Just as summer began, Dan and Hope started heading north away from The Mole Marsh APS hotspot in the Macquarie Marshes. Hope has already crossed the border into QLD and has been using the Currawinya National Park area, almost 400 kilometres north of the capture site, for the past two weeks. Dan’s most recent fixes are about 60 km north of The Mole Marsh. The pattern is remarkably similar to what we witnessed last summer as Gloria and Marcelina slowly headed north from their spring home near Balranald. Interestingly, Thomasina remained local to at least 17 December, while Dan and Hope were heading north. Also of interest is that Dan and Hope did not travel together. We eagerly await more data from Knighty and Charuni to see what they’re up to. As always, even if you don’t use Facebook, you can see the newsfeed on our front page for all the latest info: https://paintedsnipe.com.au/
The Mole Marsh has been a hotspot for Australian Painted-snipe since mid-late September, 2024. This is where we caught five and began tracking them in early October: Thomasina, Charuni, Knighty, Hope and Dan. We have already accumulated a huge amount of useful data. For example, with the kind assistance of the landholders, we have seen the different habitats that the birds have been using over the past few months and now we are witnessing their northward journey.
Hope is currently 390 km NW of The Mole Marsh, following a similar movement pattern to Gloria and Marcelina from last summer.
Hope has been using Currawinya National Park and surrounds since mid December 2024. Please note that some of these fixes are low accuracy with errors over 1.5 km.
Dan’s most recent fixes put him about 60 km north of The Mole Marsh APS hotspot.
