Kingsville Bird Sanctuary flies into the 21st century with GPS tracking of geese and ducks

Windsor Morning8:4121st century bird ringing includes GPS trackers for tracking geese and ducks

They have been ringing birds at the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Kingsville for more than a century.

Jack Miner ringed his first duck in 1909 and it is estimated that he ringed more than 100,000 waterfowl during his lifetime.

These were low-tech items – simple metal parts with an address and a Bible verse on them.

Today, the reserve is upgrading its ringing practices for the 21st century to better monitor ducks and geese.

A program to research waterfowl using GPS transmitters is launched.

An example of the handmade signs Jack Miner made that the sanctuary is now moving away from. They bore verses from the Bible. (Amy Dodge/CBC)

Matt Olewski is executive director of the Jack Miner Bird Foundation and says the new bands are different from the more traditional ones that have been used there for over 100 years.

“If you think of a traditional band, we make a catch and collect some data on the bird,” he said.

“And once a bird has been ringed and released, we sometimes have to wait years for the ringing to be reinstated. And what happens between the time the bird is ringed and the time the ringing is reinstated? That's always been a mystery.”

He believes that GPS transmitters will close this knowledge gap – he describes them as “state-of-the-art” and solar-powered.

“They have a five-year life cycle. Backpack designs for ducks and collar designs for geese.”

A team works to band a bird at the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary. (Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary)

According to Olewski, the sensors can transmit temperature, speed and altitude and are equipped with automatic flight detection.

“We can tell the difference between a bird swimming on water and standing on solid ground. These sensors constantly transmit data to the cellular network and back to our mapping system. We can observe birds in action every minute.”

Olewski says that ringing the birds is done in teams of four or five people because it is not a pleasant process – and using the sensors is a complicated matter.

“When we capture birds, we take extreme care to limit the risk of injury and to ensure that the process is very, very smooth so we don't have to handle the birds any longer than necessary.”

The goal of tracking is to map the ecology of waterfowl in response to landscape change.

“We pay particular attention to what emits artificial light… and how their migration patterns and migration routes adapt to the artificial light.”

Jack Miner stamps ribbons at home. (Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation)

Olewski calls him an innovator and is convinced that Jack Miner would be incredibly proud of this latest step in tracking.

“It has taken us about a hundred years to evolve with the times. Now is the moment when the reserve, with its hundred-year history of ringing, can honor this heritage – by re-entering the academic world in terms of its scientific relevance.”

Some geese and ducks will now be tagged with GPS tracking in the Kingsville Conservation Area. (Mike Evans/CBC Windsor)