Satellite-telemetry reveals large-scale use of 'peripheral' wetlands by Snail Kites

ARCI staff will give a presentation on the large-scale use of 'peripheral' wetlands by Snail Kites at the 2014 Raptor Research Foundation conference in Corpus Christi, Texas in September. Below is the abstract.
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Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis) satellite telemetry reveals large-scale use of ‘peripheral’ wetlands: Implications for habitat management, population monitoring, and exposure to toxins

*KENNETH D. MEYER (meyer@arcinst.org), Avian Research and Conservation Institute, Gainesville, FL, USA. GINA M. KENT, Avian Research and Conservation Institute, Gainesville, FL, USA. KRISTEN M. HART, U.S.G.S., Davie, FL, USA. IKUKO FUJISAKI, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, USA. AUTUMN R. SARTAIN, U.S.G.S., Davie, FL, USA. ROBERT FRAKES, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Vero Beach, FL, USA. DAVID C. EVERS, Biodiversity Research Institute, Portland, Maine, USA.

The U.S. population of Snail Kites, limited to Florida, declined substantially and became federally listed as Endangered following massive hydrologic and agricultural changes to the Everglades and its headwaters. These changes to the large, naturally-functioning wetlands on which this species relies apparently had unfavorable effects on the kite’s apple snail prey. Research and monitoring based on VHF telemetry and color-banded birds have focused on these once-vast wetland systems and have assumed that Snail Kites rarely cross unsuitable habitat, even to seek refugia during droughts. Since 2007, we have collected 50,114 satellite-derived locations for 22 adult Snail Kites tagged throughout the species’ Florida range. Of these locations, 54% were outside the natural wetlands that comprise the altered remnants of the Snail Kite’s historic range. These ‘peripheral wetlands’, as they have been called, include large water-management canals, agricultural drainage ditches, neighborhood retention ponds, and storm-water treatment areas (STAs, designed to use native vegetation to reduce pollutants from agricultural run-off). None are managed specifically for Snail Kites, nor have they been regulated as suitable habitat or incorporated into the large and expensive monitoring effort devoted to this species. Agricultural chemicals may exceed safe levels. We provide results of analyses for copper, long used as a fungicide on citrus crops; and inorganic mercury, precursor to a methylated form toxic to most species of vertebrates. Sub-lethal levels of mercury (3.3-4.8 ppm) in Snail Kite samples from the southern Everglades reached concentrations known to reduce nesting success by >30% in other species of invertivorous birds. Our results indicate that the created wetlands in which Snail Kite’s spend much, if not most, of their time pose serious challenges for the management and conservation of this imperiled species.

Dr. Ken Meyer receives Partners in Flight award

We're proud to share with you that Dr. Ken Meyer, ARCI's Executive Director, was honored with the Partners in Flight (PIF) Investigations Award which recognizes "outstanding research or scientific data that improves our understanding of avian ecology, habitat management, and other scientific factors important to the PIF initiative." 

Partners in Flight awards laud exceptional bird conservation achievements throughout the Americas in the areas of communications, innovative leadership, insightful ecological investigation, lifetime achievements and sound land stewardship.

The award ceremony was part of the International Migratory Bird Day celebration in Washington, D.C. on May 29, 2014. 

Satellite-tracking gives fascinating insights for international Magnificent Frigatebird conservation efforts

We are in our second year of a satellite-tracking study of Magnificent Frigatebirds to determine where these birds breed, the timing of migration from roosts to breeding areas, patterns of seasonal movements, fidelity to roost sites, and survivorship.

Movements of four Magnificent Frigatebirds tracked by satellite from the lower Florida Keys from 28 April 2014 through 10 June 2014.

Two of the satellite-tracked Magnificent Frigatebirds that nested in the western Caribbean have begun moving back to their non-breeding-season home in the lower Florida Keys, where we tagged five of them in October 2012 (we since lost the signal of one in Nicaragua).

For two years now, their movements have suggested that they nested on Isla Contoy off of the northeastern shoreline of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The male, Keys #9, continually made 400-mile round-trip foraging flights west along the coast, while the female’s (Keys #6) foraging range was due north into the Gulf of Mexico.

Keys #9 wandered back to the Florida Keys on 27 April, but only stayed a week before returning to the Yucatan. There, still restless, he took another flight to Florida 10 days later, this time to Boca Grand Island off of Charlotte County, quickly returned to the Yucatan four days later, then flew back to the lower Florida Keys on 30 May. Keys #6 made a direct flight to the lower Florida Keys on 6 June.

Two other tagged females are still on their breeding-season ranges, one (Keys #7) near the eastern Yucatan and one (Keys #5) off the southern coast of Cuba. We expect that, like the two from Isla Contoy, they will soon move abruptly to the waters surrounding the western Florida Keys.

All satellite-GPS locations for the two Magnificent Frigatebirds in the Dry Tortugas tagged on 15 May 2013 through 28 May 2014.

Neither of the two frigatebirds we tagged a year ago in the Dry Tortugas, site of the only U.S. breeding colony, appears to have nested in 2014 (females nest every other year because of the lengthy dependency of their single juvenile; less is known the about breeding efforts of males). The female spent her entire year in the vicinity of the Tortugas colony, an area only occasionally used by the Caribbean breeders that ‘winter’ in the nearby lower Keys. The male, on the other hand, has ranged from the Tortugas to northern Florida, making regular coastal excursions from Cedar Key on the Gulf to Melbourne on the Atlantic side.

Tracking these Magnificent Frigatebirds has provided fascinating insights that contribute directly to international conservation efforts for this species. We feel very fortunate for all we’ve learned during the short span of this study, and also for the privilege of sharing this new knowledge with those studying the species in the Caribbean.

ARCI recently was invited to collaborate on an existing study of Magnificent Frigatebirds nesting in a colony of 1,200 pairs in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where we assisted with some of their tagging efforts. This multi-national team consists of Dr. Patrick Jodice, leader of the South Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Clemson University; Dr. Louise Soanes, University of Liverpool, UK; Dr. Jennifer Bright, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK; and Susan Zaluski, Executive Director of the Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society, BVI.

These dedicated researchers represent a larger community of ecologists focusing on the conservation ecology of imperiled seabirds. Their skills and experience provide a valuable perspective for comparative data analyses and interpretations, and an excellent opportunity for us to examine our Florida seabird data in the context of global threats, management needs, and conservation planning. We are grateful for this opportunity to collaborate.

Milestone reached for multi-partner White-crowned Pigeon tracking project

Ricardo Miller, NEPA

We are happy to report that ARCI has reached its goal of deploying satellite transmitters on White-crowned Pigeons in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Bahamas, and Florida for multi-partner research project entitled “Seasonal movements of White-crowned Pigeons (Patagioenis leucocephala) tracked by satellite telemetry: Identifying trans-national threats, management needs, and conservation opportunities."

The White-crowned Pigeon is widely distributed throughout the Caribbean, but the species is threatened by habitat loss, poaching, and harvest regulations lacking scientific support. With satellite telemetry, we are informing wildlife managers of seasonal changes in distribution, identifying manageable threats, and documenting the need for concerted conservation planning across national boundaries.

A big “Thank You” to ARCI’s collaborators Dr. Lisa Sorenson, BirdsCaribbean, and Dr. Frank Rivera-Milan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and to our Caribbean partners the National Trust for the Cayman Islands (Paul Watler et al.), Jamaica National Environment and Planning Agency (Ricardo Miller et. al.), Windsor Research Centre (Susan Koenig in Jamaica), and Bahamas National Trust (Denny Moore, Pericles Maillis, David Knowles et al.). 

You can follow the movements of the tagged White-crowned Pigeons through a link on our website: http://arcinst.org/arci-tracking-studies.

Movements of six Magnificent Frigatebirds tracked by satellite

Movements of six Magnificent Frigatebirds tagged in the lower Keys and Dry Tortugas National Park. 

By 15 May 2013, all but one of the four Magnificent Frigatebirds we tagged in the Florida Keys had returned to Florida from their breeding sites in Mexico. Keys #5, a female who presumably nested in the Archipielago de los Jardines de la Reina in southern side of Cuba, returned to Florida on 4 July 2013. She spent the majority of her time in the western Great White Heron NWR until 24 October, when she returned to her breeding area in southern Cuba. This was a relatively quick visit as she then moved to the north coast for a week before returning to the Florida Keys on 2 December. Since females are unable to breed every year, it is not surprising that she would not remain in a nesting colony during the breeding season.

Other than a 24-hr round-trip to Veradero, Cuba. and a three-day visit to a nest colony Isla Contoy, Mexico (northeastern Yucatan Peninsula) in mid-November, Keys #6 stayed in the Florida Keys until 28 November. It was unclear whether she was nesting, but at the least she habitually used a small number of perching locations.

Gina Kent works to outfit a satellite
tracking device to a Magnificent Frigatebird at Dry Tortugas National Park. 

Keys #7 kept to the central part of the Great White Heron NWR, although she did spend some time west of Key West, including the night of 9 July in the Dry Tortugas. Keys #7 left the Florida Keys on 28 November and headed directly to Cayo Culebra off the Yucatan Peninsula, where she appears to be nesting. She has the most extensive foraging area of all of our wintering Magnificent Frigatebirds, ranging over 250 miles off shore on trips of three, four, and over six days at sea.

Keys #9 roosted within the Great White Heron NWR as well and foraged up into Florida Bay, as most of the other frigatebirds we are tracking. On 30 November he flew directly to Isla Contoy, Mexico. He is exhibiting strong fidelity to a well-defined area and well may be nesting. Since the end of December, he has started to make some longer foraging trips, which may indicate that there is a nestling to feed.

The tip of the transmitter's antenna can seen (between the
tail and to the left) on this female Magnificent Frigatebird. 

We know that the Dry Tortugas female (DRTO Female) attempted to nest in 2013, and she has been restricting her foraging activities to within 30 miles of the Dry Tortugas. Occasionally, she flies nearly 50 miles to the Marquesas Keys for one night and returns to the Dry Tortugas the next day.

The Dry Tortugas male (DRTO Male) left on 20 May for Seahorse Key in Levy County, Florida (just seaward of the town of Cedar Key). He stayed on this roosting island until 6 September then returned to the Dry Tortugas briefly before moving east to the Great White Heron NWR and the Florida Bay immediately to the north. During the fall, he wandered north along the Atlantic coast to points near Miami and as far north as Fort Pierce. As of 14 January, he has remained in the Fort Pierce area.

Caribbean-wide tracking study launched for White-crowned Pigeons

Cayman #2 captured on 17 November on the west end of
Cayman Brac. Fitted with a 5g solar-powered satellite transmitter.

A NMBCA-funded project directed by Dr. Lisa Sorenson (BirdsCaribbean) and Dr. Frank Rivera-Milan (USFWS) supplied a sub-grant to ARCI to build and oversee a satellite-tracking study of White-crowned Pigeons that will identify trans-national threats, management needs, and conservation opportunities.

Two White-crowned Pigeons were tagged on Cayman Brac in mid-November 2013. Matching funds from the USFWS were used to tag two additional birds in the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex. In the next six months, with the help of our many dedicated collaborators, we will deploy eight more satellite transmitters on White-crowned Pigeons in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Florida. We plan to expand the sample with at least eight more tagged birds in additional locations by the end of 2014.

Tracking map for Cayman #2 from the west end of Cayman
Brac on 17 November to Tibbett's Turn on 5 December.

For this initial effort, we are grateful for the assistance and in-kind support of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands and the many people on Cayman Brac and the Florida Keys who provided transportation, lodging, and information on local populations of White-crowned Pigeons.

You can follow the movements of these birds and watch the study population of this range-wide partnership grow through a link on the Tracking Page of ARCI’s website.

Hidden Lake, a Short-tailed Hawk, begins her 8th year of producing telemetry data

ARCI’s second-oldest satellite-tracking project, after our 18-year study of Swallow-tailed Kites, is on Short-tailed Hawks. When Microwave Telemetry Inc. began making solar powered satellite transmitters small enough for medium-sized raptors, the Short-tailed Hawk was a perfect candidate.  From 2001 to 2007, we raised enough funds to tag four Short-tails.   

Of these four birds, one is still alive and transmitting. Hidden Lake, named after her capture location in Everglades National Park, is a dark morph female tagged on 22 November 2006 when she was about 6 months old. Soon after, Hidden Lake moved farther north for the rest of the winter, to the northern boundary of the Big Cypress National Preserve. We also observed this pattern of early-and-late wintering sites in other Short-tailed Hawks we tracked. By March 2007 she started exploring to the north in Manatee, Hardee, and Highlands counties, then settled into a summer home range in western Hendry County. In September, she moved south again for the winter.

In March 2008, Hidden Lake established her first nesting territory seven miles east of Fort Myers on the south side of the Caloosahatchee River. Her mate was a light morph male and together they fledged one dark morph juvenile. Hidden Lake has continued to nest on this same territory, the core area of a relatively small annual home range.

Today we celebrate her “tagging anniversary” as she begins producing her 8th year of valuable telemetry data. This is the longest-running satellite transmitter we have ever deployed! Thanks to Microwave Telemetry, Inc., for producing these amazing devices, and thank you Miss Hidden Lake for teaching us so much about the secret lives of your elusive kind.