NEAPQ Fellow Studies Migratory Patterns of the American Woodcock in Nova Scotia

October 3rd through 8th, 2022:

In conjunction with the NEAPQ Fellowship, awardee Liam Berigan received funding to quantify migratory linkages between birds who summer in Canada and winter in the United States.聽 He was also sponsored by the CanAm Center for his travel for this research and granted $1,000.

Berigan specifically researches the American Woodcock in Nova Scotia to examine their migratory strategies. This is the only population of woodcock that regularly make overwater flights across the Atlantic. Their specific strategies for crossing (flight altitude, velocity, interaction with weather events) are of scientific interest to him. 鈥淲e’ll be monitoring these birds with satellite GPS transmitters which have been funded by the Canadian Wildlife Service鈥� Berigan writes. 鈥淭hese transmitters will allow us to track the migration of these birds in almost real time.鈥�