WorldWaders News Blog

How is everything doing?
I am waderworld my friend has told me a website: www.buyyin.com. he
orderd an iphone on it and has received the product. He told me
that the product has a very good quality and a rather low price.
So I introduce it to you, you could visit it to have a look.
Have a nice day!
All the best!
All the best!

Written by EAAFP

Based on the recommendation of the Secretariat and review panel, the ‘Yubu-do Tidal Flat’ in Seocheon County is now designated in the Flyway Site Network (FSN) as an internationally important habitat for migratory waterbirds on the East Asian-Australasia Flyway.

© 2011 Partnership for EAAF

Classified as intertidal flat and islands, it is located in the centre of the western coast in Korea, and is an important staging and non-breeding habitat for many migratory waterbirds such as Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola), Lesser Sand Plover (Charadrius mongolus), Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata), Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis) and Dunlin (Calidris alpina). It also regularly supports appreciable numbers of Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus).

South-east Asia provides very important staging sites for Artctic breeder shorebirds. © Neil Fifer

Written by Meredith Gutowski/WHSRN

The Chilean Ministry of the Environment has signed an agreement with Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences to collaborate on shorebird and wetland conservation efforts on the critically important island of Chiloé. Under the newly signed Memorandum of Understanding, the Manomet Center and the Chilean government will work together to implement the National Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Wetlands of Chile as well as the Migratory Shorebird Conservation Plan for Chiloé.

(Hudsonian) Whimbrel is a wintering shorebird along the Chilean coastline. © György Szimuly

Chiloé Island, located off the coast of southern Chile, is home to a great number of migratory shorebirds that fly more than 9,300 miles from the northern hemisphere every year to winter within the island’s coastal wetlands. These wetlands support 99% of the Pacific Coast population or 27% of the global population of Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) and 61% of the Pacific Coast population of Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus). Both shorebird species breed in North America and are considered of high conservation concern. The entire system of wetlands in eastern Chiloé was designated as a WHSRN Site of Hemispheric Importance in January 2011.

"Wetlands are a strategic resource for Chile, providing a wide range of environmental goods and services that allow us to sustain biodiversity and contribute to the welfare of our communities,” said Ricardo Sanchez Irarrázabal, Chile’s Assistant Secretary for Environment. “This new partnership with the Manomet Center will allow us to leverage resources and facilitate access to information for making effective conservation decisions for the wetlands of Chiloe as vital ecosystems to sustain populations of migratory birds."

The Chilean Ministry of the Environment and Manomet Center are working with local governments to prepare effective regulations that will protect Chiloé’s wetlands and designate municipal reserves on the island.

The partners also are promoting awareness and pride among local communities towards their island’s unique shorebird and wetland resources, through projects such as “Chiloé: Birds and Cultural Heritage.” The Ministry’s Regional Secretariat for the Lakes Region, together with the Municipality of Castro, is leading and coordinating the “Chiloé Wetland Roundtable: Everyone’s Heritage.” This public-private forum is designed to strengthen local capacity to promote and implement conservation actions.

Diego Luna Quevedo, Manomet Center’s Southern Cone Program Coordinator, added that shorebird conservation could also provide an economic boost to the community. “Beyond the importance of biodiversity, conserving wetlands as critical habitat for migratory shorebirds in Chiloé adds value to the area overall that will attract, expand, or enhance opportunities for tourism,” said Quevedo. “The work of this partnership will benefit the overall quality of life of the communities on the island.”

For more information, please contact Diego Luna Quevedo (diego.luna@manomet.org), Southern Cone Program Coordinator, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.

Written by Forest & Bird

Forest & Bird’s Seabird Conservation Advocate Karen Baird is used to seeing petrels and shearwaters skimming over the waves at sea, rather than having to identify their dead bodies encased in black tar-like lumps of oil.

New Zealand Dotterel is in breeding plumage. The future local breeding population along the Bay of Plenty is uncertain. © Neil Fitzgerald

Karen has been working in conservation for around 25 years and has never before been involved in a similar operation to the Bay of Plenty oil spill disaster.

Since the disaster unfolded, some of her work has been at the Oiled Wildlife Response Centre in Mt Maunganui, identifying dead birds that have been washed ashore in the Bay of Plenty. “When you start doing this work, it is really shocking, they don’t look like birds, they are totally covered in oil."

“They are brought into the centre in bags and you might find half a dozen stuck together in a tar-like mess.”

But Karen realises the identification work she and other scientists have been doing is essential to try to gauge the impact of the Rena oil spill and its likely long-term effects. “From a conservation point of view, it is important to have an idea of how many birds of a particular species died, especially for some of the more endangered ones,” she said.

“We know where the breeding colonies are, so it will be important to check the colonies of some of the worst affected species.”
The impact of the oil spill is likely to be felt well into the future.

“Many birds from the species that are breeding locally will lose this breeding season and there is the potential to lose next season as well, because some surviving birds are likely to remain in poor health or have damaged breeding ability.” 

The dead birds brought into the Oiled Wildlife Response Centre are the tip of the iceberg. "Most of the birds that get covered in oil probably sink and disappear from sight forever," she said. By late Thursday, more than 900 dead birds had been identified, comprising 23 species. These included 458 diving petrels, 198 fluttering shearwaters, 92 Buller’s Shearwaters, 38 White-faced Storm Petrels and 20 Little Blue Penguins.

Many are likely to have died by drowning, while others probably were killed by cold after the protective waterproof coating on their feathers was stripped away by the fuel oil. Among the victims of the spill, there have been some surprises. The species have included mottled petrels, blue petrels and Antarctic Prions, which are rarely found in the Bay of Plenty area. The response centre was treating around 100 live birds Friday, and looking after three penguin chicks and three seals.

There were also 13 unharmed New Zealand Dotterels being held in a temporary aviary after being taken off their beaches after the oil pollution spread east along the Bay of Plenty coast. New Zealand Dotterels are endangered, with around only 1,500 birds known to exist, and some of their main habitats are found along the Bay of Plenty coast.

Written by Kevin Hackwell/Forest & Bird

Forest & Bird said today the unfolding oil spill disaster in the Bay of Plenty is a stark warning about the potential catastrophe that could result from deep sea oil drilling in our waters.

Forest & Bird seabird advocate Karen Baird identifying a diving petrel killed in the Tauranga oil spill. © Kim Westerskov

“Forest & Bird believes the Rena disaster raises serious questions about our preparedness for an oil spill anywhere in our waters,” Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell said.

“In light of this disaster, the government needs to urgently rethink its plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling.”  

Maritime New Zealand has a responsibility under the Marine Transport Act to maintain the ability and equipment needed to respond to marine oil spills of all types and sizes.

The apparent inability to deal with an oil spill close to Tauranga – initially in good weather – raises important questions about how well Maritime New Zealand has met its statutory responsibilities.

“Authorities were unable to prevent New Zealand’s worst ever maritime environmental disaster unfolding from a grounding of a ship close to New Zealand’s busiest port,” he said.

The Rena oil spill suggests New Zealand would be incapable of coping with an oil spill resulting from deep sea oil exploration or production.

“Clearly we would not have the resources to cope with a major oil spill involving an oil tanker running aground or as a result of oil drilling accident offshore,” Kevin Hackwell said.

“When the immediate crisis is past, it is crucial we have a full inquiry into why the response was apparently so slow to get underway. We need to learn the necessary lessons to ensure we are better prepared in the future.”

There should be a moratorium on all deep sea oil drilling proposals until the results of an inquiry were known and its recommendations implemented.

“The damage to the Bay of Plenty’s coastal environment will be long lasting and it will be a long time before the area loved by so many New Zealanders is restored to the way it was.”

“The ongoing financial and environmental costs will be a bitter but important lesson for us all.”

Contact: Kevin Hackwell, Advocacy Manager, 04 801 2215, 021 227 8420

Editor: WorldWaders is in touch with the local NGOs and will report more news on the topic, especially because shorebirds are also affected by the disaster.

 

Written by Meredith Gutowski/WHSRN

The Lagoa do Peixe National Park, located on the southeast coast of Brazil, is hosting the IX Festival Brasileiro das Aves Migratórias [9th annual Brazilian Migratory Bird Festival] in the Municipality of Tavares on 13–16 October, 2011. The festival will include a wide variety of mini-courses about migratory birds, such as ecology and conservation, effects of climate change, citizen-science monitoring, photography techniques, bird-based tourism, and more. Participants will also be able to attend field trips and cultural activities.  

The 34,400-hectare (85,004-acre) Lagoa do Peixe was designated a national park in 1986 mainly for its importance to shorebirds; prior to this, plans existed to develop the area for tourism and shrimp farming. It was designated a WHSRN Site of International Importance in 1990 and a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 1993. The park provides critical stopover habitat to thousands of long-distance migrants, including 10% of the Atlantic coast population of Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) and at least 10% of the rufa subspecies of Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa)—both species of high conservation concern.

For more information, view or download the Festival Schedule (PDF, 550 KB, in Portuguese) or contact Jordano Pires Lopes (jordanopires@hotmail.com), Park official, Lagoa do Peixe National Park.

Written by Meredith Gutowski/WHSRN

From 11–15 August, Simon Fraser University-Burnaby near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, became the Western Hemisphere’s “headquarters” of shorebird conservation. During this time, more than 150 professionals and advanced-degree students gathered to attend Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group (WHSG) Conference IV. Participants came from 11 countries in this hemisphere, plus Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. The WHSG was formed in 2006 by a range of partners to collaboratively advance the work of shorebird scientists and conservationists throughout the hemisphere.

The event was a major success, thanks in large part to the inexhaustible dedication and efforts by conference coordinators Dov Lank and Ron Ydenberg. Both are professors at the University’s Centre for Wildlife Ecology and active members of WHSG. Dov and Ron, together with their many graduate students, colleagues, and local partners, masterfully handled a dizzying array of logistics to provide an excellent forum for advancing the work of WHSG.

Throughout the 5-day conference, there was a constant hum of activity in the meeting halls from participants attending and giving presentations, renewing old and making new friendships, and, through introductions, shrinking the distance between potential partners from opposite latitudes to that of a handshake; but above all, sharing ideas and learning from one another.

The conference had several purposes: to bring together in one location scientists from throughout the Western Hemisphere who are studying all aspects of shorebirds’ lives; to promote their collaboration, especially on range-wide studies and conservation actions for any given species; to integrate science into the implementation of various shorebird conservation plans and actions; and to generate enthusiasm and camaraderie among the shorebird community to ensure collaborative research and conservation into the future.

Several groups took advantage of the opportunity for its members to meet in conjunction with the conference, such as the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan Council and the Shorebird Recovery Project (SRP) team from Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences. For some on the SRP team it was their first time meeting in person!

In addition to the excellent plenary talks and presentations, the conference included an evening poster session, field trip to Boundary Bay, social gatherings, and a silent auction. As always, proceeds from the auction will go towards travel awards that will help Latin American students attend the next conference.

We appreciate the many colleagues and students who, during their presentations, thanked WHSRN, Manomet, or an SRP team member(s) for supporting them, for sharing ideas, for catalyzing a project.

Charles Duncan presents a plaque to 2000 Pablo Canevari Award winner Patricia Gonzalez. / Courtesy of Diego Luna Quevedo

Charles Duncan, Director of the WHSRN Executive Office at Manomet, had the honor of introducing Argentine biologist Patricia González for the final plenary talk of the conference, entitled “Science and Conservation of Migratory Shorebirds, A Case Study of Red Knots in Patagonia, Argentina.” Charles took the opportunity to also clear a long-overdue debt and presented Patricia with the plaque that now accompanies an award she received from Manomet in 2000! Patricia was the first recipient of the Pablo Canevari Memorial Award, but it was not until recently that we created a plaque to go with the award. She graciously received her plaque 11 years belated with both surprise and grateful tears.

The next WHSG conference will be in 2013 in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the generous invitation ofAsociación Calidris. The Manomet SRP/WHSRN team is looking forward to participating in the WHSG Conference V, collectively shaping the way forward for shorebird conservation at an enormous geographic scale. We have all committed to the requisite team challenge to learn (or relearn) to dance salsa by then—will you?

For more information, please contact Dov Lank (dlank@sfu.ca), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, or visit the WHSG Conference IV website.

Written by Dr. Bryan D. Watts/Center for Conservation Biology, College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University

Scientists at the Center for Conservation Biology have determined that a second whimbrel they had been tracking as part of a long-term migration study has been lost in a shooting swamp on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Goshen was lost in a heavily hunted swamp just north of the town of Port-Louis almost immediately upon arrival on the island. Although the transmitter has not been recovered the last satellite signals place the bird in the center of the shooting swamp. It now appears that both Machi and Goshen were shot in the morning of 12 September shortly after arriving.

Goshen and Machi were not migrating together but both stopped on the island after encountering different storm systems. Goshen flew through the east side of Hurricane Irene, landed on Montserrat, spent a week on Antigua and then flew to Guadeloupe. Machi flew through Tropical Storm Maria, landed on Montserrat and then flew directly to Guadeloupe. The two whimbrels were the first birds during the four-year tracking study to stop on Guadeloupe and both were lost within hours suggesting that the hunting pressure on this island is extremely high. This island has several isolated mangrove swamps that serve to concentrate the shorebirds for shooting. An estimated 3,000 hunters participate in the shorebird hunt annually. Currently, shooting parties on the island are not regulated and no information is available on the number of shorebirds taken. Without such information it is not possible to assess the potential relationship between hunting and ongoing population declines.

Whimbrels migrating along the western Atlantic coast have declined by 50% since the mid-1990s. The collaborative tracking study has successfully tracked 17 whimbrels via satellite since the spring of 2008.  The focus of this study has been to collect information that is vital to the long-term conservation of this population. Only 4 birds were being tracked during the 2011 fall migration season and half of those were lost in a single morning on Guadeloupe. The relationship between hunting pressures within the Lesser Antilles and population declines for the whimbrel and other shorebird species is unknown.

Most of the hunting activity conducted in the Lesser Antilles appears to be recreational. A video produced by a hunter on Guadeloupe within the same swamp where Goshen was lost illustrates the habitat, the shorebirds, and the shooting activity.

The tracking project is a collaborative effort between The Center for Conservation Biology, The Nature Conservancy, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, and Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.

 

Written by Fletcher M. Smith/Center for Conservation Biology, College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University

Scientists at the Center for Conservation Biology learned today that a whimbrel that they had been tracking via satellite for 2 years as part of a migration study had been shot by a hunting party this morning on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe (French West Indies). The bird named “Machi” had just flown through Tropical Storm Maria and made landfall on Montserrat before flying to Guadeloupe. Machi had been tracked for over 27,000 miles (44,000 km) back and forth between breeding grounds in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of Canada to wintering grounds on the coast of Brazil. The bird was tracked on 7 nonstop flights of more than 2,000 miles. During the spring of 2010, Machi flew more than 3,400 miles directly from Brazil to South Carolina. Machi serves as an example of birds that interact with many landscapes and cultures throughout the year and a reminder of how international cooperation is required for their continued existence.

Machi being fitted with satellite transmitter in August, 2009. © Bart Paxton

Machi after release. © Bart Paxton

Guadeloupe, Martinique and Barbados continue to operate “shooting swamps” some of which are artificial wetlands created to attract migrant shorebirds for sport shooting during fall migration. It is estimated that tens of thousands of shorebirds continue to be taken annually by hunting clubs on just these three islands. This practice is a throwback to more than a century ago when gunners hunted shorebirds throughout the Americas. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was passed, in part, to protect dwindling numbers of birds that migrate across country borders. Operated as a French overseas department, both Guadeloupe and Martinique are part of the European Union and are not party to the Treaty. Barbados, once a British colony is now an independent state and also not party to the Treaty. The last Eskimo Curlew known to science was shot on Barbados in 1963. Shorebird hunting within these areas continues to be unregulated to the present time. Conservation organizations continue to work toward some compromise that will reduce pressures on declining species.  

Machi is at Box Tree Creek where the bird it was captured on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in August 2009. © Barry Truitt

Worldwide, many shorebird populations are experiencing dramatic declines. Most of the migratory shorebird species breeding in eastern North America and the Arctic pass over the Caribbean region during the late summer and early fall on their way to wintering grounds. When they encounter severe storms the birds use the islands as refuges before moving on to their final destinations. Hunting clubs take advantage of these events and shoot large numbers of downed birds following the passage of these storms. During the 2009 and 2010 fall migrations, Machi did not stop on any of the islands but flew directly from Virginia to Paramaribo, Suriname before moving on to winter near Sao Luis, Brazil. It appears that the encounter with Tropical Storm Maria caused the bird to stop on Guadeloupe. 

Tracking map of Machi (2009-2011).

Machi contributed a great deal to what we know about whimbrel migration along the western Atlantic. Satellite tracks of this bird over 4 full migrations (http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm) linked breeding and wintering areas, defined migration routes, identified important migration staging areas, and demonstrated how these birds interact with major tropical systems. This tracking project is a collaborative effort between The Center for Conservation Biology, The Nature Conservancy, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, and Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.