Thursday, November 28, 2013

Tundra Swan: Too Cool Not to Share!

[Tundra Swan at Cape May, NJ a couple years ago.]

The following was posted to the jerseybirds listserve  this morning by Greg Prelich:

"A few weeks ago Bill Elrick noticed that a Tundra Swan in Whitesbog had a neck collar but he was unable to clearly identify the banding information from his photos. Last weekend I was able to obtain a photo showing that the neck collar had band number T207. I reported the information to the Bird
Banding Laboratory, and today received information on this bird. It was banded about as far away from here as you can get in the continental US, 20 miles NE of Nuiqust on the far north slope of Alaska (70.39306, -150.24361). It is a female bird, hatched in 2005 or earlier, and was banded in July of 2006. It is very cool knowing that she thought enough of NJ to travel that distance. Welcome to Whitesbog NJ, T207.
Greg Prelich
Manchester Township"

Not only is the distance this bird travelled to reach Whitesbog, which is in NJ, remarkable, but think about this:  the bird probably has been wintering in at least the same general area each year, which means she has flown the 3500 or so miles each way since at least 2005!

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