Hi Birders,I could not resist posting this note from . Hopefully, the two pics did not mess up any downloads. Keep an eye out for red knots with color flags, color bands and USFWS bands as many have been banded over the years.Happy shorebirding.Norm from AugustaShorebird Superstar "B95" Seen Again in the USA!
Shorebird scientist Patricia González of Argentina is relieved and amazed by every encounter with her "old friend," B95. / © Guy MorrisonWe again have the joy of sharing an update on"B95," the male Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa) banded in 1995 in Rio Grande, Argentina, when he was about 2 years old! Shorebird scientist Patricia González had the great fortune of seeing B95 again, now at least 19 years old, this past May on Reeds Beach in southern New Jersey, USA. Reeds Beach is within the Delaware Bay WHSRN Site of Hemispheric Importance.
Patricia, who coordinates the Global Flyways Program for Inalafquen Foundation in San Antonio Oeste, Argentina, was part of the original international team that banded B95 – first with a solid black band, then years later with his signature orange flag bearing the code "B95." She and her colleagues have had several reunions with him over the years at their study sites in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina), Delaware Bay (United States), and Mingan Archipelago (Quebec, Canada), and even a few precious recaptures. Each encounter is more informative and more emotional than the last, just knowing all the daily natural and human-caused threats and physical rigors he survived yet again.
In the subsequent article "B95, the Great Survivor" by Alejandra Martin for the environmental science and conservation news site Mongabay.com, González relives this latest resighting: "I couldn't believe it when I used my telescope and confirmed it was B95. He is so old that I was not expecting to see him again. My hands were trembling when I tried to use my camera to take a picture through the telescope," she said. In another of Martin's articles about B95, "The migratory bird that broke all the records," for BBC Mundo (in Spanish), González reflects, "B95 has been a companion throughout these many years. The connection is very strong." This article is also available in Portuguese from BBC-Brazil, posted by the online news media Estadao.com.br.
The recently published Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose tells the inspiring story of this shorebird superstar.It's possible that B95 is making the same kind of jaw-dropping 8,000-kilometer (nearly 5,000-mile) nonstop flights that Dr. Larry Niles, shorebird scientist with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, has discovered other Red Knots doing through his team's ground-breaking work with geolocators. Either way, the total mileage accrued to date on B95's wings from annual migrations between the Canadian Arctic breeding grounds and South American wintering grounds is the same distance as the Earth to the Moon. In fact, as Yves Aubry of the Canadian Wildlife Service first pointed out, he's already on his way back! This achievement, which earned him the name "moonbird," years ago captured the imagination of Phillip Hoose, conservationist and National Book Award winner. Hoose's recently published book, Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95, tells the inspiring story of this shorebird superstar amidst its species's overall rapidly declining population.
In June, Patricia Gonzalez's resighting of B95 was also featured in the Clarín and Diario Rio Negro, the most prominent national and regional newspapers in Argentina, respectively. (Names are linked to the articles, in Spanish). B95's photo even made it to the weekly photo gallery of the environment section of the UK's The Guardian, and his resighting was featured in the New York Times Green Blog!
Read more about B95 and "his" international team's earlier encounters in the following editions of WHSRNews: October 2008, July 2009, and December 2009.
For more information, contact Charles Duncan (cduncan@manomet.org), Director, Shorebird Recovery Project, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, or Patricia González(ccanutus@yahoo.com.ar), Coordinator, Global Flyways Network, Inalafquen Foundation.
--Norman Famous, Wetlands and Wildlife Ecologist513 Eight Rod RoadAugusta, ME 04330(207) 623 6072--
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Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Re: [Maine-birds] Red knot returning from the moon
Norm,
Thanks for sharing this news. What an inspiring and moving story.
Juanita Roushdy
Bremen, ME
On Jul 17, 2012, at 9:30 AM, Norman Famous wrote:
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