Goldie is the beautiful Pacific Golden Plover, the Kuriri. This Arctic migrant visits us each summer, but Goldie has a problem. The number of Pacific Golden Plovers arriving in New Zealand is falling fast. And unfortunately, we don’t know why.
The Shorebird Centre has been trying to find answers. In 2018 we began attempts to fit some birds with satellite transmitters so that we could follow their journey north to the breeding grounds and back again, learning about their migration and what might be impacting their numbers. Jim Eagles takes up the story:
UPDATE DECEMBER 2020 Where’s Goldie? is now entering its third summer. We have some new tags, thanks to manufacturer Lotek, so we’ll be out this season to catch, tag and then follow the migration of, six more Pacific Golden Plovers.
This Page Project Background, Winter 2018
Page Two Summer 2018-19
Page Three Summer 2019-20
Page Four Summer 2020-21
Page Five Meet The Birds
The Story So Far
Project Background
The ultimate aim of Where’s Goldie? is to learn more about these enigmatic birds – the fourth most common Arctic migrants to visit New Zealand – and in particular to find out why their numbers have fallen sharply. When the Birds NZ Wader Census started 30 years ago it recorded an annual count of a thousand Kuriri, but today there are closer to 200.
Chapter One: Winter 2018
To start our search for answers we consulted the world expert on PGPs, Wally Johnson, a researcher at Montana State University. He said if we could raise the money to buy ten tags he would come over and help us find out. Well, thanks to grants from the Ron and Edna Greenwood Environmental Trust, Birds New Zealand and Lush Handmade Cosmetics , plus US based trust members John C Black and Jeanne Kleyn, Mazda Foundation, and other members who didn’t want to be named, we managed to raise the necessary $22,995.
Next Page: Summer 2018-2019 —>