Spoonie’s winter wetland declared protected area

Nanthar Island, Myanmar is a crucial wintering site for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Critically Endangered). Thanks to the advocacy of BANCA (BirdLife in Myanmar) and local people, the site has now been designated a protected area.

As Spoonie wades along the shore of Nanthar Island in Myanmar, he uses his unique spatula-shaped beak to sift small invertebrates from the mudflats. Luckily for this little Spoonie, he is standing on protected ground, rich in food and safe from the threat of hunting. However, some of his friends aren’t so lucky. With a tiny population of no more than 456, and still in decline, the Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Critically Endangered) is just one step away from becoming extinct in the wild.

Nanthar Island is not a well-known site for the Spoon-billed sandpiper – but it is nonetheless an important one. Covering a fairly large area of approximately 3,600ha, the island and the nearby Mayyu Estuary in Rakhine state, Myanmar host up to 12% of the global population of Spoon-billed Sandpipers.

In 2008, surveys of the Nanthar area conducted by the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force confirmed this importance. Unfortunately, spoonies that use this habitat as a wintering site are often under threat from hunting by local people. The Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA – BirdLife in Myanmar) has been working hard in the area to protect the unique bird from this pressing concern.

Tackling the problem at its source, BANCA assessed the socio-economic situation of the local people. From this, they were able to determine that most people did not really depend on shorebird hunting for their livelihoods, but instead used them to add variety to their own diets. To combat this problem, BANCA teamed up with local partner Rakhine Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association, to conduct education and awareness activities.

5 February 2019

Continued

Common Sandpiper wintering grounds established

22/08/2018

Geolocaters have helped researchers find the wintering sites of Scottish-born Common Sandpipers. The tags were fitted by the Highland Ringing Group and Inverness College UHI in order to find out more about the migration routes and wintering grounds of Common Sandpipers breeding in Scotland. The geolocators have revealed that the birds winter in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, via migration stopovers in Spain and Portugal. Furthermore, these findings could offer a possible explanation for the species' decline.

Common Sandpiper numbers have dropped by 21 per cent across Europe, but breeding success remains high, so it's thought the cause of the decline lies in their passage or wintering sites. Despite ringing of more than 22,000 Common Sandpipers across Britain, little is known about their migratory routes and wintering grounds once they leave Europe, and the geolocators have already helped answer some of the questions.

Large parts of coastal Guinea-Bissau are vast mudflats, bordered with mangroves, but many of these are being converted into rice fields. Consequently, this loss of habitat could be a key factor behind the decline of the Common Sandpipers that rely on these sites. Furthermore, analysis of the data revealed that the birds face strong cross and head winds on their northward migration from West Africa, which could lead to lower numbers returning to their Scottish breeding grounds.

Dr Louise de Raad, who was involved with the research at Inverness College UHI, explained the importance of the findings: "From this new information we were able to identifiy Guinea-Bissau as the location where the majority of Scottish Common Sandpipers migrate to in the winter. Now we have a better understanding of their journey we're one step closer to finding out why their population is in decline."

Ornithologist Dr Ron Summers added: "This is a really big breakthrough, as before we were not able to pinpoint their wintering location in West Africa. Now we can look at the difficulties and challenges they face on their journey, and at these wintering grounds, and try to understand how these might have an impact on their survival."

Read on

Greatest threat to Eastern forest birds is habitat loss on wintering grounds

Date: July 24, 2017

Source: Cornell University

Summary: Human-caused habitat loss looms as the greatest threat to some North American breeding birds. The problem will be most severe on their wintering grounds, according to a new study.

continued

Forest 'islands' offer refuge to wintering birds

February 7, 2017 by Kelly April Tyrrell

The polar vortex of 2013 and 2014 brought the coldest winter many parts of the Midwest had experienced in decades. In Dane County, Wisconsin, it was the coldest it had been in 35 years. 

By coincidence, that same winter, University of Wisconsin–Madison graduate student Christopher Latimer was gathering data in fragments of forests and woodlots throughout the county. He wanted to know whether these forest "islands" created their own unique climates—microclimates—and what that could mean for overwintering birds like the black-capped chickadee.

In a recent study in the journal Ecography, Latimer and his co-author and advisor, UW–Madison forest and wildlife ecology Professor Ben Zuckerberg, show that these forest refuges may mean the difference between life and death for chickadees and their overwintering songbird kin.

"All our predictions about climate change, from shifting temperatures to altered precipitation, play out over small-scale differences in microclimate, and they can be just as big as global climate," Zuckerberg says.

For example, Latimer and Zuckerberg found the microclimate variability was so high within the 30-mile study area—which they call the "fragmentation gradient" in recognition of the mosaic nature of wooded areas in Dane County—that a bird living in one part of the study area might experience a climate similar to Chicago while another might experience conditions more like those found in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, 400 miles to the northwest.

Overall, they found that forests at slightly higher elevations, with more trees, and those closer to urban centers, provide warmer conditions for birds trying to survive frigid winters in southern Wisconsin. This is important, Latimer and Zuckerberg say, because chickadees must double the amount of energy they expend to keep warm when temperatures dip below minus 18 degrees Celsius or about zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Read more at:

Habitat management can work to conserve birds

EMC Lifestyle - From last week's note on the status of Canada's birds, the successful management of our wetlands and hunting demonstrate that habitat management can work to conserve birds. However, wetlands still face many threats. including draining for agriculture and development, pollution, invasive non-native species and increasing droughts due to climate change. Thus, conservation efforts must continue.

Another factor, a positive one, is our direct intervention to enable raptor populations to increase in numbers, which has allowed dramatic recoveries to take place. For example, the banning of DDT helped Peregrine Falcons and Eagle populations maintain their species numbers.

The biggest threats for many species during their long migrations are loss of habitat at stopover sites and on their wintering grounds. International co-operation is required to address these threats. There is much to be done, but solutions can, and must, be implemented at all levels of Canadian society, along with international organizations to achieve conservation success.

In our local world, in Mississippi Mills, Terry Kotjila had a female Evening Grosbeak and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak eating black cherries on her property. On Sept. 15 Cliff Bennett spotted a Northern Goshawk as it flew over the gas station at the corner of Highway 15/County Road 29 and Christian Street in Almonte. On the river in town, during clean up, Cliff and Bryn Mathews spotted several juvenile Belted Kingfishers chasing their parents for food. Two Great Blue Herons and one juvenile Green Heron were standing by themselves on the shoreline, down river from Metcalf Park.

Continued: http://www.emcalmontecarletonplace.ca/20120927/lifestyle/Habitat+management+can+work+to+conserve+birds