New Spoon-billed Sandpiper population found
 

Adult at nest previously unknown nest site (© Chris Collins/Wildwings)
 

Wildwings Tour Leader Chris Collins was a guide on the recent expedition organised by Heritage Expeditions to the North-east corner of Russia to look for Spoon-billed Sandpipers. Chris told Rare Bird Alert that there were a number of elements to the role the trip had in supporting the work of Birdlife International, RSPB, WWT and the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recovery Taskforce in protecting this critically endangered species.

As well as visiting Meinypil’gyno, the largest known breeding area for Spoon-billed Sandpiper where all the clients saw Spoon-billed Sandpipers on their breeding grounds, Heritage Expeditions’ ship, the Spirit of Enderby, also transported the eggs, chicks and WWT team to Anadyr for the new captive breeding programme which will be based at Slimbridge.

Another key goal of the expedition was to search for new breeding sites for the species and we were highly successful, with the teams finding three territories of Spoon-billed Sandpipers at a previously unsurveyed location on the remote Chukotka coastline.
 

With numbers so low even finding one additional new nest is significant (© Chris Collins/Wildwings)
 

I was fortunate to be leading the shore team that located the first of these and this will always remain with me as one of those all time great birding experiences. Radioing Rodney Russ (Expedition Leader) and the guys from the Recovery Taskforce (Christoph Zockler and Evgeny Syroechkovskiy) to give them the news of our discovery was a very special moment and it was a real privilege to have played a small part in the success of the expedition.


The ship will be returning to the area in 2012 and anyone interested in participating can find more information on the WildWings website.
 

 

Chris Collins, Wildwings
12th Jul 2011