2007 News Snippets

(Dec, 2007) The Journal of the Victorian Wader Study Group was released at the Annual General Meeting of the VWSG in October. The contents can be seen by section by clicking on the relevant title below (note page numbers beside section titles)

Index

2 Mission Statement

3 VWSG Office Bearers

4 Summary of VWSG Activities to September 2007

9 Total number of waders caught - VWSG 2006

10 Total waders caught by species 1975 - 2006 - VWSG

11 New and retrapped waders caught each calendar by VWSG

12 Total waders caught each six months 1979-2006 - VWSG

13 Location of waders caught in Victoria and SA

14 Number of waders processed by VWSG each month to Dec 2006

16 Number of waders leg-flagged in Victoria (orange)

17 Number of waders leg-flagged in SA (orange/yellow)

18 VWSG Field Work Programme 2007 (see "Calendar/Events page")

20 Recoveries of waders banded in Victoria

26 Recovery of waders banded in SA

28 SIghtings of waders leg-flagged in Victoria. Report No 14

34 Sightings of waders leg-flagged in SA. Report No 7

38 Tern recovery report 2006/07

42 Tern breeding and banding report 2006/07

44 Sightings of Victorian flagged Terns 2006/07

46 Inter-colony movements of the Crested Tern (Sterna bergii) as a result of food resource quality and availability. Abstract from Honours Thesis, University of Melbourne

47 South Australia Team Report July 2006 - June 2007

51 King Island Report 2007

55 Shorebirds (and other birds) seen during a trip to southern Africa

57 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - Calidris acuminata

58 The History and achievements of the Victorian Wader Study Group

75 Australasian Shorebird Conference Newcastle, NSW- conference outcomes

76 Conservation Report 2006/07

80 Saemangeum - Republic of Korea - one year on

82 Publications and presentations of VWSG data

85 VWSG Financial Report & VWSG Membership List

A paper copy of the VWSG Bulletin can be obtained by becoming a member of VWSG.

Contact our Treasurer to become a member.

Note that there are several tables and a graph of data on leg-flagged wader totals, by year and species, recoveries as well as catch totals from various sites across Victoria and South Australia that can be found on the "About Us" page under the 'Catching Totals -Cannon and mist netting' and 'Leg Flagged Waders in Victoria' headings.

Next Shorebird Id & counter training day, WTP (Werribee), Sun 20 th Jan - Jo Oldland, Shorebirds 2020 Programme Manager reports that they are planning on having another shorebird ID & counter training day done at the WTP at Werribee on Sunday 20th Jan.

They also hope to have a schedule of count dates and sites throughout Vic for Jan/Feb 2008 and will be getting people to allocate themselves to a site(s) to assist with counting.<p>

The details aren't finalised yet but Jo thinks high tide is at 12:30 pm so they'll probably meet down there a couple of hours beforehand. They have then organised to use the WTP Discovery Centre facilities for a couple of hours in the afternoon to have a bit of an ID and counting workshop/presentation.

It should be great, hope you can all make it!

(Dec, 2007) Keep an eye out for E5, a Bar-tailed Godwit carrying a satellite transmitter. Last seen doing well on the NSW Central Coast.

(June, 2007) Clive Minton has written a comprehensive history of the Victorian Wader Study Group and its achievements since its inception. The paper has been published in Stilt Vol 50, 2006. The full article can be viewed by clicking here. Congratulations Clive on capturing this valuable information and recording it for all to use and learn from.

(May, 2007) Time to tune in again (see March 2007 posting for earlier news) to the migrations of satellite-tagged Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica)! As part of the Pacific Shorebird Migration Project, godwits were tagged recently in New Zealand before starting their migration to Alaska. Hopefully many of you will have seen the fantastic 10,000 km flights some of these birds made from NZ to the Yellow Sea (on

http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html">http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html). For those who haven’t, now is a good time to start looking. Two birds have just started the next leg of their migration after a refuelling stop at Yalu Jiang, the godwit hotspot in the Yellow Sea just west of the China/North Korean border. The birds appear to be riding westerly winds towards and past Japan, where they will pick up the back of a high pressure ridge that should provide good winds as they head towards Alaska. The batteries are holding out well on these birds so hopefully we can track them right to their breeding grounds. Files are updated daily on the usgs website, so please check in regularly and see what develops!

forwarded from:

Phil Battley, Massey University, NZ

Bob Gill, US Geological Survey, USA

Nils Warnock, PRBO Conservation Science, USA</a></font>><p>

(April 2007) Clive Minton has provided some preliminary results on breeding success based on the percentage juveniles caught in south-east Australia (SEA) and north-west

Australia (NWA) for the 2006/07 season. The results for SEA are complete

but there is still some further data to be incorporated into the NWA

figures before they are finalised. Later this month the data in the

attached tables</a> will be incorporated into a paper for publication, as

usual, in the Arctic Birds Newsletter, Stilt and the VWSG Bulletin.<p>

South-East Australia

The data comes from catches made between the 15th November and the

25th March (28th February for Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Curlew

Sandpiper) at various locations along the coast of Victoria and, as

usual, in the southeast corner of South Australia. This year, for the

first time, part of the Ruddy Turnstone sample came from King Island,

in Bass Strait.

For the wader populations which spend the non-breeding season in SEA

2006 was the year we "had to have"! After a very good breeding season

in 2005 (except for Red-necked Stint) it always seemed a possibility

that 2006 would have the opposite result. And it did, though as usual

there were exceptions.

Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling and Great Knot had an almost total

breeding failure in the Arctic summer of 2006 - the worst outcome

ever recorded for all three species. Curlew Sandpiper also fared

poorly (yet again, unfortunately). Red-necked Stint appear to have

had an average breeding season, which is an improvement on the two

previous successive poor outcomes. The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper result

was also average. It is several years now since they had a poor

breeding season.

The only good results in SEA in 2006 were from Red Knot and

Bar-tailed Godwit, where both had quite good breeding success. It is

interesting that these two species breed in the northeast part of the

wide breeding range from which birds come to SEA - the Red Knots in

Chukotka and the Bar-tailed Godwits in Alaska. We shall be looking in

due course to see whether weather conditions/predation levels in

these regions were relatively more favourable than elsewhere.

North-west Australia

Most of the data was collected at Roebuck Bay, Broome, and at 80 Mile

Beach during the November 2006 NWA Wader and Tern Expedition. It is

supplemented by two subsequent cannon-net catches at Broome. Data

from a third (much larger catch) is still to be incorporated.

The breeding success of most wader populations which spend the

non-breeding season in northwest Australia was average to poor

overall, though only Greenshank fared as badly as the worst species

in SEA. Curlew Sandpiper, Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone and Oriental

Plover all seem to have had poor breeding seasons in 2006. The

results for Great Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Red-necked Stint, Terek

Sandpiper and Greater Sand Plover were all very close to the average

for the previous eight years.

Grey-tailed Tattler stood out as being the only species which

experienced a good breeding season in 2006. This result (almost twice

the normal level of juvenile birds in catches) was consistent in

catches at both Broome and 80 Mile Beach - a total of eleven samples.

Again we will be looking closely to see if we can identify a reason

for Grey-tailed Tattler breeding success being so different from

other species and so good overall.

Note that the results for Red Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit differ

markedly from those for the same species in SEA. The NWA populations

come from different breeding areas - in the New Siberian Islands and

in Yakutia respectively.

Overall Conclusion

With just three exceptions, the wader populations of SEA and NWA

experienced an average to very poor breeding season in the Northern

Hemisphere summer of 2006. Overall it was probably the poorest

breeding season for Australian waders since comprehensive percentage

juvenile monitoring began (in 1979/80 in SEA and in 1998/99 in NWA),

except for the worldwide disastrous year in 1992.

Acknowledgements

The dedicated efforts of the large numbers of people who took part in

fieldwork in SEA and NWA over the November to March period is

enormously appreciated. These results would not have been obtained

without the repeated, targetted, efforts to obtain satisfactory

samples for all the main species monitored annually.

(April, 2007) To see details of an opportunity for volunteers to join the next AWSG Expedition to north-west Australia (Broome & 80 Mile Beach) to catch waders click here.

April, 2007) The following is a summary of the results from research on the effects - predicted and actual - of the loss of a wader habitat (in this case by reclamation), which appeared in the March 2007 edition of "British Birds". The original article is from "Ecological Applications".

"For a long time we have tended to assume that when waders are displaced from a habitat, by some major change which makes it unsuitable, they redistribute themselves in other adjacent habitats. We also assumed that overall numbers would gradually be reduced due to consequent higher mortality and/or lower breeding success, so that in the end the net effect was a loss to the world population equivalent to the number of birds displaced from the lost habitat. Also, in some actual or proposed habitat changes, proposals have been made for creating or managing other areas in a way which would partially, or completely, offset the expected negative effects.

This new publication (Ecological Applications 16(6), 2006. pp 2115-2222) details the development of an earlier model which was used to try and predict the effects of habitat change on populations of Oystercatchers in the UK. John Goss-Custard and his team have now tested the new model using data on Redshank displaced from Cardiff Bay in South Wales when a controversial barrage was completed in 1999. This resulted in a loss of inter-tidal feeding habitat that had been regularly used by 200 Redshank. Almost all the birds in this population had been previously marked with individual colour band combinations.

After reclamation all the birds moved to an adjacent area of mudflats, where the population rose from 300 to 500. The model predicted that the mortality rate of the combined population would increase by 3.65%. Monitoring over subsequent years showed that it actually increased by 3.17%, very similar to the predicted level. Further simulations helped to demonstrate that mortality was density dependent and that it had risen both as a result of increased interference between feeding birds and because of the reduced amount of available prey in the mudflats.

Another interesting finding was that if a proposed offset area, equivalent to only 10% of the area of lost mud flats in Cardiff Bay, had been created and managed appropriately (with tidal dwell times) it could have provided enough food for all the birds displaced from Cardiff Bay and ultimately lost to the world population.

This predictive model and proof that it is realistic is going to be of considerable value in helping to mount future cases against destruction of important wader habitats. I'm sure that those involved, for example, in the Saemangeum lost battle and now fighting the new Geum Estuary proposed reclamation in South Korea will be utilizing this new information to the full. And it allows us to more confidently say that the net long-term effect of the loss of feeding habitat for waders is a loss to the world population equivalent to those birds which were occupying that habitat. Whilst in the example quoted here it was thought to be mainly due to increased mortality it is more likely that at key stopover locations (such as the Yellow Sea) much of the loss may be caused via reduced breeding success."

(March, 2007) Data from a recent South Australian trip shows that both Sanderling (only 0.5% juveniles) and Ruddy Turnstone (4%) experienced very poor breeding seasons in the 2006 Arctic summer. These are the lowest figures every recorded for either species in 15 years of monitoring. However, the group was able to generate a huge number of retraps (218 Sanderling and 47 Turnstone) and these will be extremely useful in helping calculate survival rates.

(March, 2007) Clive Minton received news on March 27 that the experiment of putting satellite transmitters on Bar-tailed Godwits in New Zealand to track their northward migration has been a resounding success.

One bird has just reached Yalu Jiang, at the northern end of the

Yellow Sea in China, in a non-stop flight from Miranda Nature

Reserve, in the Firth of Thames in North Island, New Zealand. The

distance between these two locations is 9575 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.

These hugely exciting results are a reward for the perseverance and

development effort put in by the Alaskan/New Zealand team over the

last three years. It appears they have now really developed a

satellite package which is not significantly affecting flight

capabilities. We are thus seeing results which are typical of what

really happens when birds are migrating.

Only 10 to 15 years ago people were sceptical that godwits and knot

from north west Australia fly 5,500 km. non-stop to Chongming Dao in

the Yangtse Estuary. Then in the last ten years it has gradually

become more apparent that Bar-tailed Godwits fly up to 11,000 km.

non-stop on southward migration from Alaska to New Zealand and

Australia. But that was considered to be aided by birds taking off

from Alaska in weather conditions which gave them an extremely strong

tail wind in the early stages of that flight. To have now shown that

Bar-tailed Godwits are also capable of flying a similar distance on

northward migration, without apparent exceptionally favourable wind

conditions, is fantastic. We have long suspected that the very high

weights reached by Bar-tailed Godwits, and several other species,

before they leave south east Australia in March/April indicated an

intention to try and reach China in a single non-stop flight. It

would have been impossible without satellite telemetry to prove that

this really can be achieved.Check the flights on the web by clicking here <http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html >

These results are a huge step forward in our understanding of

the flight capabilities of migratory waders and therefore of the

migratory strategies they employ. Congratulations to the whole US/NZ

team on this hugely successful exercise.