Successfully deployed GPS loggers

Hi Backers – We successfully fitted ten California least tern individuals with groundbreaking GPS technology able to track their unknown migrations. As their name implies, least terns are small, weighing only about 45 grams. Thus, any tracking device we use needs to be very light, so these small seabirds can carry the extra weight. We captured and fitted ten terns with miniaturized GPS loggers weighing only one gram using leg-loop harnesses—a first for this species—before releasing them back into their colony. After raising their chicks, these individuals will migrate to their wintering grounds this fall. We plan to recapture these terns when they return next summer so we can recover the loggers and learn where California least terns spend their winters.