Bird survives rough ride through Hurricane Irene

[XemaSab]

Researchers in Virginia are pulling for a small shorebird that stands just a foot and a half high who seems to have survived flying through the most dangerous segment of Hurricane Irene Wednesday on its way to winter grounds in South America.

The whimbrel left the far north of Canada on Saturday, flew down across New England, then out over the open ocean and appears to have encountered the outer bands of Hurricane Irene on Tuesday.

He's part of a tracking program to understand the migratory path of the whimbrels and carries a tiny radio transmitter that's been allowing researchers to follow his path.

His forward progress was impressive, says Bryan Watts, director of The College of William & Mary's Center for Conservation Biology. "When he was in the outer bands of the storm he was flying at 30 miles per hour."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/08/bird-survive-rough-ride-through-hurricane-irene/1?csp=34tech&dlvrit=279559

[Lucinda]

1. Poor birdie. Interesting info though!

Thanks for the link!

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Edweird]

3. When Wilma hit South Florida, we had two peahens that had 'adopted' us.

We tried to lure them into the garage where they would be safe, but they were far too stubborn. They were walking around like nothing was going on, lol.

[Occulus]

9. Did they survive?

When I was young, we had a peahen that nested on the corner of our property, right under the support wire for a telephone pole.

Cars didn't bother her, and she was mere feet from the road. She hated the riding lawn mower, though.

Another bird that hated that mower was a hummingbird that was apparently nested somewhere in our yard. I went out to mow, and the thing started buzzing my head. Not far away, either- the thing was flying, over and over again, right past my ears. Within inches.

I know it wouldn't have tried to attack me (it was just trying to drive me off), but I have to wonder just how much damage a beak like that, moving that fast, would actually do....

[Edweird]

10. They survived the storm easily.

[BeFree]

4. Migrating birds

They often ride the currents. Makes it easier to fly a long way.

Since the storm was off shore and turning left the nearshore winds were blowing south. I bet the bird never even lost sight of land as he flew - was propelled south toward Cuba.

And here is why Irene moved the way she did and had such a close to the core southern side and expanded to the northeast.

Air currents at about 30,000 feet were from the southwest the whole time the storm left the Caribbean. Evidence of that is the limited southern side and the expanding north side which kept getting blown away from the core. If those currents had not effected the storm - say were non-existent, we'd be looking at a category 3 hurricane heading into NYC. As it is, most of Irene actually got blown away itself!

[XemaSab]

8. He went pretty far offshore

One of the whimbrels in the study flew directly from Kodiak Island to Seattle over water.

[patrick t. cakes]

5. and now resting on a beach in the bahamas...

cocktail in hand no doubt....


Friday update: Chinquapin appears to be alive and down safe on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. The data comes from just a single satellite fix, received at 4:20 EDT on Friday, so the researchers are waiting for another signal Saturday to be able to confirm, but the news appears to be good.

:toast:

[roguevalley]

6. YAY!

[applegrove]

7. I was in a hurricane. Lots of damaged birds. Might be a plan to have a cat carrier and some gloves

at the ready when the storm passes. Lots of seagulls and other birds will need care.