Tracking the Wild: Inside Strawberry Fields’ Motus Station
One of the many things that makes Strawberry Fields special is our Motus antenna. It can be seen from the red trail in the opposite direction from the view over the Mohawk Valley Motus is an international research community working together to study the movement and behaviour of birds, bats, and insects. These animals carry miniaturized tags that transmit information to stations placed across the landscape. This powerful conservation tool transforms how we understand and protect biodiversity. Researchers attach Motus RFID tags to small flying animals. Motus tags are among the smallest tracking devices available, enabling researchers to monitor a wide range of birds, bats, and large insects. Each tag emits a unique signal, allowing the simultaneous tracking of thousands of individuals. Motus stations are specialized receivers used in radio telemetry to track the movements of flying animals, such as birds, bats, and insects. They allow researchers to study and identify important migration routes, stopover areas, and wintering locations and provide valuable insights on animal behaviour. Motus.org is a collaborative research network led by Birds Canada and partners with scientists and organizations across the globe.
Our Motus station was installed in July 2020; at that time it was one of 450 stations from southeastern Canada down to Maryland and West Virginia, in east-west strings. Today, there are 2436 stations in 34 countries, supporting over 1100 scientific projects studying nearly 500 species of birds, bats and insects. At Strawberry Fields, 37 Species have been detected among 102 Individual animals detected. 36 different bird species (6 warblers!), and one bat. Bird species include American Pipit, American Woodcock, Bicknell’s Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo, Bobolink, Dunlin, Chimney Swift, Common Nighthawk, Dark-eyed Junco, Eastern Towhee, Evening Grosbeak, Fox Sparrow,Hermit Thrush, Horned Lark, Magnolia Warbler, Ovenbird, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Northern Waterthrush, Purple Finch, Red Knot, Red-tailed Hawk, Rusty Blackbird, Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowicher, Swainson’s Thrush, Canada Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, White-throated Sparrow, and Wood Thrush. A Silver-haired Bat, part of a study of migration and dispersal of bats at Lake Erie, was also detected.
Among my favorite stories from the Motus data:
A Tennessee Warbler tagged 5/14/22 in southeastern Ohio and detected at SFNP 5/24/22.
A Blackpoll Warbler tagged in Colombia 5/3/22, and detected at SFNP 5/28/22; it apparently stayed in the area as it’s next detections were in western
Massachusetts on it’s way to the coast below Cape Cod.
A Wood Thrush tagged in New Hampshire 6/13/24 migrated twice from there to northeastern Georgia, once passing over SFNP, three times over the Albany Pine Bush following the Appalachians; it’s tag has lasted 16 months already.
If this Motus information is of interest to you and you want to learn more, go to motus.org and explore. You might also want to read A World on the Wing, by Scott Weidensaul, who was one of the creators of the Motus network. The book documents the global odysseys of migratory birds. Many of those stories were documented my Motus.