![]() ![]() Pearl MS (male) - tagged in 2011 on the Mississippi side of the Pearl River northwest of PicayuneĪfter his 2013 nesting attempt failed, he remained on his home range for most of the remaining breeding season, unlike the wanderer, Slidell. She is the most northeastern of all of our 8 GPS-tracked kites. Since then she moved steadily through Central and South America where she is now in the State of Mato Grosso north of Juara. She spent almost 20 days along the northwestern border of Guatemala at a refueling site. On July 30th, she began flying south from Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, crossed the Gulf of Mexico, and arrived in Campeche, Mexico, on August 1st. Rather than nesting elsewhere, Slidell made long excursions through the Gulf Coastal states during the breeding season, perhaps in search of her past mate or a new one. However, when she arrived to her breeding area on April 11th, her previous year’s nest was already occupied. In early April, she began heading north again. Rather than resuming her northbound migration when she reached shore, Slidell spent over 20 days in Mexico, probably recuperating from the struggle she faced over the water. After a night with virtually no progress, Slidell did an about face and used the favorable tailwind to return to Mexico, arriving south of Veracruz on March 12th after a remarkable 42 hours over the water. On March 11th, when she was about halfway across the Gulf, she encountered persistent headwinds related to an unusually large high-pressure system. On 10 March 2012 she left the Yucatan, heading north across the Gulf of Mexico for her breeding grounds in Louisiana. ![]() Slidell’s journey north this past spring was “epic,” Jennifer says. Coulson for joining the 2013 Kite Migration Blog. In our next post we will detail the differences in their migration routes as compared to the 6 birds of the eastern population. Today, we introduce Slidell from Mississippi and Pearl MS from Louisiana. Together, we are learning about the differences in migration routes used by eastern versus western subpopulations, which you can see portrayed on today’s tracking map. Coulson is studying the geographic range, population size, and limiting factors for Swallow-tailed Kites in Mississippi and Louisiana. The other two birds, tagged in Mississippi and Louisiana, are part of a collaborative study between ARCI and Jennifer Coulson of the Orleans Audubon Society. We have been documenting the southbound migration of six of these birds that were tagged in Florida and South Carolina. We are currently tracking eight Swallow-tailed Kites from nest sites in the Southeast. Migration routes differ between eastern and western subpopulations ![]()
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