06/10/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/10/2025 08:34
*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:
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.
Red knots and other shorebirds feeding on horseshoe crab eggs (Fletcher Smith/Georgia DNR)
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Red knot fitted with a transmitter on its back and an ID flag on one leg (Georgia DNR)
RED KNOTS AND RESEARCH