BBC World Service broadcast: 20th June 2016
Can China’s new generation of birdwatchers and North Korea’s weak economy save migratory birds from extinction?
Habitat loss for shorebirds in the Yellow Sea is rapid as the mudflats on which they depend are converted to farmland, factories, ports, oil refineries and golf courses. But all is not lost on the East Asian Australasian Flyway.
Ann Jones travels around the northern end of the Yellow Sea, talking to the world’s leading shorebird researchers and Chinese nature lovers about their concerns for the Flyway’s future. They discuss their feelings for the long distance migration champions of the natural world, like the Eastern curlew and bar-tailed godwit. Ann also meets the New Zealand conservationists who have just emerged from North Korea with good news about the birds.
The series is a co-production from the BBC World Service and Australian ABC Radio National. Additional recordings were provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Produced by Andrew Luck-Baker and Ann Jones.
The series is a co-production from the BBC World Service and Australian ABC Radio National.
Additional recordings were provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Image: Curlew sandpipers coming to one of the few feeding sites left for them along the coast of Bohai Bay in northern China. Credit: Ann Jones
BBC World Service broadcast: 13th June 2016
Ann Jones flies north to Shanghai as shorebirds from as far away as Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh arrive on the coast of the Yellow Sea.
Here she meets a traditional whistling bird hunter who used to catch shorebirds for the pot but now does it for science. Bird mimic Mr Jin Weiguo demonstrates his centuries-old technique of bird trapping - luring them into nets by copying the different calls of the many different species. Scientists can then attach ID rings and GPS transmitters to follow their migration and estimate their declining numbers. In ten years as a conservation trapper, Mr Jin has caught more than 10,000 birds.
In Jiangsu province to the north of Shanghai, Ann also spots the world’s smallest and most endangered shorebird – the remarkable spoon-billed sandpiper. This species is regarded as the Panda of migratory shorebirds – a charismatic flagship species for the protection of the rapidly disappearing mudflats on which all the migratory shorebirds and local fisher folk depend.
Ann meets the Shanghai birders who set up an NGO to save the most important surviving locations for this bird’s crucial spring and autumn breaks in the Yellow Sea. One 7km stretch of coast, known as Tiaozini, hosts at least 50% of the world’s spoon-billed sandpiper population, which after a precipitous decline now numbers about 200 breeding pairs. Tiaozini is now recognised worldwide as a critical place for the species’ survival. The provincial government has advanced plans to convert Tiaozini into dry land within five years.
Additional recordings in this programme were provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker
The series is a co-production from the BBC World Service and Australian ABC Radio National.
BBC World Service broadcast: 6th June 2016
One of the great wonders of the natural world is in deep trouble.
Millions
of shorebirds fly from Australia and Southeast Asia to the Arctic every
year. They follow the planet’s most gruelling migratory route – the
East Asian Australasian Flyway.
Join Ann Jones as she watches
wading birds such as curlews, godwits and sandpipers prepare for their
epic journey. They fatten up on clams to the point of obesity, to fuel
the flight. They grow bigger hearts and flight muscles. Just before
departure, they shrink their digestive organs to become the most
efficient flying machines for their first 7 day non-stop flight.
The
birds’ lives are full of danger and the most serious threats are
man-made. The flyway is in peril with many species plummeting towards
extinction. As you’ll hear, it’s enough to make a grown man cry.
The series is a co-production from the BBC World Service and Australian ABC Radio National.
Image: Waders readying to migrate north at Roebuck Bay, Western Australia, Copyright: Ann Jones
