject: Hope returns to Virginia
News Advisory
FROM: Center for Conservation Biology, College of William and Mary - Virginia
Commonwealth University
The Nature Conservancy, Virginia Chapter
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5 April, 2012
MEDIA CONTACTS: Dr. Bryan D. Watts, Director
bdwatt@xxxxxx
(757) 221-2247 office
(757) 272-4492 cell
Fletcher M. Smith, Biologist
fmsmit@xxxxxx
(757) 221-1617 office
(757) 678-6915
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William and Mary
Virginia Commonwealth University
Barry Truitt, Chief
Conservation Scientist
The Nature Conservancy
Virginia Coast Reserve Program
btruitt@xxxxxxx
(757) 442-3049
Hope returns to Virginia
(Williamsburg, VA)---Hope, a whimbrel carrying a satellite
transmitter, has returned to the Eastern Shore of Virginia after spending the
winter on St. Croix in the U.S. Virginia Islands. The bird has been tracked by
a team of researchers through her migratory travels since she was captured on
Box Tree Creek in Northampton County, Virginia on 19 May, 2009. Since that
time she has traveled more than 44,100 miles (71,000 kilometers) back and forth
3 times between breeding grounds on the MacKenzie River in western Canada and
Great Pond Important Bird Area on St. Croix. She likely left Great Pond on the
evening of April 1st and arrived in Virginia on the morning of April 4th,
covering the 1600 miles in approximately 60 hours. She had been wintering on
Great Pond since September 14, 2011.
Hope has taught the research community a great deal about the
migratory pathways and habits of whimbrels. She has made tremendous nonstop
flights, moved great distances out over the open Atlantic, confronted storms
while at sea, navigated with precision to stopover sites and shown high
fidelity to her breeding site, her wintering site, and several staging areas.
Hope is one of more than a dozen birds that have been tracked in a
collaborative effort between The Center for Conservation Biology, The Nature
Conservancy and other partners designed to discover migratory routes that
connect breeding and winter areas and to identify en route migratory staging
areas that are critical to the conservation of this declining species.
Updated tracking maps may be viewed online
http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm
CAPTIONS FOR ATTACHED IMAGES
Hope at Great Pond on 9 January, 2012. Photo by Lisa Yntema.
Map of Hope movements (2009-2012)
Attachment:
Hope at Great Pond 2 - Lisa Yntema cropped.JPG
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
Hope Track Map.jpg
Description: JPEG image
