May 10th, 2008

Godwits read to fly back to Iceland to breed

Report from Jim Wilson - This morning I went looking for godwits at Harper's Island and Brown Island, near Glounthaune where the Scoil Iosaef Naofa class goes to study the godwits. I saw a total of 456 godwits and only 21(4.6%) were in adult plumage. This is a big change from the 21st April when we saw nearly 1,200 in the same place and over 80% were adults. This is because all the adults have now flown to Iceland and almost all the birds here are birds born last year. They usually spend their first summer here and will not return to Iceland until next year.