This is remarkable. Robbie is one mobile young bird. His transmitter came back online for the 8-hour on-cycle at 1.27 am this morning and there he was: in a wetland on the South Australian coast near Mount Gambier.
He’s crossed two state borders and is now 557 kilometres from the rice crop in Coleambally where we attached the transmitter only 11 days ago.
These are our first, valuable insights into the network of wetlands that the rice-breeding Australasian Bittern population uses after harvest during the non-breeding season. Where will he go next?
What great news. How do these birds know where to go to find their necessary habitat?? This project is going to be one amazing journey. Well done.
What a result already. Now we have an idea of where they disappear to post rice harvest. I wonder if Robbie flew solo or went with some adults to show the way – that’s the next challenge Matt!
[…] seen him survive a 557 kilometre dispersal and that ordeal at sea. Robbie is clearly a strong and healthy young bittern. Here are two […]
[…] first we thought he might be heading toward the same area that Robbie dispersed to last season, but instead he made two of his own new connections for us. We now formally know that the […]