Greetings Frank, Steven et al,
I agree with the points you've raised below Frank. I completely agree with the
necessity of banding, even though I recognise the stress placed on individual
birds. This situation (stressing, or potentially even killing, some individuals
for the benefit of many, or the environment) is common to much ecological
research.
I think it's worth contemplating "we don't know what we don't know" in the
context of this discussion.
Hooroo,
Eric
On 25/02/2013, at 3:49 PM, "Frank O'Connor"
<<>> wrote:
Steven Creber wrote:
> It's always interesting to me that the pro-banding
> lobby argue that there is insufficient proof provided
> by opponents to justify claims that banding does more
> harm than good. I'd like to see the shoe on the other
> foot. How long have we been banding waders in Australia
> - fifty years maybe? How long does it take to establish
> the life expectancy of a Red-necked Stint or its
> migration patterns? If banding hasn't delivered the
> goods by now, so to speak, isn't it time to move on to
> a better practice or technology? What evidence is there
> that banding is actually doing anything to halt the
> wholesale destruction of wader habitat in Asia for
> example? There is unarguably an attrition rate with
> banding - maybe now is the time for banders to actually
> justify their existence as wader numbers continue to
> dwindle alarmingly.
If Steven did a little research, he could easily find out that the banders are
doing a lot to publicise the results and implications of their work. In
Australia the AWSG (Australasian Wader Study Group) publishes the journals
Tattler and Stilt. They contribute articles to a number of publications
worldwide include the Wader Study Bulletin. They regularly attend conferences
in Australia and overseas and present their results.
They spend a lot of time and effort networking with projects in the USA
(Delaware Bay), UK (The Wash), Russia, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong,
Thailand, Indonesia, etc. Volunteers from these countries are a regular part
of the North West Australia expeditions. This cooperation between countries is
invaluable.
They publish their findings in reports, and make submissions to governments.
Their work has led to funding for projects such as the Shorebirds 2020 project
in Australia, and the Global Flyway Network.
We don't know the movement of the shorebirds well enough. Especially the
breeding grounds for some species. Recent work has involved the use of
geolocators on Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling and Greater Sand Plovers.
Very recent work has been the use of geolocators on Red Knot and Great Knot to
document their use of the Yellow Sea. This is to be able to provide a direct
response to the reclaiming of many of the mud flats.
Previous work has involved the use of satellite transmitters to find out more
about the migration of Eastern Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit.
Ongoing work involves monitoring the breeding success, and population dynamics.
It is too late when you notice something has happened. You must have ongoing
monitoring to be able to respond.
Work has involved the monitoring of avian born diseases. This was very
important at the time of bird flu to prove that the migratory shorebirds were
not bringing this disease into Australia. There was a totally misleading
report about shorebirds being a threat several years back on the ABC Radio
morning news, which was very quickly refuted by Dr Clive Minton on the AM
program shortly after. The person making the claim turned out to be someone
working for the company that makes Tamiflu. This disease monitoring is ongoing.
Work has involved the analysis of feathers to study the isotopes and whether
this can be used to determine where the birds have stopped over during
migration.
You may not like banding, but the majority of the actual work on shorebirds,
and the majority of the support for them is done by the people who have
developed their knowledge through banding. This work is highly respected. Dr
Clive Minton is a Fellow of BirdLife Australia (and a Life Member?). He has
been awarded their medal for outstanding research (Hobbs Medal?). He has been
recognised by the Federal Goverment with the award of an AM (or possibly
higher?).
Noone takes the survival of shorebirds more to heart than the people involved
in the expeditions. They have put their time, effort and money into it. They
don't just talk about it ...
_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
<http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au/>Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email :
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