Northern Migration

As the seasonal birds migrate from BFREE back to the north, so do our researchers. Emily McKinnon and Kevin Frasier, who use geolocators to track wood thrush migration, have travelled back to Canada and Laura Duval and Chance Hines are finishing off their own wood thrush research. Since January, these researchers have been tagging and trapping wood thrush in two locations near BFREE property. At the beginning of their time here, Laura and Chance spent their time using recorded wood thrush songs to attract the birds and then catch them in mist nets. They then collected data, such as feathers and blood samples to determine food sources and isotope levels. After tagging the birds with radio transmitters, Laura and Chance then used receivers to find and track the birds through the jungle. Nearing the end of the season, this telemetry was used to determine the dates the wood thrush left to migrate North. The wood thrush have now left with enough fat stores to make the long trip back north and Laura and Chance leave to follow them to Indiana in hopes of finding BFREE wood thrush there. We wish them the best of luck!

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