Investigating Red Knot Migration Ecology along the Georgia and South Carolina Coasts: Spring 2019 Season Summaries

• Main Authors: Smith, F. M., Watts, B. D., Lyons, J., Keyes, T., Smith, A., Sanders, F., Thibault, Justin Leroy
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: W&M ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: Barrier Islands; Canada; Morrison; Calidris canutus; Red Knot
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/ccb_reports/588; https://scholarworks.wm.edu/context/ccb_reports/article/1587/viewcontent/CCBTR_20_02_Georgia_Red_Knot_Population_Dynamics_Report_2019.pdf

The rufa subspecies of the Red Knot (Calidris canutus) has declined significantly in the past 35 years, leading to federal listing (US Fish and Wildlife Service Federal Register Vol. 79 No. 238, 2014a) under the Endangered Species Act in the United States (16 U.S.C. 1531 et. seq) and Canada (COSEWIC 2007, SARA 2007). Evidence for the decline is seen in long-term surveys of a major spring staging site (Dunne et al 1982, Clark et al. 1993, Niles et al. 2008) and the largest known over-wintering site (Morrison et al. 2004). In only 30 years, the estimated population has declined from 100,000-150,000 to possibly below 30,000 (Niles et al. 2007) leading some researchers to suggest the population is highly vulnerable to extinction (Baker et al. 2004). The determination of regional population estimates and identification of major stopover sites are considered to be the highest priority for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources State Wildlife Action Plan (2015), the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Business Strategy (Winn et al. 2013), the US Shorebird Plan (Brown et al. 2001), the USFWS Red Knot Spotlight Species Action Plan (2010), and the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) Red Knot Conservation Plan for the Western Hemisphere (Niles et al. 2010a). The Georgia Department of Natural Resources State Wildlife Action Plan ranks the Red Knot as a high priority species (with state status of “Rare”) and ranks research of the Red Knot as one of the primary conservation actions needed within the state. A band resight program was initiated along the Georgia coastal barrier islands during the fall of 2011 and spring of 2013 and 2015-2016 giving baseline information for those seasons (Lyons et al. 2017, Smith et al. 2017). A trapping and tagging project was initiated in South Carolina in recent years, though there has been no systematic resight effort within the state. The patterns observed in both studies suggest that Red Knots are using the south-Atlantic through Delaware Bay in spring as an open network of ...