CATTLE EGRET MIGRATION, SATELLITE TELEMETRY AND WEATHER IN SOUTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA
| Posted: |
04/08/2021 |
| Author(s): |
David Geering, Howard A. Bridgman, Max Maddock |
Two adult Cattle Egrets, captured near Raymond Terrace in the Williams River Valley, New South
Wales, in April 1994 were each fitted with a PTT100, battery-powered transmitter and with patagial
tags. After release, the birds were tracked by Argos system satellite on an eight hours on and 40 hours
off duty cycle and ground searches were carried out to lopate them by their tags. Weather maps from
the Bureau of Meteorology associated with each satellite interrogation were evaluated. After remaining
in the vicinity of the capture site for several weeks, the birds were further tracked until signals were
lost, one on a migration route in the Lower Hunter floodplain and the other on a southerly migration
to Bega in south-eastern New South Wales, following patterns described in Maddock and Gearing
(1994). The movements occurred in light winds under the influence of a high pressure system. The
results of this pilot study suggest the potential for using small satellite transmitters for migration studies
of egrets, to assist in validation of other field techniques and to provide data not obtainable by other
techniques.
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