Spoon-billed Sandpipers in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire
Well, not quite, but on Sunday 5th May runners and a lone cyclist will be traversing these 2 counties in aid of the Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust Conservation breeding project for the Spoon- billed Sandpiper.
could be extinct in 5-10 years.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Breeding Program is probably the most ambitious and challenging conservation projects of all time. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is one of the most critically endangered species in the world with a rapidly reducing population size. This beautiful and enigmatic species breeds in the most remote far eastern corner of Siberia. It makes an incredible journey south in the winter through China and Korea towards its wintering grounds of SE Asia and Bangladesh. The obstacles it faces on its way are enormous.
The WWT in conjunction with Bird Life Russia a have embarked on a mammoth project to establish a captive breeding program here in the UK at Slimbridge.
This link gives you a flavour of what this is all about.www.saving-spoon-billed-sandpiper.com
WWT desperately need on going funds so Oriental Bird Club members are making their own epic journeys by running a 35mile stretch of the North Norfolk coastal path from one bird reserve to another. OBC council member Mike Edgecombe will be cycling from one of the flagship WWT reserves at Welney, Cambridgeshire to Salthouse in Norfolk. All funds will go via the Oriental Bird Club directly into this project so you can easily support this and help save this species –
DONATIONS can be given through www.justgiving.com/michael-edgecombe
As Mike Edgecombe says “I have been fortunate enough to have seen this beautiful species in the wild and I hope future generations will be able to enjoy the same”.
So please dig deep and donate now.
Thank you.
April 2013
