Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Where is my godwit?

You might find this interesting. Godwits with transmitters on are travelling up to Alaska and Siberia. You can follow their progress. According to TV news tonight seems already some have flown non-stop to the Yellow Sea off China. Took them a week flying night and day. Amazing.

http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html

Found another link with more information on the research:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10431436

A week flying non-stop. I wonder what they do for rest? A human stying awake for a week would be showing signs of sleep deprivation psychosis. Birds must be immune to that or else they fly in their sleep.

An interesting find. Thanks for posting it.

Amaranth

Yes. It would be interesting to know if they actually sleep. I'd guess not. By the way godwit 32920 looks like it's coming back again. Number 36119, 40160 and 40159 are still mucking around in the Firth of Thames and 40158 hasn't even left the South Island.

Maybe 40158 is a non-conforming godwit. He refuses to fly north at the approach of Autumn. Have you ever heard the story of the non-conforming sparrow? It's a moralistic tale.

Rose. Is that the one that ends, "If you're up to your neck in excrement but it's nice and warm, keep quiet"? By the way I've just looked and it seems 40158 has started north. He (or she it is probably) is out over the sea a little way.

Heh. It occurs to me that a thing like this could be used for some interesting wagering.

terry,
You got it.:)

Amaranth