The migration of the great snipe Gallinago media: intriguing variations on a grand theme

The migration of the great snipe Gallinago media was previously poorly known. Three tracks in 2010 suggested a remarkable migratory behaviour including long and fast overland non-stop flights (Klaassen et al. 2011). Here we present the migration pattern of Swedish male great snipes, based on 19 individuals tracked by light-level geolocators in four different years. About half of the birds made stopover(s) in northern Europe in early autumn. They left the breeding area 15 days earlier than those which flew directly to sub-Sahara, suggesting two distinct autumn migration strategies. The autumn trans-Sahara flights were on average 5500 km long, lasted 64 h, and were flown at ground speeds of 25 m s-1 (90 km h-1). The arrival in the Sahel zone of West Africa coincided with the wet season there, and the birds stayed for on average three weeks. The birds arrived at their wintering grounds around the lower stretches of the Congo River in late September and stayed for seven months. In spring the great snipes made trans-Sahara flights of similar length and speed as in autumn, but the remaining migration through eastern Europe was notably slow. All birds returned to the breeding grounds within one week around mid-May. The annual cycle was characterized by relaxed temporal synchronization between individuals during the autumn-winter period, with maximum variation at the arrival in the wintering area. Synchronization increased in spring, with minimum time variation at arrival in the breeding area. This suggests that arrival date in the breeding area is under strong stabilizing selection, while there is room for more flexibility in autumn and arrival to the wintering area. The details of the fast non-stop flights remain to be elucidated, but the identification of the main stopover and wintering areas is important for future conservation work on this red-listed bird species

Electrostatic Potential Generated During Extracorporeal Pump Prime Circulation Before Cardiopulmonary Bypass Initiation

The development of electrostatic potentials generated during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) procedures using polyvinylchloride (PVC) tubing in conjunction with roller pumps has been previously documented. The resulting damage from the electrostatic discharge (ESD) has been reported to affect gas transfer devices, but details of potential damage to electronic components commonly used during extracorporeal circulation have not been similarly described. The purpose of this study was to measure the ability of a triboelectric potential to be generated from a primed, circulating, adult CPB pump before the initiation of CPB. Two identical adult CPB circuits were assembled: one incorporating a roller pump and the second incorporating a centrifugal pump mechanism. Primed pumps were circulated (1–6 LPM), and evidence of generated triboelectric potentials was evaluated using a digital multimeter (Fluke 8062 A). The ESD generated from an adult CPB circuit using a roller head configuration elicited a charge in excess of 600 DC V. An identical circuit constructed with a centrifugal pump mechanism did not produce any measurable charge. Sensitive electrical components in the CPB hardware platform may be damaged by ESD potential spikes of this magnitude. Preventative measures, such as circuit charge dissipation, may reduce the potential for such damage when using PVC tubing

Using stable isotope ratios to unravel shorebird migration and population mixing: a case study with Red Knot Calidris canutus

Identifying demographic mechanisms is fundamental to understanding the causes of population change in waterbirds. This may be relatively easy for static breeding and wintering populations, but populations of mixed breeding or wintering origin often occur in stopover sites in spring and autumn, and thus estimates of survival and recruitment from these areas are inevitably representative of all the birds marked, rather than individual populations. We used stable isotope analysis of flight feathers to identify the different wintering populations of Red Knot Calidris canutus rufa that passed through Delaware Bay, north-eastern USA, in the springs of 2004 and 2005. Here, they feed and fatten on an abundance of Horseshoe Crab Limulus polyphemus eggs before flying to their Arctic breeding areas. δ13N values separated birds from wintering areas in southern South America (“southern” birds) and Brazil/south-eastern USA (“northern” birds). Northern birds were further separated using δ13C values. Approximately 55% of the birds caught within Delaware Bay were from the southern population, 22.5% from Brazil, and 12.5% from the south-eastern USA, while 10% were of unknown (although most likely “northern”) origin. At a site on the Atlantic coast of Delaware Bay, where only Mussel Mytilus spp. spat were available, the proportion of short-distance migrants from the south-eastern USA was much higher, and is most likely related to their shorter-hop migration strategy that allows them to take advantage of this hard-shelled prey resource