Update 3: Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre Pacific Golden Plover Satellite Tagging Project

Capturing and satellite tagging of Pacific Golden Plovers (Kuriri; Pluvialis fulva) for the PGP project has now come to an end with 3 out of 10 birds caught and tagged. This our third update video explaining where the project is going from here and when the first data will be coming in. After a difficult start on day one with the canon netting not going as planned mist netting delivered two birds in the early morning hours of day two. Since then the birds have proved extremely difficult to catch with either mist nets or cannon nets and only one more has been caught, bringing the total to three tagged plovers. The team will now give the birds a break before their migration while having a good break themselves. Next year the team in New Zealand will continue trying to catch the remaining seven birds when the tides and weather is favorable again. By then we will already have the data from the first three plovers' migration. Project Background: Kuriri (Pacific Golden Plover) are the fourth most common of the Arctic migrants which visit New Zealand in summer, but their population is declining. Over the years shorebird census data shows that numbers of Pacific Golden Plovers wintering in New Zealand are lower each year. Unfortunately very little is known about these migrants, so this summer the Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre is going to try to find answers. They are going to catch 10 birds to fit them with satellite tags in order to track them on their migration route and find out what route they follow. Since declines in other shorebirds have been the result of problems on their migration route they will hopefully be able to stop their population from declining with this knowledge. Wildimages.co (www.wildimages.co) is tasked with creating a wildlife documentary of about the project and will also provide regular update videos throughout the project. You can follow the progress of this project on Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre website: www.miranda-shorebird.org.nz or their Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/MirandaShorebirdCentre/. If you enjoyed this video and you are interested in this conservation project, please like, comment and subscribe to our channel for regular updates making sure to tick the bell icon to get notified of new videos. Most important of all please share this video far and wide so we can reach a wide audience.

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