Waders need love too

Waders need love too ~ 30th April 2016 ~ 

Waders, or shorebirds as they are also known, are found all around the world and come in all different shapes and sizes. Many of the species that breed in Arctic and temperate regions are highly migratory, while those found in tropical areas are usually resident, or only move in response to rainfall.

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

The smallest species of wader is found in the Americas and is the Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla). It measures just over 13cm and can weigh as little as 15.5g. The largest species of wader is thought to be the Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis), an East Asian-Australasian species, which measures about 63cm and weighs about 860g.

Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)

Both species are migratory: Least Sandpipers breed in the Arctic tundra and migrate approximately 2,000 miles to their wintering ground in South America. Far Eastern Curlews spend the breeding season in eastern Russia, including Siberia and Kamchatka and most migrate down to Australia, but some go as far as New Zealand, stopping off at mudflats in the Yellow Sea on the way.

Waders are very charismatic birds, from the Sanderlings running along the shoreline like crazy wind-up toys, to the Phalaropes spinning in circles whilst feeding...they're just so entertaining you could spend hours watching them!

Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius)

Unfortunately, however, many wader species are in trouble. Due to the great migrations that many species undertake, they face numerous threats along the way, in their breeding and wintering grounds as well as at their staging locations en route. Human activities such as urban expansion, land reclamation and hunting as well as global climate change pose serious threats to waders.

Red-capped Plover (Calidris ruficollis)

Climate change is affecting the seasonal timings of things like ice melt, plant growth and therefore prey availability and consequently this affects all aspects of the birds' lives, including breeding success, ability to get into condition for migration & breeding as well as survival rates. In places like the China Yellow Sea, where the human population has seen a massive increase over the last few decades, land reclamation for agriculture and other activities are having a detrimental effect on migratory waders. This is because they use the mudflats there as stopover points at which to feed up before carrying on up to northeastern Russia from Australia or vice versa. (If you want to find out a bit more about the Yellow Sea stopover sites and the waders that use them, then this is a good place to start).

Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)

But there is hope. There are fantastic organisations across the flyways doing their utmost to identify the key threats to wader species and working out how to help them. One such organisation that does super work all around the world is Wader Quest.

Wader Quest is a bird conservation charity based in the UK. They organise events around the UK (such as the Wirral Wader Festival) as well as promoting events overseas all in an effort to raise awareness of the threats facing waders across the flyways as well as to raise as much money as possible to support wader conservation projects.

Dunlin (Calidris alpina)

Today's Norfolk Bird Race is an annual event that raises money for a particular bird conservation charity and this year's chosen charity is Wader Quest. If you would like to support Wader Quest via the Norfolk Bird Race then you can find the information here. Alternatively, if you'd like to support Wader Quest directly you can find the details on their website here. For just £5.00 a year you can become a friend of Wader Quest, support their hard work and also receive their brilliant newsletter!

Oriental Pratincole (Glareola maldivarum)

Here are a few other organisations you might consider supporting, all of whom are doing brilliant things for waders across the flyways:

• International Wader Study Group
• Australasian Wader Studies Group
• Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network
• British Trust for Ornithology
• RSPB
• East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership

Wader flock, 80 Mile Beach, Australia

NWA Wader & Tern Banding Expedition 2016 PART 2

North West Australia Wader and Tern Banding Expedition PART 2 ~ 6-28th February 2016 ~ 

I will pick up where I left off in Part 1 and start from Friday 19th February.

19th Feb was another 'rest day' so instead of being up early to go and set the nets, hide and shade, we were up early to go birding. Katherine, Peter and I kicked off the day at the Broome Poo Ponds (where else?!). We spent around 1 1/2 hours there, notching up 30 species, before departing at around 9.30. Highlights included Pink-eared Duck, Hardhead, Zebra Finch, Striated Pardalote and Red-tailed Black-cockatoo.

Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus)

After the Poo Ponds, we headed round to the Port in hope of seeing Brown Booby, but that wasn't to be. We only stayed for 10 minutes or so but in that time saw Greater & Lesser Crested Terns, Sooty Oystercatcher, a dark morph Eastern Reef Egret and a number of other species. We then decided to head back to Broome Bird Observatory (BBO) for a quick second breakfast, before picking Joris up and heading out onto Roebuck Plains in search of Yellow Chat.

Broome Port Jetty

We were up on the Plains for about 1hr 45 and in that time saw lots of birds, including loads of Spotted Harriers and Brown Falcons, Tree & Fairy Martins, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Golden-headed Cisticola and our target species, the Yellow Chat. After having great luck with the Yellow Chats, we made our way to the highway and headed to a place called Yulleroo Scrape & Forest. There we spent a good hour and saw lots of birds, including a few new additions to the trip list - Long-tailed Finch, Dollarbird, Diamond Dove and Black-tailed Treecreeper!

Yellow Chat (Epthianura crocea)

Diamond Dove (Geopelia cuneata)

Yulleroo Scrape

Yulleroo Forest, home to Black-tailed Treecreeper

Black-tailed Treecreeper (Climacteris melanurus)

After this we headed to Taylors Lagoon, not far up the highway. This was a haven for birds and we spent ages scanning the shore of the Lagoon for birds hiding in the long grass. We came up trumps with some more Pink-eared Duck, Wood Sandpiper, a Snipe species (probably Swinhoe's but can't rule out Pintail), Marsh Sandpiper, Black-fronted Dotterel and a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper with a plain yellow flag on its leg. After spending a while at Taylors Lagoon we decided we should probably start to head back to BBO. We didn't see much on the way back, apart from Red-collared Lorikeet, Red-winged Parrot, Peaceful Dove and a few more Dollarbirds all along Crab Creek Road.

Taylors Lagoon 

Mating dragonflies

Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida)

An effective birding team - covering all angles at once

So now that I've rambled for a while, let me get back to the shorebirds! We stayed at BBO for 10 night and had 8 catching days there. The catching there was a bit more targeted than it was at Eighty Mile Beach so it was more a case of quality over quantity. Quite remarkably though, even with more targeted catching, we still managed to retain our 100% firing and catching success rate, which is very good going!  We caught a good variety of species, including some that we hadn't caught many or any of at Eighty Mile Beach, such as Grey Plover, Eastern Curlew, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Oystercatcher and Greenshank, so that was really cool!

Minton's Strait (I think), Roebuck Bay

Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis)

Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis)

Minton's Strait (I think), Roebuck Bay

In addition to shorebird banding, we also got the chance to do some bush bird banding while we were at BBO as we were able to set up some mist nets next to the water baths and kept our fingers crossed. We had the nets open most afternoons and caught a variety of species including Bar-shouldered Dove, Peaceful Dove, Double-barred Finch, Rainbow Bee-eater and Little Friarbirds, but by far the most numerous species caught were Rufous-throated and Brown Honeyeaters.

Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus)

Rufous-throated Honeyeater (Conopophila rufogularis)

Bar-shouldered Dove (Geopelia humeralis)

Double-barred Finch (Taeniopygia bichenovii)

As well as all the birds I've already mentioned across the two posts, we saw heaps of other birds species, as well as other wildlife  while we were out and about. Below are some pictures of the wildlife we encountered on the expedition (from Eighty Mile Beach & Roebuck Bay), as well as some scenery shots:

Australian Bustard (Ardeotis australis)

Brown Falcon (Falco berigora)

Oriental Plover (Charadrius veredus) 

Australasian (Richard's) Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae)

Brolga (Grus rubicunda)

Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles)

Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel)

Spotted Harrier with prey (Circus assimilis)

Brown Falcon (Falco berigora)

Brown Goshawk (Accipiter fasciatus)

Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus)

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel)

Eastern Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla tschutschensis)

Variegated Fairywren (Malurus lamberti)

Moth sp, Anna Plains

Moth sp, Anna Plains

Moth sp, Anna Plains

Moth sp, Anna Plains

Ex Brown Snake(?)

Stimson's Python (Antaresia stimsoni)

Northern Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua scincoides intermedia)

Gilbert's Dragon (Lophognathus gilberti)

Gould's Goanna (Varanus gouldii)

Hermit Crab, Eighty Mile Beach

Crab sp, Eighty Mile Beach

Northern Nail-tail Wallaby (Onychogalea unguifera)

Great Northern Highway

Our last sunset at Eighty Mile Beach

Sand dunes of Eighty Mile Beach

Sunset over Crab Creek Road, Broome

Mangroves of Roebuck Bay

For anyone thinking about attending next year’s expedition, my advice would be: do it! It is an absolutely incredible experience and one that I am sure you won't regret. The locations you visit are amazing, the people you meet are brilliant and so knowledgeable and the shorebird spectacles you are fortunate enough to witness are truly breathtaking. I know that if time and finances permit, I will hopefully be returning next year for some more sun, sand and shorebirds!!

Most of the team at Eighty Mile Beach