WHSRNews: 14 April 2010 (in full)

New WHSRN Site Designated – the First in Uruguay!

Laguna de Rocha, Uruguay, is located on the Atlantic coast of South America.

The 16,500-hectare (40,800-acre) Laguna de Rocha forms part of the “Jose Ignacio, Garzón, and Rocha Lagoons National Park” and the “Bañados del Este Biosphere Reserve.” It was recently incorporated into Uruguay’s National Protected Area System as a "Protected Landscape." Located on the Atlantic coast of Uruguay, the Laguna is an important wintering site for 24 species of shorebirds, including many at-risk species. In particular, it supports 6.6% of the world’s Buff-breasted Sandpipers (Tryngites subruficollis). As a result, the lagoon has been designated as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network Site of Regional Importance—the first WHSRN site in Uruguay!

There are now 82 WHSRN sites in 13 countries, conserving more than 29 million acres (12 million hectares) of shorebird habitat.

See more of Laguna de Rocha in a short video clip [1](in Spanish) from the field!

Two activities took place recently to formalize and celebrate the designation: one in the Municipality of Rocha and another in the city of Montevideo. Charles Duncan, Director of the WHSRN Executive Office, and Diego Luna Quevedo, Southern Cone Program Coordinator for Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, had the honor of participating in both.

During the site dedication event in La Paloma, Charles Duncan and participants discussed Laguna de Rocha's conservation needs. / Courtesy of Diego Luna Quevedo

First, on 13 March 2010, an event was held in the Cultural Center in the town of La Paloma (Municipality of Rocha). More than 80 people attended, including national and local authorities, nongovernmental organizations, ranchers and fishermen from the area, various experts, researchers, local leaders, and neighbors. During the event, participants learned about the fundamentals and significance of the WHSRN designation. Following that, there was an open discussion about the factors that challenge the effective conservation of the area. The event concluded with WHSRN site partners receiving official certificates of designation. The day’s activity culminated with a visit to Laguna de Rocha, where a flock of over 200 Buff-breasted Sandpipers dazzled the group with their acrobatic flights.

A second event was held on 15 March at the Convention Center in Montevideo that brought together diverse organizations and partners in conservation. Among many special guests was Mr. Alain Latulippe, the Canadian Ambassador to Uruguay. These two countries share many migratory shorebird species, including the Buff-breasted Sandpiper.

Charles Duncan (right) presented a WHSRN Site Certificate to Alain Latulippe, Canadian Ambassador to Uruguay, at a celebration in Montevideo./Courtesy of Diego Luna Quevedo

Site dedication activities were organized by an alliance of local and national partners including Aves Uruguay (who had led the site nomination process), Protected Areas System of Uruguay (SNAP), National Directorate of Environment (DINAMA), Municipality of Rocha, the Rocha Coastal Lagoons Friends’ Foundation, PROBIDES, and the General Directorate of Renewable Natural Resources (RENARE-Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries).

We welcome Uruguay to the Network and especially our dedicated partners at Laguna de Rocha!

Laguna de Rocha supports more than 6% of the world's Buff-breasted Sandpipers. / Courtesy of Diego Luna Quevedo

For more information, contact Diego Luna Quevedo (diego.luna@manomet.org [2]), Southern Cone Program Coordinator, Shorebird Recovery Project, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.

WHSRN Partners Receive Funding from ‘Wetlands for the Future’ and CRIMBI

Three proposals submitted to Wetlands for the Future by WHSRN partners were approved for funding at US$20,000 each, and another four proposals were approved by the Copper River International Migratory Bird Initiative for various amounts. Congratulations to all!

Rio Gallegos Estuary WHSRN Site, Argentina. / Courtesy of Santiago Imberti

Wetlands for the Future [3] is a joint initiative of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Its purpose is to strengthen the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean countries to carry out integrated wetland conservation and management. Our appreciation goes to these initiative leaders for supporting the following conservation projects of benefit to shorebirds:

Partner: Ambiente Sur [4]
Location: Río Gallegos Estuary [5] WHSRN Site in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.
Project goal: Involve the local community and raise awareness to diminish threats to the estuary’s coastal ecosystems, with a particular focus on conducting a Pride campaign for the appropriate management of municipal solid waste.

Partner: Asociación Calidris [6]
Location: Delta del Rio Iscuandé [7] WHSRN Site, Nariño Department, Colombia.
Project goal: Promote the conservation and sustainable use of the site’s wetland habitats, thereby improving both the environmental quality and the quality of life for the local communities. In particular, work with the 600 inhabitants of three fishing communities to address the current lack of basic sanitation and its affect on the wetland.

Partner: Centro de Ciencias de Sinaloa [8] (Sinaloa Science Center)
Location: 11 WHSRN sites in Northwest Mexico [9].
Project goal: Create a “Regional Shorebird Congress” to provide partners in Northwest Mexico with a forum for discussing and coordinating research, conservation, and shorebird protection. Key activities of the congress will be to continue to build consensus and approval for the regional application of Manomet’s Shorebird Recovery Project [10]; create a Study Group for the Conservation of Shorebirds and their Wetlands in Northwest Mexico; propose including appropriate shorebirds within the Mexican regulatory framework for protecting at-risk species; and nominate a regional representative to the WHSRN Hemispheric Council.

Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri). / © Karl Kaufmann

The Copper River International Migratory Bird Initiative [11](CRIMBI) is a diverse international partnership, facilitated by the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) International Programs, that works together to conserve migratory birds and their habitats throughout the Pacific Flyway. CRIMBI is not a granting mechanism; rather, projects are developed and funded exclusively through the pooled resources of its partners. We’d like to thank the CRIMBI Steering Committee for approving the four shorebird conservation projects for 2010 listed below, and recognize the partners whose funds made it possible: the USFS Alaska, Pacific Northwest, and Western Regions; National Forests in these regions; USFS Pacific-Northwest Research Station; USFS International Programs; as well as the matching and in-kind contributions by many CRIMBI partners along the Flyway.

Partner: Centro de Ciencias de Sinaloa [8] (Sinaloa Science Center)
Location: Sinaloa, Mexico
Project title: Contaminant Profiles of Western Sandpipers at Major Coastal Wetlands
Amount: $27,000

Partner: Kachemak Bay Conservation Society
Location: Alaska, USA
Project title: Aerial Survey of Shorebirds at Kachemak Bay, Alaska
Amount: $4,350

Partner: Tongass National Forest [12]
Location: Alaska, USA
Project title: Estimating Size of Migratory Shorebird Populations on Stikine River Delta using Aerial Photography
Amount: $6,750

Partner: Asociación Calidris [6]
Location: Colombia
Project title: Recognition of Important Sites for Conservation of Shorebirds
Amount: $27,900

See the CRIMBI newsletter [13]for a summary of the 2009 programs and partnership projects.
For more information, please contact Jim Chu (jchu@fs.fed.us [14]), CRIMBI Coordinator, U.S. Forest Service International Programs.

Birding for Banded Shorebirds: The Basics

Courtesy of BandedBirds.Org

Editor’s note: As many of you know, scores of researchers throughout the hemisphere spend hours in the field putting tiny metal or color bands and/or color-coded flags on the legs of migratory shorebirds to track specific individuals or cohorts. What some may not know is what exactly to look for or whom to tell when you see a bird sporting one or more of these small, scientific accessories. As northbound migration begins, we thought this would be a good time to provide our readers with some basic information (or a refresher) on the subject. Many thanks to Jeannine Parvin, Database Manager for BandedBirds.Org; Kevin Kalasz, Wildlife Biologist for Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife; and Danny Bystrak, Wildlife Biologist for U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab, for providing the information in this article.
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Under the Pan American Shorebird Program, researchers use a specific color flag to indicate the country in which a shorebird was marked. Unique codes were later added to flags to identify individual birds. / Courtesy of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

The centuries-old practice of putting a small, inscribed, metal band on a migratory bird’s leg to mark and track its location and movements for research purposes still continues today. This method of marking largely relies on recapturing the bird in order to read and record the band data. Country-specific, plastic color bands and flags (without inscriptions) were eventually developed, allowing researchers to know by sight where a bird was first marked, without having to recapture it. In more recent years, uniquely coded color flags were developed, making it possible to identify individual birds, not just cohorts, by sight.

Through established research programs, trained observers conduct regular, concentrated “resighting” efforts at known breeding, migratory, and wintering locations. However, a great and largely untapped source of data are the resightings made by recreational birders, wildlife photographers, and even casual observers.

Basic Tips
Many markers can be read from quite a distance away (50 yards), depending on the resolution of your telescope or camera lens. However, with stealth and patience, you can also angle cautiously towards a flock in order to get within good resighting distance for most scopes, binoculars, and camera lenses. Tide and habitat conditions should be taken into consideration to optimize your viewing. For example, birds that are hungrily feeding are usually easier to approach; therefore, at coastal sites try to observe shorebirds during a falling tide when food is first exposed. In general, markers can more readily be seen on birds that are spread-out and active instead of roosting in a tightly packed flock.

Courtesy of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

What to Look for and Record
Notice the position of any bands or flags first in relation to the bird’s body (its left or right side), then relative to its “knee” joint (above or below it). For example, the diagram illustrates a bird with a lime-green flag as well as red, blue, and metal bands in the following positions:

Upper Left: red band
Lower Left: blue band

Upper Right: lime-green flag with “AB” inscription
Lower Right: metal band

Sometimes a leg segment will have more than one color band on it. Pay attention to the order in which the colors are stacked—this is often a meaningful identifier for a particular research effort.

The following levels of detail are most helpful to researchers:

Essential: Date of observation, location, species, marker type and color, and inscription on flag. Observers often use abbreviations; for example, the flag on the bird in the diagram would be recorded as “FL (AB)” for Flag that is the color Lime-green with the code AB.

Good: The above information plus time of observation and your name and email. Contact information allows follow-up if there are questions about the report.

Better: The above information plus the rest of any band combination on all leg segments. The bird in the diagram would be recorded as:
Note: Any leg section on a flagged or banded bird that clearly does not have a marker should be recorded as “ – ” in the appropriate place on your grid or sequence. If a leg section is out of view, and therefore unknown or questionable, record it likewise as “Q”.

Super: The above information plus tide stage, wind and weather conditions, how well the flag was seen, and a count or estimate of the number present of this species along with how many others may have had flags. Flock counts of other bird species are valuable, too. Written comments about habitat and flock activity are appreciated.

Best: The above information plus a photo.

Whom to Tell

Everyone knows the now 17-year-old shorebird superstar “B-95,” thanks to his unique flag and resightings of him by researchers and photographers. / © Jan van de Kam

BandedBirds.Org
The web-based initiative www.bandedbirds.org [15] was developed by partners in New Jersey and Delaware (USA) to incorporate resightings of banded and/or flagged shorebirds by the public into a centralized database. To start, they entered nearly 72,000 banding records and 84,000 resighting records from established research programs conducted in the Delaware Bay region and Florida, and in Chile. Since its launch in May 2009, these and other programs have submitted an additional 5,300 banding records and over 30,500 resighting records! Even more exciting has been the public response, with over 7,000 resightings reported in less than a year by recreational birders spanning the Western Hemisphere from Canada to Chile. Use of the website has far exceeded expectations, with observations from new locations being reported almost weekly.

To report a marked bird, first-time users need to complete a free, one-time registration online. Thereafter, just log in to report your resightings and to use the “Map Your Resightings” page to track where else an individual bird has been seen. Many users say that the instant gratification of seeing the history of “their” bird inspires them to keep looking for other banded shorebirds to report from their favorite locations. Each report adds significantly to our collective understanding of the critical habitat needs, migratory routes, and the importance of various sites for different species of shorebirds.

ReportBand.Gov
Most of the marked shorebirds you see will have a metal band, either as its only marker or in combination with a color band(s) or flag. Metal bands are each inscribed with a unique 9-digit code issued and tracked by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bird Banding Lab [16], which administers the North American Bird Banding Program in partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS).

If you are able to see all, or even part, of the 9-digit code through your scope or camera lens, please report it at www.reportband.gov [17]. The USGS Bird Banding Lab also issues the permits required for researchers to use color bands, and has included a section on the website for reporting these as well.

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To learn more about the Red Knot shorebird superstar “B-95,” see previous WHSRNews articles about him in our October 2008 [18], July 2009 [19], and December 2009 [20]issues.

For more information about bird banding in North America, visit the USGS Bird Banding Lab [16]or Canadian Wildlife Service’s Bird Banding Office [21]. For information or assistance in Spanish, please contact Jennifer McNicoll (jmcnicoll@usgs.gov [22]); from Mexico, call 1-800-327-2263.

For more information on resighting banded birds, including practice photos, see the training module on the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Shorebird Project [23]webpage.

To join the expanding network of volunteer shorebird data contributors, please visit www.bandedbirds.org [15] or email Jeannine Parvin (bandedbirds@comcast.net [24]), Database Administrator, Cape May Court House, New Jersey.

Special thanks to the following partners for supporting the BandedBirds.Org initiative: Clear into the Future: a DuPont Delaware Estuary Initiative; Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey; New Jersey Audubon Society; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program; Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control - Division of Fish and Wildlife; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Delaware Estuary Program; and USFWS Division of Migratory Bird Management.

WHSRN Council Meeting Highlights

The WHSRN Hemispheric Council met in Panama City, Panama, during the first week of February 2010 for its annual meeting. In our February newsletter, we included the following special items in our preliminary report about the meeting:

Approval of four new WHSRN Sites: Manglares de San Pedro de Vice (Mangroves of San Pedro de Vice) in Peru; Humedal del Rio Lluta (Lluta River Wetland) in Chile; Lago de Cuitzeo (Cuitzeo Lake) in Mexico; and Cabo Rojo Salt Flats in Puerto Rico, USA.
Thanks to our local hosts and organizers: Panama Audubon Society and Ramsar’s Regional Wetlands Center (Ramsar-CREHO).
Special thanks to Ms. Bea Roy, member of Manomet’s Board of Trustees, for hosting a reception for the Council at her residence.
Appreciation to Marshall Jones for his 3 years of service as Council Chair, and to Ian Davidson for agreeing to serve as Interim Chair.

For the full text and photos, please see WHSRNews: 25 February 2010 [25].

Complete minutes from the February meeting have since been compiled and approved by Council. Of the many items of business that the Council covered, we would like to highlight the following few that are of more general interest:

Periodically, the only shorebird data that partners are able to submit in support of a site’s nomination, particularly in Latin America, are either very limited or do not come from standard or readily verifiable sources. Such “grey data” can make the nomination process more slow and difficult than partners or Council would want, as well as delay recognition and conservation at sites known to be important. The WHSRN Executive Office recently addressed the situation by presenting some proposed key revisions to the nomination form and evaluation process, which the Council discussed and approved at its meeting. The Executive Office will work with the Council’s Technical Committee to bring the changes to fruition and keep the WHSRN community informed of them.

Council member Fernando Castillo (Asociación Calidris) gave a presentation to the Council on Colombia’s National Shorebird Conservation Plan, [26] part of the country’s overall National Migratory Species Plan. The Council applauded Colombia’s vision and leadership for this national plan and the team at Asociación Calidris for its significant role in developing it. The Council agreed to send an official letter of appreciation and support to the appropriate agency(ies) on behalf of WHSRN.
After a presentation by Charles Duncan (Director, WHSRN Executive Office) on the existing WHSRN Strategic Action Plan, the Council agreed to the need to update it using a new horizon of 2010–2014. Council members discussed a range of issues in the context of what has changed in the world of shorebirds since the last plan, and identified goals and objectives for the updated plan. The Council’s Executive Committee will proceed to incorporate this and other partners’ input into an updated plan.
The Council voted to select Ian Davidson as the next Council Chair, a role he has filled on an interim basis since January 2010. Ian accepted the position, contingent upon receiving formal approval by the Board of his organization, Nature Canada, to do so.