Silent Kites

Where are the Swallow-tailed Kites ARCI is tracking?  We have little doubt they are on their winter range in South America…but we can’t “see” them right now. Long technical story, but we have every reason to think they are doing fine. We learned from CTT, the company that made the 2020 and 2021 radios that the transmitters are designed to connect via the LTE cellular system in anticipation of LTE soon replacing the 2G and 3G technology we all have been using for years. The US is switching quickly to LTE, but Central and South America are moving more slowly. We are very lucky that a few places in Mexico and Central America already had LTE capabilities when all five newly tagged 2021 kite connected in August and September and confirmed that they had safely crossed the Gulf of Mexico southbound-the most perilous part of their journey south.

• 

In the meantime, we are not losing any data. The wintering kites are “looking” for LTE towers on the winter range and not finding enough to upload all their stored data. But as soon as they do, we’ll receive it. This change in cell phone network most likely applies to our Kites like Sawgrass, Pritchard, Suwannee and PBC-ERM male with older transmitters, however, these four birds are reaching the end of their transmitter’s capabilities, thus fewer to no more location uploads.

The good news is that the conversion to LTE is steady and, even in Latin America, moving quickly. Eventually, tracking performance will be better than it ever was with the 2G/3G technology. And in the meantime, past experience reminds us that all the tagged Swallow-tailed Kites are most likely alive and well.

Thanks for joining us in being patient while we wait for “word” from these birds we all love so much.