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Endangered spoon-billed sandpiper chicks hatch in UK...

Lia

Banned
The video is great. These little chicks are adorable...

Critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper chicks have been hatched in the UK for the first time.


There are less than 100 breeding pairs of the bird species left in the wild across the globe.


So far 14 chicks have been born at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire in a captive breeding scheme.


Twenty eggs were brought over from Russia to the centre, which already has 12 fully-grown spoon-billed sandpipers.


It was a long and risky seven-day journey via helicopter and plane - one of the eggs cracked during an airport inspection and had to be sealed using nail varnish!


The very cute birds use their distinctive spoon-shaped bill to dig into mud to find food.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/18830907
 

Lia

Banned
The picture of the chick in the link, is the video... I just checked it, and it worked fine. :unsure:
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
That just makes the puzzle pieces move around for me. Must be my player settings or something.
 

CityGirl

Silver Member
SUPER Site Supporter
Reading about these sandpipers and their decline makes me think of the Bob White Quail. Their call was so familiar to me as a child and now when I go home, I never hear them. I think I've heard one in the last 15 yrs.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rTqtp_8pMM"]Bobwhite Quail call - YouTube[/ame]
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
I have quail and doves all over the place. We actually have an abundance of birds on my place as it provides everything they need. Found a blue bird nest in a pine tree today while cutting back some sumac.
 

Lia

Banned
Wow! From what I've read about these critters, their numbers have dropped perilously in the last decade-90%. I hope conservation efforts are successful. Did you know these birds make a 5,000 mile migratory flight to Bangladesh and Myanmar?



Right, as you say CG… :smile:

The endeavours of these conservationists are admirable. However, the Spoon Billed Sandpiper is still not out of the woods even now. This rehabilitation will, as stated above from the article, depend upon many things. Gloucestershire hardly comes close to experiencing the extreme climatical conditions that these Waders generally prefer to breed in; and whilst all living creatures are adaptable, ideally the change would need to be gradual, I suspect.

So, it will be vital that the conservationist’s find those breeding, stopover and wintering habitats, as quoted in the article (I mean, it’s not as easy as implied in the article, to alter, or rectify any geographical area of Siberia) that are so urgently needed, for their colonisation. This all takes time, a good deal of time, and meanwhile, we have rather left it almost to the last breath to save them from extinction.

Perhaps it would have been a far more viable enterprise to have attempted to save this rare and beautiful creature when there were a thousand breeding pairs left, not merely a hundred. Let’s hope the conservationists succeed in their endeavour…
 

fogtender

Now a Published Author
Site Supporter
Very neat thread Lia, hope they do survive! Nature is fickle at times and somtimes a positive nudge from those that care can make a differance.
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
I wonder what happens or can they ever go out in the wild on their own. With no parents I would think it tough for them to go out. But maybe today they can be taught with all the new technologie or research. Thanks for posting this Lia. :thumb:

I am involved or was many years ago in helping the Blubirds and Tree Swallows make a come back by putting up nest boxes and controlling their predators the Common House Sparrow. I used to document all of my hatchlings but don't any more but I do keep my boxes up. I have some neat pictures but am not on my computer.
 
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