New migration strategy found in Great Snipes

Great Snipe. Photo: Patrik Olofsson

Virtually nothing is known about the migration routes and wintering habitats of the enigmatic but endangered great snipe (Gallinago media). We tracked great snipes using minute data loggers to reveal their yearly movements. To our surprise, the snipes made exceptionally long and speedy non-stop flights, traveling directly from Scandinavia into Africa (6000 km) in 2-3 days. En route they not only crossed deserts and seas but also wide areas of favorable feeding habitat. As migrants normally travel in shorter flight steps when possibilities for re-fueling are available, the spectacular great snipe flights represent a previously unknown strategy in bird migration.

You can find abstract and contact information to the authors here

Data logger. Photo: Raymond Klaassen

Snipe with logger. Photo: Raymond Klaassen

//Raymond

The first swift has returned!

Yesterday the first swift returned to the colony on the roof of the Ecology Building! This swift is one of those that have been wearing a light logger during the migration season and now is ready to give us some answers about where it has been during the winter. To learn more about the swift migration research, click here.

If you want to have your own swift colony in your garden you can learn more about how to build swift-houses here (only in Swedish).

Today prof. Anders Hedenström has talked about how swifts can fly so fast, they can actually fly faster than 100 km/hour. This is possible due to their extreme wing construction. Click here to listen to the interview made by "Vetenskapsradion" (in Swedish).

Tomorrow prof. Susanne Åkesson will participate in "Kossornas planet" (also in Swedish) and talk more about swifts and their life style.

Effects of landscape context on populations of Bumblebees

On Friday (May 13) at 13.00, Anna Persson is defending her thesis ”Effects of landscape context on populations of bumblebees” in Blue Hall, Ecology Building. In it she document severe losses of bumblebees, in particular species with above ground nests and small colonies, in intensively farmed landscapes. This can be understood in the context of animal movement, because different bumblebee species utilize landscapes at different spatial scales and may thus be differently sensitive to the increased spatial and temporal variation in nectar and pollen resources in these landscapes. In addition she demonstrates that the loss of pollinators may have secondary consequences for the pollination of wildflowers in agricultural landscapes.

CAnMove joined Lundaloppet

 CAnMove joined Lund´s city race "Lundaloppet" May 9 with two teams (five persons in each team). We started the day by having lunch in the sun at "Stadsparken" and after some talk about tactic etc we went to the starting point. All members of the two teams ran in the 10 km class and all finished the race within an hour.

Congratulations to our new CAnMove member Gerit Pfuhl that ran really fast and came on 7th place of 566 women running in the 10 km class and thanks to all CAnMovians that signed up for the teams and made Lundaloppet to a new CAnMove tradition!

Sandra Chiriac, Miriam Liedvogel, Max Lundberg, Staffan Bensch, Maria Eng-Johnsson, Keith Larson and Sieglinde Kundisch. In the photo we´re missing Gerit Pfuhl, Tom Evans and Erica Eng.

Prize to CAnMove member from "Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet"

Yesterday our principal investigator Helena Westerdahl received 410 000 SEK from "Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet" in Lund for her immunological studies on birds. She focuses on migrating birds, the different viruses they carry and how their immune defense look like.

You can find more information about Helena and her work here