Some tagging field trips have already been carried out in 2022. Field trips to tag red-throated divers are carried out over a period of three years between March and May. At night, the birds are caught from a dinghy in their main concentration area in the North Sea. A total of 13 red-throated divers were caught in the two field trips in April and May 2023 and fitted with newly developed external and implanted data loggers. The loggers provide the team with high-resolution GPS positions, which allow investigating the movement patterns of the individual birds. Pressure sensors additionally record the diving activity of the birds at one-second intervals.
Red-throated divers are highly sensitive to anthropogenic activity and show large-scale avoidance of offshore wind farms. Based on the collected GPS and diving activity data (as well as further information), an individual-based model (IBM) will be applied to calculate long-term population effects caused by offshore wind farms and ship traffic.
Please refer to our project page for more information about DiverLog.