Goldie

Not Transmitting: last transmission December 2017

Alpha Flag Code:

AN

Capture date:

5-24-14

Sex:

Female

Location:

The Page Family’s Big Creek Ranch, near the town of May, ID. Pahsimeroi Valley.

Namesake:

Since the Page family funded this transmitter (Thank You Pages!) we asked them to choose her name. They decided to name her Goldie after the Goldburg parcel of the ranch where she lives.

Goldie is the mate of Borah, one of the curlews tagged in 2013. When we returned to Big Creek in 2014 to attach another transmitter we were hoping to capture a female, but didn’t plan to catch Borah’s mate. We lucked out in that we found not only had Borah returned to Big Creek, but his nest was easily accessible! We were able to catch Goldie on their nest, and are excited to see if her migration and wintering behavior will be similar to Borah’s.

Because her transmitter was old, we attempted to catch Goldie in summer 2017 to remove and refurbish her transmitter. But 2017’s unprecedented snow levels caused extreme flooding in the pastures of the Pahsimeroi valley, and Goldie did not successfully breed. Since we can only trap curlews while they are sitting on their nests, Goldie was able to elude us. Goldie’s transmitter stopped sending signals during late winter 2017. The transmitters our curlews wear have an estimated life of 3 years before they stop working, so it’s difficult to say whether something happened to her or whether her transmitter simply shut off.