1/5 The VWSG, made up of 140 volunteers, has contributed to monitoring of waders in Victoria and SE Australia for 40 years. We have a number of important monitoring around Melb, including Port Philip & Western Port Bay #SCBMelb21
2/5 Through long-term capture/banding/flagging in Vic, starting in 1974, our data have contributed to measuring population decline of waders across the East Asian Aus Flyway. REF: nature.com/articles/ncomm…
Note diff ⬇️trajectories in Curlew Sandpiper & Red-necked Stint. #SCBMelb21
3/5 These waders which we captured in Australia migrate to the Arctic to breed, annually.
Through fitting of geos on birds in Western Port Bay we find that Red-necked Stint (blue) and Curlew Sandpiper (orange) have similar migration routes, but different strategies #SCBMelb21
4/5 Curlew Sandpiper use fewer stop-over sites along migration, with more reliance on Yellow Sea than Red-necked Stint.
This "minor" difference may be driving differences in trajectories of ⬇️ population decline
Useful data for conservation strategies along EAAF #SCBMelb21
5/5 Through data collected by our local heros, we can have a global impact for waders!
1/6 140 VWSG volunteers have been monitoring waders in SE Aus for 40 years. We have several important sites around Victoria, Tas & S. Australia for catching and banding waders. Data are used for pop monitoring, migration route, survival and repro rate assessment #ISTC20#Sesh8
2/6 Using geolocators we have revealed the AMAZING migration of Ruddy Turnstones. Flagging shows individuals return to exactly the same stretch of beach on King Island each summer. Adult birds migrate ~12,500km to Siberia to breed before returning #ISTC20#Sesh8
3/6 Curlew Sandpipers are experiencing drastic population declines. Through tracking, we find that they leave earlier, use fewer sites, are more site specific, and arrive later than Red-necked Stint, which has only minor population declines. #ISTC20#Sesh8
1/5
140 VWSG volunteers have been monitoring waders in SE Aus for 40 years. We have several important sites around Victoria for catching and banding waders. Data are used for pop monitoring, migration route, survival and repro rate assessment #SCBMelb20
2/5
Using geolocators we have revealed the AMAZING migration of Ruddy Turnstones. Flagging shows individuals return to exactly the same stretch of beach on King Island each summer. Adult birds migrate ~12,500km to Siberia to breed before returning #SCBMelb20
3/5
Curlew Sandpipers are experiencing drastic population declines. Through tracking, we find that they leave earlier, use fewer sites, are more site specific, and arrive later than Red-necked Stint, which has only minor population declines. #SCBMelb20