Epic journey

A Spoon-billed Sandpiper reared by a WWT conservationist in Russia was sighted by a friend in China just weeks later. The young bird was identified in Jiangsu, more than 3,000 miles from the Russian east coast, where it was raised by aviculturalist Jodie Clements. Jodie, working with the Birds Russia field team, looked after the Spoonie, known as ‘White 4H’ after the colour and code on its leg flag, during a field trip in August. Amazingly, it was picked up by teammate Kane Brides while monitoring birds in China a month after being released into the wild.