Juvenile Godwits Avon / Heathcote ChCh

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GrahameNZ
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Location: The Wetlands, Christchurch
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Juvenile Godwits Avon / Heathcote ChCh

Post by GrahameNZ »

Hi folks,
Today I found some some juvenile Bar-tailed Godwits on the Avon / Heathcote estuary.
I have no accurate count but there were several.
These birds were up at Windsurf a bit after high tide.

Image

Image
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philbattley
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Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 2:21 pm

Re: Juvenile Godwits Avon / Heathcote ChCh

Post by philbattley »

Great shots Graham! Generally the first juvs are seen at the very start of October, though one year we did have a record by the end of September. Oct/Nov are good months to try to get accurate counts of juvs versus ads/imms to get an idea of breeding success (and subsequent survival to NZ). Once into December it is much harder to age juvs accurately - some will still be possible to tell by retained juv feathers but others may not be.

Phil
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