KU and LA on northward migration

Despite some deviations at the early stage of northward migration, Whimbrel KU and LA continue to show high site fidelity to their major stop-over sites along China coast as per previous year(s). Over the past week, KU gradually “hopped” along the coast of Guangdong Province towards its familiar stop-over site for the past 2 years in Putian, Fujian Province. A brief stop-over was made at an estuary near Shantou city on 10 May, which was the landing location of KU in 2018, before it moved on to arrive Putian on 14 May. LA spent 5 days on Kinmen island before hopping back to estuary on mainland Fujian on 11-May. LA soon continued heading north to arrive the same stop-over site in Panjin, Liaoning Province on 15 May.

AWSG fitted two Whimbrel with transmitters in 2017. One of the very interesting findings from this tracking was a whimbrel taking action to avoid a cyclone. In mid-February 2018, Whimbrel LA made a deliberate well-timed significant movement (at least 157km), outside its normal range in order to reduce the effects (wind and rain) of the category 2 cyclone (Cyclone Kevin).