Spoon-billed Sandpiper spotted on migration
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A rare sighting of a tagged Spoon-billed Sandpiper on migration was reported last weekend from Rudong mudflats north of Shanghai, China.
The critically endangered bird was identified by a lime green plastic flag on its leg marked ‘01’ that was attached by scientists from Birds Russia on its breeding grounds this summer. Conservationists know that ‘Lime 01’ fathered six fledglings this summer – three that were hand-reared by conservationists and three that he raised himself – which is 10 times the average for the species.
In all, this summer an increased number of 16 hand-reared Spoon-billed Sandpiper fledglings and eight adults were marked with uniquely inscribed plastic leg flags. Birders are being asked to report all sightings of the species.
Co-ordinator of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force, Christoph Zöckler, said: “The Rudong mudflats are an extremely important stop-over site for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper to rest and feed, and it is very exciting news that our Russian breeding birds have been sighted there. Unfortunately these mudflats, like much coastal wetland along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, are threatened by the development. Alongside illegal trapping and hunting, it has pushed these birds to the edge.”
WWT Head of Species Conservation Department, Baz Hughes, said: “This is why we’re taking the extreme measure of hand-rearing chicks to prevent its extinction and boost numbers. But Spoon-billed Sandpipers rely on the help of so many people, and reports like this are only possible thanks to the support of birdwatchers throughout Asia, and are an invaluable part of its conservation.”
Rudong mudflats are the most significant known staging post in China for the species, and 106 individuals were counted in October last year. Demand for land is high in the region, which is only 150 km from Shanghai, and land has already been reclaimed from the marshes at Dongling to the southern end.
Pavel Tomkovich of Birds Russia, who caught and marked the bird with Nikolai Yakushev, said: “When I marked “Lime 01” I wondered if anybody would ever see it on its travels, almost a quarter of the way round the world, as looking for Spoon-billed Sandpipers can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Looking for marked birds is even more difficult as we were only able to mark eight adult birds with these unique flags.”
‘Lime 01’ was seen leaving the breeding grounds on 4 August and was seen 5,000 km away at Rudong on 31 August. The species can cover as much as 1,000 km per day, leaving around three weeks for it to stage elsewhere. The project members need to find out where the other staging sites are to help protect the species further.
Zhang Lin of the “Spoon-billed Sandpiper in China” Team said: “The first Spoon-billed Sandpiper arrived at Rudong about two weeks ago, since when I have been regularly scanning the increasing numbers of waders at the high tide roost. When I glimpsed a bird on 31 August that looked like it had a lime green leg flag, I knew something exciting was in front of me. On closer inspection it turned out to be ‘Lime 01’. I was over the moon as this is the first time that one of the birds marked in 2013 has been seen in China.
“It is amazing to see how these tiny but critically endangered birds are connecting our key sites along the flyway between Russia and China. They are very important as they allow us to track whether efforts to save the species are working.”
Guidance on reporting spoon-billed sandpiper sightings is available from the East-Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force. To follow the progress of the spoon-billed sandpiper conservation breeding programme visit http://www.saving-spoon-billed-sandpiper.com/.
Much of the more recent information about the spoon-billed sandpiper on its breeding grounds has resulted from regular Arctic expeditions to Chukotka, initiated in the 1980s by Pavel Tomkovich and supplemented by the work of Evgeny Syroechkovskiy and colleagues including Christoph Zöckler from 2000.
Just five years ago, conservationists uncovered the largest, previously-unknown concentration of the birds in the Gulf of Martaban in Myanmar. Almost immediately it became obvious that bird hunting, carried out by the poorest sections of society, could be a major factor behind the recent drastic decline in numbers.
BirdLife’s project to save Rudong and Minjiang Estuary, two key stop-over and wintering sites used by Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers in China, the project 'Saving Spoony’s Chinese Wetlands’ is supported by The Walt Disney Company, through Disney’s Friends for Change. The work to reduce hunting in Myanmar has been funded by the BBC Wildlife Fund. It builds on work between 2008-10 by BANCA (Myanmar BirdLife International partner) and ArcCona.
The critically endangered bird was identified by a lime green plastic flag on its leg marked ‘01’ that was attached by scientists from Birds Russia on its breeding grounds this summer. Conservationists know that ‘Lime 01’ fathered six fledglings this summer – three that were hand-reared by conservationists and three that he raised himself – which is 10 times the average for the species.
In all, this summer an increased number of 16 hand-reared Spoon-billed Sandpiper fledglings and eight adults were marked with uniquely inscribed plastic leg flags. Birders are being asked to report all sightings of the species.
Co-ordinator of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force, Christoph Zöckler, said: “The Rudong mudflats are an extremely important stop-over site for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper to rest and feed, and it is very exciting news that our Russian breeding birds have been sighted there. Unfortunately these mudflats, like much coastal wetland along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, are threatened by the development. Alongside illegal trapping and hunting, it has pushed these birds to the edge.”
WWT Head of Species Conservation Department, Baz Hughes, said: “This is why we’re taking the extreme measure of hand-rearing chicks to prevent its extinction and boost numbers. But Spoon-billed Sandpipers rely on the help of so many people, and reports like this are only possible thanks to the support of birdwatchers throughout Asia, and are an invaluable part of its conservation.”
Rudong mudflats are the most significant known staging post in China for the species, and 106 individuals were counted in October last year. Demand for land is high in the region, which is only 150 km from Shanghai, and land has already been reclaimed from the marshes at Dongling to the southern end.
Pavel Tomkovich of Birds Russia, who caught and marked the bird with Nikolai Yakushev, said: “When I marked “Lime 01” I wondered if anybody would ever see it on its travels, almost a quarter of the way round the world, as looking for Spoon-billed Sandpipers can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Looking for marked birds is even more difficult as we were only able to mark eight adult birds with these unique flags.”
‘Lime 01’ was seen leaving the breeding grounds on 4 August and was seen 5,000 km away at Rudong on 31 August. The species can cover as much as 1,000 km per day, leaving around three weeks for it to stage elsewhere. The project members need to find out where the other staging sites are to help protect the species further.
Zhang Lin of the “Spoon-billed Sandpiper in China” Team said: “The first Spoon-billed Sandpiper arrived at Rudong about two weeks ago, since when I have been regularly scanning the increasing numbers of waders at the high tide roost. When I glimpsed a bird on 31 August that looked like it had a lime green leg flag, I knew something exciting was in front of me. On closer inspection it turned out to be ‘Lime 01’. I was over the moon as this is the first time that one of the birds marked in 2013 has been seen in China.
“It is amazing to see how these tiny but critically endangered birds are connecting our key sites along the flyway between Russia and China. They are very important as they allow us to track whether efforts to save the species are working.”
Guidance on reporting spoon-billed sandpiper sightings is available from the East-Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force. To follow the progress of the spoon-billed sandpiper conservation breeding programme visit http://www.saving-spoon-billed-sandpiper.com/.
Much of the more recent information about the spoon-billed sandpiper on its breeding grounds has resulted from regular Arctic expeditions to Chukotka, initiated in the 1980s by Pavel Tomkovich and supplemented by the work of Evgeny Syroechkovskiy and colleagues including Christoph Zöckler from 2000.
Just five years ago, conservationists uncovered the largest, previously-unknown concentration of the birds in the Gulf of Martaban in Myanmar. Almost immediately it became obvious that bird hunting, carried out by the poorest sections of society, could be a major factor behind the recent drastic decline in numbers.
BirdLife’s project to save Rudong and Minjiang Estuary, two key stop-over and wintering sites used by Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers in China, the project 'Saving Spoony’s Chinese Wetlands’ is supported by The Walt Disney Company, through Disney’s Friends for Change. The work to reduce hunting in Myanmar has been funded by the BBC Wildlife Fund. It builds on work between 2008-10 by BANCA (Myanmar BirdLife International partner) and ArcCona.
