Our world is linked by the tracery of migration highways that vast numbers of birds follow between their breeding areas and their winter quarters. Some of their journeys are staggering feats of endurance and stamina. Like links in a chain, the vital stop-over sites are critically important to migrant birds; places where they can feed and build up their resources to complete their journeys.
Here, in the UK, many of our great coastal wetlands play that role in the East Atlantic flyway – the migration highway that links Western Siberia and parts of arctic Canada to Africa via an estuary near you! This blog has covered the stories and threats to many of them; the Severn, Mersey, Wash, Thames and Solway all have plans or proposals involving barrages and barriers that would involve (if they came to pass) an unprecedented loss of our tidal wetlands and an impact on bird populations felt way beyond our shores.
On the other side of the world the East Asian – Australian flyway does much the same job funnelling migrants (such as the spoon-billed sandpiper, pictured by Peter Ericsson) through the wetlands of South East Asia. Well, it would if there were many coastal wetlands left. Land-claim, often involving barriers built to exclude the tide have devastated vast areas of the coast once vital stopping off points for migrating birds.
Here’s a story from Thailand of a wetland near Bangkok that is heading towards protection as a Ramsar site thanks to efforts of local people, backed by the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (the Birdlife partner). A petition requesting Ramsar listing was delivered on World Wetlands Day 2010 and is the culmination of two decades of work and a growing awareness that the health of the wetland is intimately linked to sustainable fisheries and a healthy environment.
The world population of spoon-billed sandpipers is now so low that the species is recognised as critically endangered – it’s fate is bound to the future of coastal wetlands along it’s migration route. This is rare example of good news for this engaging and extremely rare little wading bird.