[obol] Bar-tailed Godwits (not RBA)

[Ed McVicker]

I thought some might be interested in Nial Moores' message posted on the 
Kantori listserve (Japan) about satellite monitoring of migrating 
Bar-tailed Godwits. It appears none are heading our way, but one of the 
tagged birds flew non-stop over 11,000 km in nine days!

Ed McVicker
Portland

-------- Original Message --------

Dear All,

With apologies for cross-posting (and resending),

Satellite tracking has again proved the impossible: the migration of eastern 
Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica baueri.

In the past few years, researchers in Alaska (coordinated by Dr. Bob Gill, 
US Geological Survey) and in New Zealand (coordinated by Dr. Phil Battley, 
Massey University New Zealand, and SSMP co-manager) have teamed up to track 
the migration of Alaskan-breeding Bar-tailed Godwits to their non-breeding 
areas – following their direct flights across open ocean all the way from 
Alaska to Australasia!

This February, the same team then put satellite transmitters on 16 more 
Bar-tailed Godwits in New Zealand , and the results are perhaps even more 
staggering. Unassisted by strong tail winds, the first of these birds set 
off from New Zealand in mid-March, and have already arrived in the Yellow 
Sea .  One bird even continued all the way north up the Yellow Sea to the 
extremely important Yalu Jiang National Nature Reserve (on the Chinese side 
of the border with DPRK), after a non-stop flight from Miranda Nature 
Reserve, in the Firth of Thames in North Island, New Zealand .

According to a mail from Dr. Clive Minton (Australasian Wader Studies 
Group):

>>The distance between these two locations is 9,575 km, but the actual track 
>>flown by the bird was 11,026 km. This is the longest known non-stop flight 
>>of any bird. The flight took approximately nine days.  At least three 
>>other Bar-tailed Godwits also appear to have reached the Yellow Sea after 
>>non-stop flights from New Zealand . Several others are still in flight and 
>>following the same track. Only two (out of 12 satellite-tagged birds which 
>>have so far migrated) appear to have not made their intended goal. One 
>>diverted westwards and has stopped in the Philippines . The other only 
>>reached Papua New Guinea and, after moving to two other locations there, 
>>has now tracked south to Queensland ....<<

Two of the original 16 (numbered E1 and Z0 in white, on a large black 
leg-flag) are now in South Korea . They have been joined by E0, a female 
banded at the nest by Bob Gill on the Yukon Delta in 2005. In the northern 
winter of both 2005/2006 and 2006/2007, E0 was sighted back in New Zealand . 
  On March 26th this year, she was then found again -- though this time by 
Geoff Styles (Birds Korea) at the Geum Estuary, a site in South Korea 
presently threatened with reclamation. The Geum Estuary is immediately 
adjacent to the worlds largest ongoing reclamation, the 40,100 ha Saemangeum 
project.

The story of the godwit migration does not end here in the Yellow Sea of 
course. Like millions of other shorebirds dependent upon the Yellow Sea 's 
tidal-flats, they need to refuel once more, before making yet another 
massive migration to far northern breeding grounds. This spring, how will 
they fare?

Before the completion of a 33-km long seawall (on April 21st, 2006), the 
40,000 ha Saemangeum area (on the Korean west coast) had become recognised 
as the single most important shorebird site in the whole of the Yellow Sea . 
This year, much of the Saemangeum area is now drying out or permanently 
flooded as part of the reclamation process, and most of the benthos have 
died. It is very likely that huge numbers of shorebirds, after undertaking 
some of the longest and most demanding migrations of any species on the 
planet, will  no longer be able to find sufficient food there to refuel 
adequately.

Over the next two months a total of up to 50 volunteers will be at 
Saemangeum and the Geum Estuary, participating in Year Two of the Saemangeum 
Shorebird Monitoring Program (SSMP).  The SSMP is a three-year program 
(2006-2008) conducted by Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies 
Group, to monitor and publicise the impacts of this massive Saemangeum 
reclamation on populations of migratory shorebirds. Fieldwork entails 
repeated shorebird counts, habitat assessment and in 2007 and 2008, 
increased sampling and analysis of benthos.

During SSMP survey work in April and May 2006 (before the impacts of the 
reclamation had reduced the shorebird food supply, and based on a simple 
addition of peak counts of individual species), we counted an absolute 
minimum 198,031 shorebirds in Saemangeum, 15 of which (including Bar-tailed 
Godwit and the Endangered/Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper) we 
found in Ramsar-defined internationally important numbers. We also counted a 
minimum of 82,990 shorebirds at the still-threatened Geum Estuary, including 
internationally important numbers of at least 13 species. These included 
some of the highest counts made at any single site worldwide of the globally 
Endangered Nordmanns Greenshank, and over 11, 000 Bar-tailed Godwit.

With South Korea set to host the next Ramsar Convention conference (October 
28 to November 4, 2008), now is the clearly the time to use our growing 
understanding of these extraordinary birds to move decision-makers towards 
fulfilling national and international obligations, to conserve rather than 
to destroy these vital coastal wetlands and the amazing biodiversity they 
support.

For regularly updated information (with maps) on the Bar-tailed Godwit 
migration, please go to:

http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html

And to offer support or to follow the Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring 
Program through April and May:
Http://www.birdskorea.org (English)
and
Http://www.birdskorea.or.kr (Korean)

With thanks to Dr. Bob Gill (US Geological Survey), Dr. Phil Battley (Massey 
University New Zealand, and Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program 
co-manager), Dr. Clive Minton (Australasian Wader Studies Group), and Geoff 
Styles (Birds Korea) for doing the work and providing so much of this 
information to a wider audience.

Nial Moores
Birds Korea , South Korea

E-mail (personal): spoonbillkorea at yahoo.com
http://www.birdskorea.org
http://www.birdskorea.or.kr
Mobile phone:82-(0)11-9303-1963
Birds Korea: Dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats in 
Korea and the wider Yellow Sea Eco-region.