We are co-hosting a workshop about using “nodes”, essentially mini Motus stations, to detect tagged animals, register their activities, and triangulate their movements. These devices can detect radio tags near them and send the data to Motus.org via a nearby Motus station (see this page for more information on Motus). This workshop is the day before the main meeting of The Wildlife Society, Western Section in Monterey, CA, USA. There may be spots left if you want to register.
We have been invited to purchase some of the first of a new type of tag. The exciting thing about these new tags is that they can be detected by cell phones and other IoT devices (think AirTags) as they travel. In addition, they are detectable by both the increasing numbers of Motus stations equipped to detect relatively new 2.4 GHz tags as well as home-based stations on the Terralistens network. These tags have been successfully used to track Monarch Butterflies as they travel down the East Coast of the US. Our hope is that these tags will allow tracking of birds like the Western Tanager pictured that migrate through areas with few Motus stations. Our goal is to purchase 10 of these tags to test on Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Western Tanagers, and possibly Tri-colored Blackbirds.
We are trying to raise $3,500 for this project. Can you help us by donating to SSRS? Click the Donate button and indicate Motus program.
More details about the new tags can be found on the manufacturers web pages:
https://celltracktech.com/pages/blu-bluseries-tag-detection-service
We are thrilled to announce that one of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos that we tagged last summer in the Kern River Valley, affectionately nicknamed Baba Ganoush, was detected by a Motus station near Corpus Christi, Texas on its northbound migration on June 16th, 2024.
This is particularly exciting because last year another of our tagged cuckoos (this one nicknamed Stroopwafel, tagged in 2022 along the South Fork Kern River) was detected by the very same Motus station on the Texas coast– the two detections were just one day and a year apart. The Mad Island Marsh Preserve, where both cuckoos were detected, is a nature preserve protected by The Nature Conservancy. Both cuckoos appeared to land at this site based on tag detection patterns, rather than just flying over, indicating that this may be an important spring stopover site for this federally threatened bird! Identifying migratory stopover sites is just one of the ways that tracking birds with the Motus Wildlife Tracking Network can help support conservation efforts.
From Corpus Christi, Stroopwafel subsequently made the 1,600 mile westward journey to return to Audubon California’s Kern River Preserve, where we picked it up on our local Motus towers 2 weeks later.
Will Baba Ganoush make the same trek? Stay tuned for updates! You can also check yourself on the Motus website:
A map of Baba Ganoush’s 2024 detections: Motus Wildlife Tracking System
A map of Stroopwafel’s 2023 detections: Motus Wildlife Tracking System
Not sure what Motus is? Curious to learn more? Check out our page explaining it and SSRS’s involvement here: Motus Tracking | Southern Sierra Research Station
Our cuckoo work in the Kern River Valley, CA is currently unfunded, if you want to help support our work, we would greatly appreciate donations of any amount! We’re hoping to raise funds for 3 cuckoo tags this year.
