News

After the fieldwork period (2013-2017), the European Breeding Bird Atlas (EBBA2) coordinated by the European Bird Census Council requires further resources for data analysis and production of the publication. Funding from 2018 onward has still not been secured, and therefore a Species Sponsorship for EBBA2 has been launched. It’s easy: you choose a species or several ones, and your names will be acknowledged on the website below the selected species at the EBBA2 website. Basic sponsorship is 50 euros, but you can opt for a premium Sponsor or Super sponsor and get more benefits. A sponsorship could be a perfect Christmas gift, especially if you opt to sponsor a shorebird! You can choose your favourite shorebird species or opt for another “orphan” shorebird. Around 30 shorebird species have not yet attracted a sponsor such as Black-tailed godwit, Ruff, Little ringed-plover! Top sponsored shorebirds are Lapwing and Great snipes; they already accumulated 5 sponsors! Choose your species there:   More information at: https://www.ebba2.info/2018/12/03/christmas/   The EBBC European Bird Census Council is working on the second edition of the European Breeding Bird Atlas that will be published by 2020 at the latest. Project results will be both deposited in an atlas book but also in a new atlas website presenting all breeding data occurrences and trends of all European bird species censused between 2013 and 2017 in more than 50 European countries, including European part of Russia, Caucasus and Turkey. More information on the EBBA2 website at: www.ebba2.info [caption id="attachment_11741" align="aligncenter" width="330"] Oystercatcher pilot map comparing occurrences of the species in EBBA1 and EBBA2 (grey dots: EBBA1 and EBBA2; grey dots: only EBBA2; red dots: only EBBA1). Interactive pilot maps are available at https://mapviewer.ebba2.info/.[/caption]   Featured image: Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola, 08-July-2018 Finland ©Guillaume Bigayon.

The committee for the Small Grant that IWSG have awarded since 2016, have decided to prolong the period in which members can apply for a grant (equaling £ 1000). The aim is to support shorebird studies that otherwise will not go ahead. This could many types of wader (shorebird) related projects: ecology, conservation studies, pilot studies looking at biological aspects of a single or a few species, or counts of staging birds at unexplored sites. Or something different that we haven't thought of. The grant can be applied for by all IWSG members. We have prolonged the deadline to 15th December 2018. After this deadline, the committee will read all the applications and chose a worthy recipient for the grant. For details, please refer to the grant pages: [embed]https://www.waderstudygroup.org/projects/small-grants/[/embed] The application form 2018: https://www.waderstudygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IWSG-grant-application_28112018_form-Word.doc  

News authored by Vojtěch Kubelka: We have lived with the assumption that many migrating shorebirds can fly over large distances to breed in the Arctic to utilise lower nest predation among other advantages, e.g. plenty of food during the short Arctic summer, continuous daylight or lower parasite prevalence. However, a new study: Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds published in Science has discovered recent rapid increase in shorebird nest predation, especially in the Arctic, breaking the historical latitudinal gradient with the highest nest predation in the tropics. Higher nest predation rates are tightly associated with more pronounced global warming and climatic instability at the same locations. The climatically driven crash in abundances and cyclicity of lemmings at many Arctic places just prior the year 2000 probably play an important role in the recent pattern, because without lemmings, Arctic predators exploit more an alternative prey, e.g. shorebirds nest. Therefore sad but important message is that the Arctic nowadays represents an extensive ecological trap for migrating shorebirds from nest predation perspective. The topic has already received broad media coverage, reaching probably more than 7 000 000 people, a few selected English links are listed here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46124547 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-may-curtail-shorebirds-need-to-fly-north/ https://www.audubon.org/news/the-arctic-no-longer-safe-haven-breeding-shorebirds https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/conservation/increase-shorebird-nest-predation-climate-change/ https://sivtelegram.media/the-arctic-has-become-a-dangerous-place-for-birds/63476/ https://www.ehn.org/shorebird-egg-theft-is-becoming-a-big-problem-in-the-arctic-and-climate-change-is-behind-it-2618708808.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-may-have-made-arctic-deadlier-baby-shorebirds?&campaign_name=third-party-newsflo-newsflo&dgcid=raven_md_feed_email https://www.the-scientist.com/image-of-the-day This achievement would not be possible without great researcher community investigating nests of shorebirds for decades and publishing their findings. International Wader Study Group has its unique and irreplaceable merit in the fact that our shorebirds enthusiastic group has been intensively working according to unified methodologies for decades all over the globe. The current findings are worrying because on the top of well-known problems of shorebirds at stopover sites precipitating into the deterioration of adult survival, the same species are now squeezed by the low reproductive success too. Therefore it is not surprising that majority of shorebirds are already declining globally – out of 192 shorebirds with known species trend (remaining 53 species are classified with unknown trend), 110 species (57.3%) are declining, 60 species (31.2%) are stable and only 22 species (11.5%) were assigned as globally increasing, the situation is even worse for Arctic breeding shorebirds (data manually extracted from BirdLife International Data Zone: https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search). Nest predation is very dynamic in the Arctic, with a high inter-annual and inter-locality variation. I wish shorebirds to profit from low nest predation in the vast Arctic areas again and experts say that if coming winter is good, the year 2019 could be after a long time again a good lemming year at least in Scandinavia, but general average trend over last decades, unfortunately, suggests unfavourable future for shorebirds. As shorebirds enthusiasts, we are responsible for the fate of shorebirds and conservation should matter to us. It is difficult to directly mitigate large-scale impacts of climate change, but every little helps – from one nest direct protection to set up large national reserves preventing habitat loss at staging areas or promoting international cooperation in shorebirds and their habitat conservation. As scientists, we should take our time to disseminate our results among conservationists and policymakers, as well as we should translate our finding for the wider public. Our work does not end by publication and our voices about shorebird problems must be heard, because general public awareness is the key for turning scientific knowledge into effective conservation. Shorebirds deserve our attention from the conservation perspective, especially now, during the era of rapid changes in the global environment. Let’s do our best to secure future for our admirable shorebirds.   Vojtěch Kubelka Scientific Coordinator of the ÉLVONAL SHOREBIRD SCIENCE https://elvonalshorebirds.com Executive Committee member of International Wader Study Group   [caption id="attachment_11686" align="aligncenter" width="330"] Field crew in front of the caterpillar vehicle (vězděchod) during Arctic shorebird fieldwork in Chukotka, Russia, ©V. Kubelka.[/caption]   Featured image: Incubating Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris) in the Golden Ridge, facing uncertain future, Chukotka, Russia, ©V. Kubelka.

Released by David Stroud and Stephen Grady on 9 November 2018 for the Wader Study Group: (Download PDF version here) The Ramsar Convention’s 13^th triennial Conference of the Parties (COP13), recently held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, was attended by 143 of its 170 Parties and provided an opportunity to reflect on the state of the world’s wetlands and set the international conservation agenda on these important ecosystems for the next three years and beyond. A highlight was the launch of Ramsar’s Global Wetland Outlook (GWO), a comprehensive assessment of the status and trends of wetlands and their species worldwide, drivers of change, and both the actual and required conservation responses.  It makes for sobering reading, concluding that:

• “Although still covering a global area almost as large as Greenland, wetlands are declining fast, with 35% losses since 1970, where data are available.
• Wetland plants and animals are therefore in crisis, with a quarter of species at risk of extinction.
• Quality of remaining wetlands is also suffering, due to drainage, pollution, invasive species, unsustainable use, disrupted flow regimes and climate change.
• Yet wetland ecosystem services, ranging from food security to climate change mitigation, are enormous, far outweighing those of terrestrial ecosystems.”

Whilst the Convention came from waterbird conservation roots, it has always promoted a much wider vision of wetland conservation, including ecological character and wise use, and their role in delivering vital ecosystem services.  As this international treaty approaches its 50^th anniversary in 2021, issues under discussion at COP13 were broad.  The current focus is perhaps less on species conservation needs, and more on addressing those issues ultimately impacting on wetland condition.  A major driver for current conservation action is ensuring the ability of wetland ecosystems to achieve biodiversity and sustainable development targets at all levels (local to global), including providing people with food, improved water quality, protection from natural disasters, and increasing resilience to climate change. For example, multiple Resolutions consider and promote ecosystem-based climate change adaptation and mitigation in the context of both peatland restoration and also the conservation of coastal ecosystems (especially those with so-called ‘blue carbon’).  Whilst these superficially seem to be of little relevance for waders, delivering ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement including via ‘nature-based solutions’ in wetlands, has the potential to unlock significant new funding sources for wetland restoration and conservation. With respect to waders, after much discussion, the COP adopted a comprehensive Resolution on coastal conservation issues drafted by the Philippines.  Following similar Ramsar Convention Resolutions adopted in 1999 and 2008, it provides a decadal reflection on the state of the world’s coasts.  Among its many elements, it calls for:

• the establishment of a multi-sector global coastal forum to raise the profile of coastal conservation needs, especially with other relevant multilateral environmental agreements, governments, the private sector, relevant international and national non-governmental organisations, experts and other stakeholders;
• governments to urgently designate remaining coastal wetlands of international importance as Ramsar Sites, and to form ecologically connected site networks with other key sites under other designations, for example building on the success of the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative (with World Heritage Sites);
• the development of guidance related to the sustainable economic use of ‘working coastal wetlands’ – for example traditional salt production, including the importance to maintain the ecological character and functionality of these habitats;
• the removal of perverse incentives that may encourage the loss or degradation of coastal wetlands;
• the implementation, where feasible, of restoration of coastal habitats including promotion of managed retreat;
• the encouragement of greater engagement with the public to communicate the importance of inter-tidal wetlands and other coastal habitats, for example by the promotion of festivals that celebrate the arrival of migratory species; and
• the draft 5th Ramsar Strategic Plan (to be considered at COP 14 in 2021) to duly consider the conservation and wise use of coastal wetlands.

For those working in coastal conservation, Ramsar’s coastal Resolution (and the complementary Resolution 12.25 adopted by the Convention on Migratory Species last year) provides an explicit statement of the critical needs from the international community to protect these ecosystems.  Yet, as with all such agreed mandates, such Resolutions are only useful to the extent of their implementation, so do read it and advocate for its actions. David Stroud and Stephen Grady, Joint Nature Conservation Committee   Featured image: Seocheon Tidal Flat, Republic of Korea (Ramsar Site no. 1925), ©Seochon-gun county.

The 5th WCWW will take place on the 3rd and 4th November 2018. "Make a note in your diary to join in the fun! To take part is as simple as A,B,C. A. Go out and see waders/shorebirds wherever you are in the world. B. Send us an email telling us what you have seen and where. C. Look for your birds on the species list and your name on the roll of honour on this website. You will also receive the WCWW e-newsletter special to your email address with all the results, lists and the roll of honour.  It is that easy; no registration required just good old-fashioned bird watching... Oh! And an email. waderquest@gmail.com"   Wader Quest is a charity that aims to involve local groups and communities in Wader conservation. Read more about Wader Conservation World Watch: here  

A stretch of mangrove and mudflat extends 200 km east of Panama City in the Republic of Panama. In some places, at low tide, the mudflat extends out an astonishing 4 km. In other places, where the wetland sits right next to a metropolitan area of over 1.5 million people, the mangroves are literally shadowed by condominium towers. This is the Bay of Panama. [caption id="attachment_11616" align="alignnone" width="700"] Part of the Bay of Panama showing the recently grown mangrove fringe and the offshore mudflat. (photo: Karl Kaufmann).[/caption] It is said that the word Panama is derived from an old indigenous word meaning abundance. The Bay of Panama lives up to its name. This wetland supports over a million shorebirds annually¹. It is one of the most important sites for migratory shorebirds in the Western Hemisphere and it is a designated a site of Hemispheric Importance in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) and a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. In this issue of Wader Study, Kaufmann and colleagues from the Panama Audubon Society describe 5 years of monitoring work on this incredible wetland². They recorded 23 species of birds and estimated winter peak counts totaling more than 300,000. That is a lot of birds to count over long stretches of coastline. How did the researchers manage to census (count and identify) all those birds over such a large area? First, they divided the larger area into sites and subsites that could be accessed from the ground by foot or car. This yielded three main sites: Panama-Juan Diaz, adjacent to Panama City, Pacora-West just to the west of the Río Pacora, and Pacora-Chico between the Río Pacora and the Río Chico. They then divided these sites into 26 subsites covering a total of 21.2 km between Panama City and the Río Bayano. These sites are also part of the Migratory Shorebird Project, composed of partners from 12 countries along the western flyway. By breaking the sites into subsites and with the help of a few volunteers the Panama Audubon staff could census all three sites with teams of two to four people during 5 to 6  neap tides in January and early February from 2013 to 2017. Surveys began when the rising tide pushed birds off their feeding grounds 500 to 4000 m offshore to within 300m of shore where they could be counted. Neap tides were used to provide the maximum amount of time for birds to be within 300m of the shore and so that the exposed mud in front of the mangroves would be dry enough to walk on. To help with counting shorebirds of different types, the researchers also classified species into groups by size: small, medium and large. The details can be found in Table 2, but examples of small shorebirds include Western and Semipalmated Sandpiper, of medium shorebirds include the Black-bellied Plover and Short-billed Dowitcher and of large shorebirds include Willet and Whimbrel. Most birds were generally counted one-by-one, but to count the huge numbers of small birds, up to 200,000 in a flock, the researchers counted them in groups of 100 usually with a scope and using a hand-held tally counter. During one survey at the Pacora-Chico site the birds sat still long enough for the researchers to take a series of 51 overlapping telephoto pictures (which they estimated to cover about two thirds of the birds present at that site). They digitally stitched the photos together, superimposed a grid, and counted the birds that way. They took this to be their best estimate of numbers at that site. It is notable that Kaufmann and colleagues chose to census birds during the northern winter. Shorebirds are most abundant in the Bay of Panama during fall migration and most bird monitoring has taken place then^1,3,4. Yet Kaufmann and colleagues point out that fall numbers are constantly changing as birds pass through, whereas winter monitoring provides data on a relatively stable population for the season and a good estimate of the local wintering population. It can also serve as an index of habitat quality for all seasons. The authors report that small shorebirds were the most abundant shorebird type in the bay comprising 95.5% of all shorebirds counted over the five years. This group of small sized birds was about 68.7% Western Sandpipers, 14.1% Semipalmated Sandpipers and 13.5% Semipalmated Plovers. The remaining birds were all medium or large shorebirds composed mainly of Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Black-bellied Plover, and Short-billed Dowitcher. [caption id="attachment_11617" align="alignnone" width="700"] Birds of different sizes in front of new mangroves at the Panama-Juan Diaz site. In the right foreground are Marbled Godwits and Willets. The smaller shorebirds are Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers. (photo: Karl Kaufmann).[/caption] An interesting finding of the study is how the birds distributed themselves over the shoreline west to east and urban to rural. Four of the five common medium and large species, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Black-bellied Plover, and Short-billed Dowitcher were concentrated closer to the city at Panama-Juan Diaz in the west. In contrast, small shorebirds were almost 15 times denser (linear density) at Pacora-Chico about 20 km east of Panama-Juan Diaz. This uneven distribution might mean that different species have different high tide habitat preferences. Panama-Juan Diaz, which large and medium sized shorebirds seemed to prefer, is now an urban site. Over the past 30 years the proportion of coastal mangroves has increased, going from mangroves occupying 51% of the coast in 1987 to 89% in 2016. The biggest changes happened between 2003 and 2013, when low lying wetlands inland from the coast were filled in and developed. During this period, the entire shoreline advanced seaward by 150 to 300 m, including part of the waterfront of the oldest part of the city, Panama Viejo, founded in 1519. This filling and development, coupled with sand mining up to and including the channel of the Río Pacora likely provided the source of sediment that fueled the seaward advance of the coastline and the growth of mangroves. The new mangroves may provide attractive roosting areas for Willets and Whimbrels at high tide and paradoxically insulate them from human disturbance. The mudflats seaward of the mangroves are often inaccessible compared to the beach at Pacora-West, which still has an active sand extraction operation, or the beach at Pacora-Chico which fishermen commonly drive along. While this urban habitat may attract large and medium sized shorebirds, it may also expose them to higher levels of pollution than they would experience farther from the city. At high neap tides the small shorebirds prefer the mudflats adjacent to the beaches without mangroves at the Pacora-Chico site further east. This site has been relatively unchanged in terms of mangrove coverage which was 14% in 2000 and 12% in 2016. Large numbers of small shorebirds once roosted in the low-lying, but mangrove free, wetlands closer to the city, but these have been developed into condominiums and subdivisions. The tall buildings now adjacent to Pacora-Juan Diaz, but absent at the other two sites, provide roosting areas for overwintering Peregrine Falcons which are known to drive shorebirds away from otherwise acceptable sites. [caption id="attachment_11618" align="alignnone" width="700"] Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers at the Pacora-Chico site in the foreground and Panama City in the background about 20 km away. (photo: Karl Kaufmann).[/caption] Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers at the Pacora-Chico site in the foreground and Panama City in the background about 20 km away. (photo: Karl Kaufmann). A final question is whether the total number of birds using the monitored area changed over time. In the five-year study, Kaufmann and colleagues found no change in the populations of any species except for Marbled Godwit, which decreased. Over the longer term, they found more shorebirds than expected for the winter period, compared to numbers found over larger areas in a previous aerial survey in the fall of 1993³. However, it is difficult to determine whether this is due to differences in methodology or to actual population changes. Regardless, this research shows that the Bay of Panama hosts more winter birds than previously understood and that it remains an important area for shorebirds.

1. Watts, B.D. 1998. An Investigation of Waterbirds within the Panama Canal Zone and the Upper Bay of Panama (lay summary). 68 pp. Center for Conservation Biology, College of William and Mary, USA.
2. Kaufmann, K., R. Miró, Y. Díaz, M. Caballero, S. Carty & Panama Audubon Society. 2018. Monitoring winter shorebird populations in the Bay of Panama – 2013-2017. Wader Study 125(2): 97-106.
3. Morrison, R.I.G., R.W. Butler, F.S. Delgado & R.K. Ross. 1998. Atlas of Nearctic shorebirds and other waterbirds on the coast of Panama. Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa.
4. Buehler, D.M., A. I. Castillo & G. R. Angehr. 2004. Shorebird counts in the Upper Bay of Panama highlight the importance of this key site and the need to improve its protection. Wader Study Group Bulletin 105:56–64.

PDF is available for download here: https://www.waderstudygroup.org/article/11591/

The paper:

The refuelling quality of stopover sites of temperate zones determines the ability that long-migrant arctic shorebirds can cope with climate-related changes in the Arctic. That is the main insight coming from the paper of Eldar Rakhimberdiev (NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Lomonosov Moscow State University) and his co-authors from Netherlands, Russia and Alaska recently published in Nature Communications: Rakhimberdiev, E., Duijns, S., Karagicheva, J., Camphuysen, C.J., Dekinga, A., Dekker, R., Gavrilov, A., ten Horn, J., Jukema, J., Saveliev, A., Soloviev, M., Tibbitts, T.L., van Gils, J.A., Piersma, T., van Loon, A., Wijker, A., Keijl, G., Levering, H., Jan, V., Heemskerk, L., Knijnsberg, L., van Roomen, M., Ruiters, P., Admiraal, P., Veldt, P., Reijnders, R., Beentjes, W. & Castricum, V.R.S. (2018) Fuelling conditions at staging sites can mitigate Arctic warming effects in a migratory bird. Nature Communications, 9, 4263. In their study, the researchers focused on the effect of advances in Arctic phenology on spring schedules and, possibly, population dynamics of godwits at the flyway scale of the taymyrensis population. They show that due to climate change, Godwits need to arrive earlier and earlier in Siberia each year in order to match with the peak abundance of insect. Whether or not they are able to adjust their time or arrival is determined by the density of their main prey (i.e. lugworm) at their stopover, the Wadden Sea. [caption id="attachment_11543" align="aligncenter" width="494"] The paper of Rakhimberdiev et al. is somewhat unique, combining various long-term data set (i.e. satellite transmitters, overwintering prey, arctic breeding conditions, survival analysis, spring schedules) gather along a whole flyway of a long-distance migratory shorebird. Figure retrieved from Nature Communications at https://go.nature.com/2pSNR3p.
(c)Nature Communications.[/caption]  

The "story behind the paper":

Read also the “story behind the paper” published in Nature Ecology & Evolution community blog written by Pr. Theunis Piersma (University of Groningen & NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) which started by a telephone call in 1984, from a farmer and specialist potato grower named Joop Jukema: https://go.nature.com/2pSNR3p [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="504"] The "story behind the paper” published in Nature Ecology & Evolution community blog" share the real story behind Eldar and al. paper, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows. This picture shows Eldar Rakhimberdiev searching for the first shorebird nests at Lake Taimyr, 23 June 2005 (74°N, 100°E). (c)Mikhail Soloviev, retrieved from Nature Research Ecology & Evolution Community forum at https://go.nature.com/2pSNR3p.[/caption]   Featured image: Ringed bar tailed godwit, (c)Global Flyway Ecology – Team Piersma. https://teampiersma.org/

The IWSG once again invite members to submit proposals for small projects that might not otherwise go ahead. The application deadline is 1st December 2018, and a decision will be made no later than 1st May 2019. The 2018 grant will be £ 1000. The call is now open and details can be found at: IWSG Small Projects Grants   [caption id="attachment_8912" align="aligncenter" width="330"] The 2016 IWSG Small Project Grants was attributed to Glenda D. Hevia  ©Darío Podestá. Glenda D. Hevia collecting data from Two-Banded Plover nests during fieldwork at Península Valdés, Patagonia Argentina.[/caption]  

[caption id="attachment_11453" align="aligncenter" width="330"] Spoonies in keeping box, ©Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.[/caption] Featured image: Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Calidris pygmaea.®JJ Harrison, Pak Thale, Petchaburi, Thailand, January 2013.

Read the article of the pulitzer-nominated author Scott Weidensaul published in the Autumn 2018 issue of Living Bird magazine:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/losing-ground-whats-behind-the-worldwide-decline-of-shorebirds/

    Featured image: Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa, September 2018, Romania. ©G. Bigayon