BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 26th June 2007
Last month a pair of Cranes bred in the East Anglian fens, a remarkable event since their chosen habitat was only created seven years ago. Michael Scott visits Lakenheath Fen to see the birds for himself and talk to the RSPB about the arrival of the Cranes and its effect on plans for future wetlands.
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
Monday, 18 July 2016
Nature - Spring Songbird Special
As part of the BBC's Springwatch event, Grant Sonnex presents the programme from the RSPB's reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk. Among the reed beds and woodlands, he revels in the voices of some of Britain's finest songbirds and hears about the lives that they lead before their chorus fills the spring air.
Sunday, 17 July 2016
Nature - A Hundred Years Of British Birds
Arguably the most influential journal of its genre, British Birds reaches its 100th birthday in June. With the help of leading ornithologists, Brett Westwood looks back at a history which mirrors the growth of birdwatching in the UK. He uncovers the scandal of the Hastings Rarities, the first arrival of the Collared Dove, and the unique legacy of observations in the magazine.
Friday, 1 July 2016
Discovery - Life On The East Asian Flyway - Part Four: The Arctic
BBC World Service broadcast: 27th June 2016
After flying thousands of kilometres from faraway Bangladesh
and New Zealand via the Yellow Sea, the shorebirds of the East Asian
Flyway complete their northward migration. They touch down in the Arctic
Russia and Alaska to breed
In
May and June, birds such as the endangered spoon-billed sandpiper and
red knot fill the air of the Russian tundras with their mating calls and
display flights. But why travel so far to raise the next generation
Presenter
Ann Jones also discovers why Russian and British conservationists are
taking eggs from the nests of the spoon-billed sandpiper, the most
endangered shorebirds in the world, in a last ditch effort to save the
species from extinction.
Finally, with the
mating season finished and a new generation ready to migrate for the
first time, we follow the incredible non-stop flight of nine days by the
bar-tailed godwit, as it migrates south from Alaska all the way to New
Zealand. The record-breaking species is helped by somehow being able to
sense the weather patterns across the entire Pacific Ocean.
The
series is a co-production from the BBC World Service and Australian ABC
Radio National. The sound recordings from Russia and Alaska were
provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology.
Image: Spoon-billed sandpiper chick in Chukotka, NE Russia. Credit: Nicky Hiscock.
Thursday, 30 June 2016
Discovery - Life On The East Asian Flyway - Part Three: Yellow Sea North
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
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Discovery - Life On The East Asian Flyway - Part Two: Yellow Sea South
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.
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.
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Discovery - Life On The East Asian Flyway - Part One
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
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