Transmitter Gull

[Joyce]

Hi gang,

Remember our falcon watches in Irondequoit this winter while watching the Ibay pefa? Remember the transmitter gull we saw? I couldn't find where Carol P posted the follow-up.  Sorry if this is a repeat, but in case you didn't hear...Carol found out that the transmitter gull made his way home to Montreal at midnight on April 11th.

[Kris G.]

Hi gang,

Remember our falcon watches in Irondequoit this winter while watching the Ibay pefa? Remember the transmitter gull we saw? I couldn't find where Carol P posted the follow-up.  Sorry if this is a repeat, but in case you didn't hear...Carol found out that the transmitter gull made his way home to Montreal at midnight on April 11th.

Actually, I don't think Carol ever told us the gull was from Montreal or posted a follow-up.  The only thing she told us was it "spoke French" or something like that.  Good to know it made its way home!

[MAK]

Hi gang,

Remember our falcon watches in Irondequoit this winter while watching the Ibay pefa? Remember the transmitter gull we saw? I couldn't find where Carol P posted the follow-up.  Sorry if this is a repeat, but in case you didn't hear...Carol found out that the transmitter gull made his way home to Montreal at midnight on April 11th.

Actually, I don't think Carol ever told us the gull was from Montreal or posted a follow-up.  The only thing she told us was it "spoke French" or something like that.  Good to know it made its way home!

This is an email Carol recieved in response to her info on the gulls leg bandthat she forwarded to me on January 30,2011.

Dan Clark forwarded me your message about a radio-transmitter Ring-billed Gull observed yesterday near Rochester. The bird was banded on June 15 last summer on Ile Deslauriers, a breeding colony located 20 km east of Montreal on the St-Lawrence river. We fixed an ARGOS-GPS device to the bird to track its post-breeding dispersal. The bird dispersed in mid-August to the Rochester area (sleeping on flat roofs in an industrial area or on the river that flows through Rochester) and has been there since. The device collected 2 GPS locations/day (noon and midnight) and are transmitted once a week via the ARGOS satellite system. The batteries are recharged with solar panels and we have got no signal from the last 2 weeks. The reason seems to be a failure with the system and not the death of the bird. Cold weather and clouds may have prevent batteries to be recharged enough to transmit the locations. Your sighting is thus very important to us. It is still a bit worrisome that the bird did not fly on the river to join other gulls.... Nevertheless the bird seems in good condition and the device well attached exposing the solar plates as shown by your pictures. We have marked 9 other birds and have lost only one so far. We hope to track them form more than a year to see if they show some fidelity to their post-dispersal site. For XHP, the post-breeding site seems to be also its wintering site unlike the others that moved further south up to Georgia and South Carolina.
 
We have banded few thousands birds with blue and yellow plastic bands with individual codes. If you spot any of our birds, let us know, this would be appreciate.
 
 
Jean-François
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM)

[margaret]

Hi gang,

Remember our falcon watches in Irondequoit this winter while watching the Ibay pefa? Remember the transmitter gull we saw? I couldn't find where Carol P posted the follow-up.  Sorry if this is a repeat, but in case you didn't hear...Carol found out that the transmitter gull made his way home to Montreal at midnight on April 11th.

Actually, I don't think Carol ever told us the gull was from Montreal or posted a follow-up.  The only thing she told us was it "spoke French" or something like that.  Good to know it made its way home!

This is an email Carol recieved in response to her info on the gulls leg bandthat she forwarded to me on January 30,2011.

Dan Clark forwarded me your message about a radio-transmitter Ring-billed Gull observed yesterday near Rochester. The bird was banded on June 15 last summer on Ile Deslauriers, a breeding colony located 20 km east of Montreal on the St-Lawrence river. We fixed an ARGOS-GPS device to the bird to track its post-breeding dispersal. The bird dispersed in mid-August to the Rochester area (sleeping on flat roofs in an industrial area or on the river that flows through Rochester) and has been there since. The device collected 2 GPS locations/day (noon and midnight) and are transmitted once a week via the ARGOS satellite system. The batteries are recharged with solar panels and we have got no signal from the last 2 weeks. The reason seems to be a failure with the system and not the death of the bird. Cold weather and clouds may have prevent batteries to be recharged enough to transmit the locations. Your sighting is thus very important to us. It is still a bit worrisome that the bird did not fly on the river to join other gulls.... Nevertheless the bird seems in good condition and the device well attached exposing the solar plates as shown by your pictures. We have marked 9 other birds and have lost only one so far. We hope to track them form more than a year to see if they show some fidelity to their post-dispersal site. For XHP, the post-breeding site seems to be also its wintering site unlike the others that moved further south up to Georgia and South Carolina.
 
We have banded few thousands birds with blue and yellow plastic bands with individual codes. If you spot any of our birds, let us know, this would be appreciate.
 
 
Jean-François
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM),

Amazing how these gulls are tracked.  I guess I always assumed that gulls stayed put; didn't migrate.