Minnesota birders might be interested in the satellite tracking project which banded 5 Marbled Godwits on a southern James Bay Ontario island and their current status. Surmising that the estimated total of about 2000 birds nesting in James Bay matched the estimated 2000 birds wintering on the SE USA coast, Adrian Farmer of USGS, Ft. Collins, CO and Bridgette Olson of Bear River NWR, UT captured birds this summer and found that all of them headed SW across Minnesota (a rare fall migrant here) towards probable wintering grounds in Mexico. Check out the web at:http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Resources/GoGodwits/GodwitMap.asp?GodwitID and check out the first 5 numbered birds. This now begs the question where do those SE coastal birds come from and this winter they will try to capture Georgia birds to see where their breeding grounds are. Based on the movements of other shorebirds from the eastern Great Plains I'd guess that maybe Minnesota and eastern Dakota birds are involved but obviously these birds are out to surprise us. Exciting stuff! Bob Russell, USFWS
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