After a very eventful winter 2007-2008 spring migration is on the move and we thought it might be useful to provide a brief, although most certainly incomplete, summary of events. Please provide us with any updates or corrections if you think the information we have compiled is incomplete or wrong.
Not all of you may have heard about the successful expedition to Myanmar and very few may have heard about the most recent findings in Bangladesh..
Unfortunately one of the male Spoon-billed Sandpipers that successfully bred and reared four chicks in the north of Chukotka was shot by a Russian hunter near the border with China while on southern migration. It is not known how many Spoon-billed Sandpipers are lost to hunting each year although there have been several reports from Japan and Taiwan.
Primorsky Krai and Thailand still host about 15 birds in winter. The situation in Korea is devastating after the closure of Saemangeum. Local groups fear that this was not the last reclamation in Korea.
But all the news in sequence:
In October we had several press events at Saemangeum. It’s quite impressive to see the extent of destruction, though depressing knowing that it will affect many tens of thousands of shorebirds, not only Spoon-billed Sandpipers. At the time of our visit there were still 4 birds in Nakdong and birds at other adjacent sites. The maximum flock size was 14 birds, clearly a strong decline compared with only 8 years ago. Exact numbers and all observations and locations are not known at this stage.
Since our workshop in Dez in 2006 a lot of activities have taken place in the Inner Gulf area. Some of them involved continued survey work and new research projects. These were supported and partly funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds including the winter feeding ecology of the species. Conservation projects in the Inner Gulf area focus on the public awareness for the species and better observation facilities. Local NGOs promote the protection and local tourism for the species and other globally threatened shorebirds.
Reports are coming in from the usual sites in the Red River Delta, but as yet no numbers are available. However there were observations from a new site north of the delta that sound promising. Another spring record from a well known site in Malaysia keeps this country in the headlines as far as Spoon-billed Sandpipers are concerned.
For the first time large sections of coastal ecosystems in Myanmar have been surveyed for waterbirds, including the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and, due to good networking by Minoru Kashiwagi in Japan, we managed to establish support for the first winter expedition to Myanmar. Kei Den Ran and other sponsors also helped to enable members to participate in this important expedition:
The findings of an International survey of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recovery Team raise hopes for saving the species
The observations of a total of 84 Spoon-billed Sandpiper during an international survey of coastal Myanmar in January 2008 not only highlights the importance of these coastal ecosystems, but also suggests that Myanmar hosts important numbers of wintering birds of this critically endangered shorebird. This is equivalent to 10-15 % of the global population and these figures raise hopes for a species in rapid decline in the breeding and non-breeding areas. There were 50% less breeding pairs in Chukotka (Eastern Siberia) in 2007 than there were in 2005!
An international survey team formed part of the ‘Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recovery Team’ with members from ArcCona Consulting in Cambridge, UK, and Kiel, Germany. Others included JAWAN (based in Tokyo) and BirdLife partners in Russia (RBCU) and Thailand (BCST). These were teamed with, and well looked after, in Myanmar by local BirdLife partner BANCA and local Wetlands International partner MBNS. The 14 survey members were divided in two teams covering the mudflats of the Martaban (Mottama) Bay east of Yangon near the Thai border and selected coastal habitats in the south-west state of Arakan (Rakhine), near Bangladesh.
The experience from previous surveys in India, Bangladesh and Thailand, combined with the interpretation of satellite images, allowed both teams to target selected suitable habitats in the Bay of Bengal. This included a sandy island surrounded by intertidal mudflats in Arakan, where 35 Spoon-billed Sanpipers were counted at just one high tide roost. Among these birds was one with light blue flag from North Chukotka flagged the previous summer. As there were no birds banded in 2007 the birds must have been adults, not juveniles, as assumed at first. None of the banded birds in 2002 and 2003 ever returned to North Chukotka, and only one bird, banded in 2005, was observed breeding in 2007. This was yet another demonstration of the low return of juveniles to the breeding site.
As there was only one flagged birds observed among 84 birds counted the survey results suggest that a potentially larger population is yet to be discovered in the breeding grounds.
The Arakan coast has never been surveyed before and the Martaban coast only marginally in 2003. So it was no real surprise to find so many Spoon-billed Sandpipers. However, due to restricted access, strong winds and inappropriate means of transport only a small section of the promising Arakan coast was covered. The survey team therefore believes that Arakan may host many more of this globally endangered sandpiper.
The coastal zone provides healthy ecosystems despite small scale reclamation of the mudflats for prawn ponds that provide crucial habitat for thousands of Arctic-nesting shorebirds as well as providing livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people in coastal communities that rely on small-scale fishing and shellfish and crab harvesting on the mudflats.
The Martaban team found in total 48 Spoon-billed Sandpipers, which were scattered over the extensive mudflats of the Bay, which are believed to host more of 50,000 waterbirds with globally significant numbers of Broad-billed Sandpiper, Lesser Sand plovers and Pallas ‘s Gulls. Although no reclamation of the highly dynamic coast was observed here, a major threat from hunting and trapping of shorebirds, including Spoon-billed sandpiper, was identified. Local fishermen, who displayed a profound knowledge of waterbirds which they catch, preferably on new moon nights, only caught 4 birds last December.
In direct response to our findings the local authority in Arakan secured the important site temporarily and arranged signs to be posted immediately. A formal protection process will take longer and will also be based on future survey results taking into account the understanding of the entire suitable coastline. The government authorities of Myanmar were very supportive during the preparation and the carrying out of the survey and indicated the intention of undertaking further activities to secure the protection of the species in Myanmar.
Follow up expeditions are planned to further survey suitable habitats along the 2,000 km coastline of Myanmar and to help promote further conservation activities.
The survey was operated in Myanmar by WATT (Wildbird Adventure Travel and Tours, Dr Htin Hla) and generously funded by Keidenran Foundation in Tokyo with additional contributions by the RSPB, UK, BirdLife Asia, the Manfred Hermsen Foundation and private Russian sponsors. The surveys would not have been possible without the full support of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar. We are grateful to all of them for their support.
At first, mid winter counts resulted in worryingly zero counts of Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Central and Eastern coastal parts had been surveyed in the usual manner lead by our friend Enam Ul Haque. However in April exciting news reached us when Enam reported finding a huge flock of migrating shorebirds at one of the chars previously not covered in the surveys. The team of three managed to spot at least 15 Spoon-billed Sandpiper among the huge flock, but guessed that there could have been many more. However during a subsequent visit a few days later most of the shorebirds had moved on and no more Spoon-billed Sandpipers were found.
These findings are very exciting as they prove that the vast areas of the delta in Bangladesh continue to host some significant numbers of Spoon-billed Sandpipers. If these birds are in some way related with those we came across in Northern Myanmar is as unclear how long they stayed and where these birds came from.
Source: Dr Christoph Zöckler, ArcCona Cambridge and Dr Evgeny Syroechkovskiy, RBCU, Moscow.