We are thrilled to have just received 573 fixes from “Knighty“, the first ever male APS to be tracked. What’s even more amazing is that after almost six months with no contact he has appeared in north Queensland, just west of Hughenden. Since catching and releasing him on 6 October last year in the Macquarie Marshes, we’ve had our fingers and toes crossed. Why, we hear you ask. Well, it’s because his transmitter uses the 5G network. With terrific support from Global Messenger, we have since exchanged our other “GSM” units for ones that use 4G. Unlike our satellite transmitters, these units use mobile phone towers and have GPS accuracy but we depend on the bird travelling through areas with coverage to receive the data. In Australia, especially in remote areas, 4G still has far superior coverage than 5G. It’s our hope that he will lead us to a breeding area but it already feels like we’ve hit the jackpot with this data. There’s so much to go through, such as accurate flight height and speed data. He crossed the border into QLD on 6 February and was near Mount Isa by 18 February, slowly moving east over the next month to near Hughenden. This movement pattern is similar to the journeys we documented for “Marcelina” and “Gloria”, the first two APS to be tracked, with all three birds heading north in summer, traveling over 1000 km and up to 2253 km.
Knighty’s northward journey from the Macquarie Marshes to north QLD. His sponsor is Coleambally Irrigation, a tribute to Steve Knight for 50 years of service.
Meanwhile, you may recall that “Hope” had begun to head north and was in the Currawinya National Park region, QLD, in December and January. Bucking the northward trend, she then appeared on the Baradine Creek in the Pilliga in mid-February and stayed for a couple of weeks. We now have a bunch of fixes, albeit low accuracy ones, in the Cooper Creek system in south-west QLD! It’s probably no coincidence that major flooding is underway in western QLD. These are exciting times for painted-snipe movements. Another bird of ours from the Macquarie Marshes, “Thomasina”, has recent fixes still at The Mole Marsh property, while we eagerly await more data from “Charuni” and “Dan”. As always, for more regular updates please follow us on Facebook, but if you don’t use it then you can still see our newsfeed on the front page of this website for all the latest info: https://paintedsnipe.com.au/
Hope departed the Macquarie Marshes in early summer for Currawinya NP, then she moved to the Pilliga but is now in the Cooper Creek system in south-west QLD.
