‘Star’ Red Knot Reveals Species’ Pluck and Peril – Georgia Wildlife Blog

*H7 is a Rocky among red knots.

After being fitted with a small transmitter on Little Tybee Island in spring 2024, this robin-sized sandpiper migrated more than 3,000 miles to breed in the Arctic, then launched into a 5,000-mile flight south that July, navigated through a category 1 hurricane and three South American countries where shorebirds are hunted, and returned to Little Tybee this April.

When it comes to beating the odds, Balboa has nuthin’ on this knot.

Yet like “Rocky,” the tale of *H7 – the bird’s identifying leg-band code – can inspire and inform. Crediting the research project that identified *H7’s migration pathways, stopover sites and the gauntlet of threats survived, DNR senior wildlife biologist Fletcher Smith said the “full life-cycle story highlights the importance of focused conservation work throughout the flyway” for red knots.

*H7 (center, with antenna) at Little Tybee Island in spring 2024 (Fletcher Smith/Georgia DNR)

These birds are on the ropes. Numbers of the rufa subspecies that migrates along the East Coast and is federally listed as threatened have declined about 75 percent since the 1980s. Work involving Georgia and South Carolina DNR, Manomet Conservation Sciences, American Bird Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the South Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Clemson University is tracking populations that stopover in the two states, analyzing their diets and even documenting the density and distribution of their main food source, horseshoe crab eggs.

One key finding is that many of the red knots seen in Georgia and South Carolina bypass other stopover sites along the Eastern Seaboard, instead winging it straight from here to northeastern Canada’s Hudson and James Bay region before flying on to the Arctic. For these rust-breasted sandpipers, the Southeast is vital for rest and food.

In May 2024 on Little Tybee Island Natural Area near Savannah, *H7 was one of 13 red knots outfitted with solar-powered transmitters that link with satellites to map the birds’ location every few hours. Data points plotting *H7’s movements from then through November 2024 revealed that:

*H7 flew north to Victoria Island in the high Arctic to find a mate and breed.
When it came time to migrate south that fall, *H7 flew to Canada’s Hudson Bay and then took to the air for more than four-and-a-half days straight to South America.
During the middle of that transcontinental marathon, the red knot ran into Hurricane Ernesto and its sustained winds of nearly 100 mph over the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda. *H7 veered west but made it through the storm’s bands.
The weary bird finally reached land in Guyana, moved east to Suriname and then spent the winter in French Guiana – all countries where shorebird hunting occurs. That’s also where *H7’s transmitter fell off.

Not knowing what happened *H7 worried researchers. But in April, a team of wildlife technicians led by Smith on Little Tybee “were ecstatic” to spot the familiar red knot back at the state-owned island near Savannah.

While only one example of what these extreme-distance migrants face, *H7 showcases the need for migration stopovers that provide ample food and are free from disturbance. The conditions red knots seek during the few weeks to few months they spend in Georgia and South Carolina are integral to their survival.

“Every one of these birds has an amazing story,” Smith said. For instance, about 80 percent of red knots tagged with a transmitter this spring in Georgia and South Carolina recently flew some 3,000 miles without stopping to the Hudson Bay area.

Smith said ongoing tracking of these knots promises a greater understanding of “the connectivity between the Southeast and breeding sites in the Arctic, fall migration routes and wintering locations, and within-season movements before they migrate from the Southeast.”

Long story short: how to better conserve these feathered fighters and the resources they need in the Southeast.

Mix of red knots, with rust-colored breasts, feeding with mix of other shorebird species in gray mud and water and horseshoe crabs

Red knots and other shorebirds feeding on horseshoe crab eggs (Fletcher Smith/Georgia DNR)

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Brown-tanned hands holding a red knot with workers in blue shirts in the background

Red knot fitted with a transmitter on its back and an ID flag on one leg (Georgia DNR)

RED KNOTS AND RESEARCH

March through May, red knots migrate through the southeastern U.S., with large flocks gathering along the Georgia and South Carolina coast to feed on invertebrates – especially horseshoe crab eggs – fueling up for flights to the Arctic. The birds can nearly double their weight during these stopovers in the Southeast.
During summer, red knots breed above the Arctic Circle in northern Canada.
In late summer and fall, they fly thousands of miles south to wintering sites, some as far as the southern tip of South America.
A collaborative effort in Georgia and South Carolina is conducting aerial surveys, studying what red knots eat, addressing conservation issues and doing outreach to raise awareness of the birds’ epic migrations and their need to feed and rest undisturbed at stopover sites in the Southeast.
From 2023 through this year, over 80 percent of red knots tracked by satellite during spring migration bypassed the species’ well-known stopover site – Delaware Bay – suggesting that a significant part of the population using the Southeast flies directly from here to sub-Arctic habitat in the Hudson Bay region.
This spring, researchers deployed 27 transmitters on red knots. Follow these birds in real time.
Project partners include Georgia and South Carolina DNRs, the South Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Clemson University, Manomet, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and American Bird Conservancy.