Saving the Spoonbilled Sandpiper
A new migration route for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper has been discovered and new sites for the bird identified thanks to a partnership between German optics brand Leica and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT)
Efforts to save this criticallyendangered bird are paying off
In 2013, Leica teamed up with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) to support its ‘Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper’ project. As well as financial help, Leica provides important optical equipment used to locate the nest sites of Spoon-billed Sandpipers and record their behaviour. Last year saw an extraordinary winter of discoveries for those of us lucky enough to be part of the groundbreaking Spoon-billed Sandpiper tracking project. The story starts on the Tiaozini mudflats in Jiangsu province in China. In October 2016 three wild adult Spoonies were fitted with the world’s smallest satellite tags, each costing £3,000 and weighing only 1.9g. They were also given engraved yellow leg flags from which they take their names, ET, HU and CT.
A population in decline
This critically endangered species has seen a dramatic drop in numbers in recent decades, with latest estimates putting the breeding population at between 210 and 228 pairs. They have never been a common species, with only 2,700-2,800 pairs ever recorded in the 1970s. We know Spoonies are threatened by the destruction of intertidal mudflats along the Yellow Sea through land claim and illegal hunting along the flyway, but with only sketchy information available, it’s challenging to know where to focus our conservation efforts. We simply don’t know where 50% of these birds winter. And we’ve only identified breeding sites for 25% of them. Where is the other 75% breeding? It’s this incomplete knowledge of key staging, wintering and breeding sites, that’s hampering conservation efforts. By tracking the birds on their southward migration we’re hoping to shed new light on where they go, to know where to focus our efforts and what action is needed to protect them.
But this is just the start….
The presence of the tagged birds at these sites has resulted in increased ground survey efforts and led to more Spoonies being found. This increased focus has meant we’ve been able to identify new threats and work to remove them. In Fujian, recent ground surveys revealed extensive illegal mist netting in areas used by ET and CT. Conservationists are already working with local authorities to remove the acute threat and prospects of success are looking good. We’ve also identified the biggest factor for causing the immediate short-term decline between 2010 and 2016 – catching and selling the birds for food by underprivileged people on the wintering grounds in Bangladesh and Myanmar. To tackle this issue, we set up systems of alternative livelihoods and a recent analysis shows population decline has slowed to 9% per year, which previously was at 26%.
But what about the Spoonies’ breeding sites?
Because tagging is only temporary, to build up a complete picture of the birds’ movements, we need to tag the birds at different stages of their annual migratory cycle. This spring, we’ve tagged two more birds to track them as they head 5,000km north via the Yellow Sea to their
Words: Dr Baz Hughes, WWT’S head of conservation action
breeding grounds in Far East Russia. We don’t know the exact route they’ll take or where they stop to refuel. We’ll be hoping to identify unknown staging grounds and find out where the other 75% of Spoonies breed each year. We’re hoping the two transmitters attached will last until the birds reach their autumn moulting grounds, when they should fall off during the moulting process. Looking further ahead we plan to track another three birds on their southward migration during the summer, from their Russian breeding grounds to key staging and moulting areas in the Yellow Sea.
How well has the project been supported?
None of this work would have been possible without the valuable support of Leica. Its significant funding contributions have directly helped with two key projects: they are the conservation breeding programme and also the headstarting programme. As well as funding, Leica provides key optical equipment including the Leica X and V-lux 4 cameras, the Ultravid 10x32 HD and 10x42 Hd-plus binoculars and Apo-televid 82W spotting scopes, used primarily for surveying large flocks of waders at distance on mud flats or at close range in and out of vegetation in Russia. In China and Myanmar, the optical equipment is used for surveying birds to produce population estimates and read leg flags. In China, they’re used for identifying good sites for catching birds to attach leg flags, satellite tags and monitor the birds’ positions in relation to catching apparatus, such as cannon nets. In Russia, the equipment is used to survey birds as they arrive on the breeding grounds, watching the birds locate their nests, keeping an eye out for predators and observing the headstarted birds post-release to monitor their health and when they migrate. Foggy conditions are often prevalent at the start of the season and with the birds being more active at dusk, this equipment is perfect for light gathering power. The financial aid directly contributes to the costs of maintaining our ‘ark’ population of Spoonies at WWT, set up because we thought the species was going to become extinct. We set up a captive population in 2011/2012 by importing eggs and chicks from Russia. They bred for the first time last year. Two pairs of Spoonies laid a total of seven eggs, with two chicks, one from each pair hatching. Unfortunately, both died within a six-day period and subsequent post mortems identified a calcium deficiency as the root cause of the problem. With the breeding season at WWT Slimbridge starting, watch this space as we await more chicks with bated breath.
Looking further ahead we plan to track another three birds on their southward migration during the summer, from their Russian breeding grounds...
What about the headstarting project?
We did our first trial release in 2012, collecting eggs from the wild and rearing chicks in captivity, before releasing them when they could fly at around 21 days. In our first year, we released nine birds and a total of 111 birds have been released to date. This represents 20% of the natural productivity of the whole population of around 200 breeding pairs, not counting the total of 600-700 Spoonies, including young birds and non-breeders. By rearing birds artificially, they’re not subject to the natural pressures of predation and weather. A Spoonie on average only rears 0.6 of a four-egg clutch, whereas we can get it to three artificially. We collect eggs we know will hatch within a five-day period, so we can complete a single release. The birds normally leave the aviaries within an hour and a half and are monitored until they migrate. Spoon-billed Sandpipers have an interesting breeding strategy. Females do most of the incubation, but as soon as the eggs hatch, the females migrate, with the males leaving just before the chicks can fly. As the chicks don’t rely on their parents to show them the way, this is partly the reason why we thought the headstarting programme would be a success. We’ve had a total of seven headstarted birds return to the breeding grounds, which is great news. We’re about to run a survival analysis to see whether headstarted birds are surviving as well as their wild counterparts. Re-sighting rates are about the same as you’d expect to see from wild birds, so this suggests they are, however we’ll only know for certain in July. Leica funding has been crucial for us to continue this programme. It costs us approximately £28,000 to run the conservation breeding programme, plus £5,000 for headstarting and £100,000 in staff costs. As you might imagine, looking after Spoonies and rearing chicks is a full-on job, taking round the clock care. As the Spoonies are so iconic, we’ve been able to secure major grants from the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative and the IUCN Save our Species Fund. RSPB and WWT have also provided significant funding and we appreciate the many donations received from WWT and RSPB members, plus birding groups worldwide.
• For more information, visit: saving-spoon-billed-sandpiper.com