I first heard about Holly Garrod from the guide on my Hillstar Nature Tours guide, Joshua Covill. Holly Garrod is the bird banding coordinator for Birds Caribbean, creator and leader of the Caribbean Bird Banding Network, as well as Outreach Manager and an Avian Ecologist at the University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab. I so enjoyed talking with Holly. Her energy and passion is wonderful to experience, and I learned a lot from our discussion.
We talk about bird banding, as well as about the Motus bird tracking system. I love that we can now learn so much about the movements of even small birds and other migratory creatures like butterflies using tiny transmitters that can be attached to even very small creatures and a network of recievers. Every time a transmission is detected by a receiver the information is sent to the Motus data network. In this way movements of tagged animals (birds, fish, butterflies, etc.) can be followed. Holly and others are helping involve the Caribbean Islands in the network of receiving for Motus.
For understanding the migration of many of our North American neotropic migrants this is key. Check out the range maps of these birds for example.


As you can see these two species and lots more pass over or through the Caribbean Islands.
A part of the Birds Caribbean work is developing the Caribbean Birding Trail, with local hotspots, guides and more. There is now a dedicated website to the Caribbean Birding Trail resources.
Stay tuned for future episodes with Josh Covill.