HKBWS BBS 香港觀鳥會新聞組


    
      
        HKBWS BBS 香 港 觀 鳥 會 新 聞 組
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        Special Topics 特別主題 >> Black-faced Spoonbill 黑臉琵鷺 >>  Record High Count of BFS at Mai Po
        
(Message started by: Carrie Ma on Jan 24^th, 2006, 10:28am)

Title: Record High Count of BFS at Mai Po
Post by Carrie Ma on Jan 24^th, 2006, 10:28am

Message circulated in the OBC e-mail group:

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Rank
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 4:05 AM
To: Jesper Hornskov; Hornskov Jesper; orientalbirding
Subject: [OB] Record High Count of Black-faced Spoonbill at Mai Po NatureReserve

From WWF HK January newsletter.

Michael Rank

Record High Count of Black-faced Spoonbill at Mai Po Nature Reserve
 
The year of 2005 ended with fantastic news for the globally endangered Black-faced Spoonbill at Mai Po Nature Reserve with a new record high count. On 29 December 2005, an enthusiastic local bird watcher counted a total of 340 Black-faced Spoonbill using the gei wai inside the reserve, an increase of 35 birds from last year's highest count. The official count from the 2006 International Black-faced Spoonbill Census in early January recorded a total of 341 Spoonbill in Deep Bay (including Futian and Shenzhen). Both counts reflect the successful habitat management work done by WWF, including winter draining of gei wai to provide large quantities of food for the birds, and safe roosting areas, both of which encourage these globally endangered "guests" to stay.

The International Symposium on Research and Conservation of the Black-faced Spoonbill held on 16-18 January 2006 in Hong Kong, entitled "Keeping Asia's Spoonbill Airborne", announced the official world population of Black-faced Spoonbill to be over 1600, continuing the rising trend witnessed over the last 25 years. An action plan on research and conservation strategy was discussed among representatives at the symposium from over 13 sites along the Black-faced Spoonbill flyway route including the coastal regions of China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The future is looking very bright and promising for our charismatic friends.

There is also this link to birds seen at Mai Po in second half December http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/maipo/birdrecord/200512_2.html