Hey there! We have been deploying nanotags on shorebirds directly beneath dual mode sensorstations, and the birds are not being detected. There are 2 stations at the field sites we work and both were recently updated with assistance from CTT. When we updated them we confirmed they were working in the field with active 166mHz tags. I’ve downloaded the data directly to ensure hits aren’t being filtered out, and they’re not. At one of the sites we have 15 birds tagged and no detections. We have also resighted individuals with nanotags still attached at the site, and birds regularly fly between islands at the site, so it’s not just that the birds are on the ground not being detected. This station shows data uploaded as recently as yesterday on the Motus site. The other hasn’t uploaded since the 22nd, but we have an active tag taped to the tower and it hasn’t been detected since the 20th. Anyone have anything like this happen? Any ideas on what we can do to fix this? Is there a data processing backlog that may explain this lack of detections? We were really counting on daily detection data (which we collected consistently last year at these sites!) for our research plans, so this is a big loss!
I should’ve mentioned, I did check the deployments for all tags and they are active and correct. I had set an early deployment date for them and have been updating with real info (species, morphs etc.) the day after tags go on birds.
The tags are deployed on project #663, and the receivers are on project #14, specifically the MNYN and NAPA towers.
Thanks for your help brainstorming this issue!
Looking at the deployment timeline for these stations they’ve stopped showing 166 antenna activity on 4/24 (NAPA) and 5/20 (MNYN), which could be one of two things: 1) your receiver has dropped all of your funcubes simultaneously, or 2) the SG side of your receivers has stopped working. Since none of the antennas blinked back on during the monthly reboot on 5/3, it is likely that the entire SG side is down. I would guess that if you look at these stations through your CTT account page and scroll to the “Sensorgnome Data Files” at the bottom of the page, you would see that the files stopped arriving around these dates.
A final confirmation would be to visit the station and attempt to access the SG portion of the user interface: if the SG side is down completely, you won’t be able to access the “I am your SG” page.
My solution for this almost always involves a reflash of the station firmware. Was this problem taking place before your last firmware update, or did it crop up afterwards?
If you are in the habit of editing your SG deployment file, having a close look at the sections you edited for missing commas or quotation marks would be recommended. This would not likely be the case if the stations dropped out on their own sometime after you re-flashed the boards.
Reverting to a more stable, earlier V3 station image could also help (Depreciated station images are available in CTT’s directions for re-flashing your station; step 1.2.2.2). Presumably this was the version you were running last year.