Project Update: May 2008

The third phase of the project focused on ‘spring’ migration, involving two months of constant mist-netting and transects that gave rise to 840 migrant captures of 40 species and 976 migrant observations of 39 species respectively. Comparing the spring results to those from autumn revealed major differences in the number of migrants involved, the levels of fuel carried and species composition.

Preliminary analyses indicate that this may be because many migrants are making an exceptional journey during the spring by flying to North America from as far south as Honduras (1900 km) or even northern South America (>3000 km) without refuelling. Whilst carrying out fieldwork, we trained 20 Belizeans from different institutions in bird ringing and completed an education project with local Sartenejan students called the “migration leaflet” to be presented to the community imminently. To ensure continued bird ringing training, a course has been planned in conjunction with the University of Belize for September 2008.