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Subject: RE: Decline of small waders
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:58:06 +1000
Hi Marilyn,
Great to hear about your concern about the decline in our migratory waders.
"Yes I am concerned about the plight of the waders. Is it true that the
eigteen year old record was a curlew sandpiper with a single metal band, not a
colour flag. My concern is that a plastic leg flag or even worse multiple
flags l(not a single aluminium band) are particularly destructive to small
waders (size of Lesser Knot or smaller).. What is the oldest return for a
plastic colour leg flag (not band) on a small wader? What is the oldest return
for multiple plastic leg flags on small waders."
.
Hope you have been following the progress of the satellite tagged Bar-tailed
Godwits via our website.
"Yes, I agree it is interesting but my point is about the population decline of
small waders caused by plastic leg flags. Clearly larger birds are more
likely to carry a leg flags/bands/transmitter successfully".
The good thing about satellite tagging is that a handful of birds can tell us
more that the tens of thousands of birds flagged in the past, however, it is
because of flagging we know so much about migration routes and staging areas,
enabling us to look in the right places during field work in the Asia Pacific
over the past 20 years or so.
"Yes, I agree"
To get back to the decline in the numbers of waders. The worst hit are species
for which we do not have good information on migration routes, such as the
Curlew Sandpiper in Australia.
" Is it true that many thousands, more than 35,000 Curlew Sandpiper have been
flagged over the past 10 years?"
This species is in serious decline and we need to find out why. Interestingly,
the Red-necked Stint seems to be fine with numbers pretty stable over the past
25 years.
"That means the Red-necked Stint population is large eneogh to absorb losses
caused by leg flags"
There are some species that are in decline for very obvious reasons – hundreds
of square kilometres of mudflats every year in China and Korea. Loss of habitat
in Australia is also of concern. Incremental losses over the past 60 years has
seen huge declines in the Hunter River estuary and also around Sydney.
"Yes and I agree the habitat must be protected at all costs but the loss in
Australia is relatively small compared to the area of available habitat. Also
habitat ldestruction does not target rare and endangered species in the same
way that leg flaggers do"
It will be fantastic when we reach the stage in technology to be able to do as
you suggest,
"I am suggesting that an equal sample of birds should be fitted with microchips
compared with leg flags/ bands. etc and the number of retraps compared to
identify the real losses caused by leg flags. Invite some independent
observers to scritinize"
In the meantime stay tuned to the APSN website (starting up again in a few days
after a bit of a quiet period, wrestling with internet technology to enable us
to send news alerts for four or five thousand subscribers at a time.
Best wishes,
Phil Straw
Coordinator Asia Pacific Shorebird Network
"Leg flagging is entrenched and prolific around the world, (ringing stations
etc) and taught as gospel to the blissfully ignorant. It seems the potential
impact is never questioned. Leg flagging programs are a major hazard to the
conservation management of waders"
Now lets discuss something more interesting such as wader catching methods.
Regards
Marilyn
From: Marilyn Davis
Sent: Thursday, 4 October 2007 9:46 AM
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Subject: Decline of small waders
Importance: High
Hello Birding-Ausers
The following link describes the major cause for decline of our small waders.
http://www.shorebirdnetwork.org/leg_flags.html
Very good, isn't it. Imagine two large leg flags and a metal band on a
phalarope (relies on its legs to swim), a sanderling (needs its legs to run) or
a stint (needs its legs to walk through floating algae). Make no mistake;
impact on targeted rare and endangered waders from this destructive practice is
just as bad as any random habitat destruction.
But leg flagging has not been acknowledged as a threatening process for birds?
Because such a large number of waders are now leg flagged, why won’t the
perpetrators consider research that will demonstrate impact such as a
comparative study using microchips? If a comparative sample of birds were
micro chipped and the same number uniquely leg flagged, retrap scanning would
soon prove my concerns.
Yes, micro chipping small birds has risks and must be expertly administered.
Sure, microchips are not visible but they can be electronically scanned and
strategic siting scanners near roosting sites would probably give better
results than population biased random field observation.
Nearly all of the leg flagged birds disappear without trace on their first
migration but the billygoats responsible refer to a pathetically small number
of retraps and field observations to justify their hideous work.
These are facts and you should be aware of the destructive consequences caused
by leg flagging before supporting this sort of 'bird conservation'.
I apologise for being forced to use this method to place a post on birding-aus
but Russel has banned me from birding-aus. So much for free discussion or does
he agree with leg flagging.
Regards
Marilyn Davis
Via Katherine NT
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