Does the GPS data show that's actually true? much more complicated than that?

Yes, it does.

And this is just one of the most fascinating things that these transmitters have shown us.

Myself and a different student have been working on what we call migration rule sets, where we're trying to define when was the bird actually migrating.

And what we found is you can't just say when the bird moves north and when the bird moves south.

It doesn't work like that.

Now, for the majority of them, it does.

So looking forward, how does information from a project like this eventually make its way from GPS transmitters and research papers into actual waterfowl management decisions?