I saw the footless Pied Oystercatcher on a sandbank in Merimbula Lake yesterday. Feeding on the mudflats nearby were two Eastern Curlews; one of which was limping badly and was making very heavy work of its foraging.
When it flew to another spot I could see that its injured foot remained splayed and was not tucked up for flight as usual. Anadara is a large estuarine bivalve and I wonder if the Curlew tangled with one?
The mudflats are home to millions of small purple crabs (we called them purple people eaters when I was a child and I don’t have my reference books with me to find the proper name). The crabs swarm across the mudflats in waves and it was interesting to watch the flow of crabs when four Bar-tailed Godwits and one Silver Gull began feeding on them.
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Comments
16 responses to “Another bivalve victim”
Greetings Frank, Steven et al,
I agree with the points you’ve raised below Frank. I completely agree with the necessity of banding, even though I recognise the stress placed on individual birds. This situation (stressing, or potentially even killing, some individuals for the benefit of many, or the environment) is common to much ecological research.
I think it’s worth contemplating “we don’t know what we don’t know” in the context of this discussion.
Hooroo,
Eric
Steven Creber wrote:
If Steven did a little research, he could easily find out that the banders are doing a lot to publicise the results and implications of their work. In Australia the AWSG (Australasian Wader Study Group) publishes the journals Tattler and Stilt. They contribute articles to a number of publications worldwide include the Wader Study Bulletin. They regularly attend conferences in Australia and overseas and present their results.
They spend a lot of time and effort networking with projects in the USA (Delaware Bay), UK (The Wash), Russia, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. Volunteers from these countries are a regular part of the North West Australia expeditions. This cooperation between countries is invaluable.
They publish their findings in reports, and make submissions to governments. Their work has led to funding for projects such as the Shorebirds 2020 project in Australia, and the Global Flyway Network.
We don’t know the movement of the shorebirds well enough. Especially the breeding grounds for some species. Recent work has involved the use of geolocators on Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling and Greater Sand Plovers.
Very recent work has been the use of geolocators on Red Knot and Great Knot to document their use of the Yellow Sea. This is to be able to provide a direct response to the reclaiming of many of the mud flats.
Previous work has involved the use of satellite transmitters to find out more about the migration of Eastern Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit.
Ongoing work involves monitoring the breeding success, and population dynamics. It is too late when you notice something has happened. You must have ongoing monitoring to be able to respond.
Work has involved the monitoring of avian born diseases. This was very important at the time of bird flu to prove that the migratory shorebirds were not bringing this disease into Australia. There was a totally misleading report about shorebirds being a threat several years back on the ABC Radio morning news, which was very quickly refuted by Dr Clive Minton on the AM program shortly after. The person making the claim turned out to be someone working for the company that makes Tamiflu. This disease monitoring is ongoing.
Work has involved the analysis of feathers to study the isotopes and whether this can be used to determine where the birds have stopped over during migration.
You may not like banding, but the majority of the actual work on shorebirds, and the majority of the support for them is done by the people who have developed their knowledge through banding. This work is highly respected. Dr Clive Minton is a Fellow of BirdLife Australia (and a Life Member?). He has been awarded their medal for outstanding research (Hobbs Medal?). He has been recognised by the Federal Goverment with the award of an AM (or possibly higher?).
Noone takes the survival of shorebirds more to heart than the people involved in the expeditions. They have put their time, effort and money into it. They don’t just talk about it …
_________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au/Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au
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Greg
To have a different opinion to someone is not to give “a slap in the face”. I am opposed to banding for ethical reasons( reasons which perhaps you don’t agree with) and I believe the benefits of banding don’t outweigh the costs to the birds. As everyone agrees habitat protection is the name of the game.
The ethical reasons are the bird is being caught in a net for up to an hour, placed in a bag for 20 mins or so, while other birds are being processed. This clearly stresses the bird. Imagine if it happened to you.
You state, “it is a shame that there a small number of people on this site who are strongly anti-banding” I have no idea how many people on this site are anti-banding and I would suggest neither do you. I do know that it is difficult to speak out against things which are considered the normal and acceptable way to do things. A short while ago it was normal and acceptable to collect specimens, fortunately with the advent of DNA this practice is diminishing.
Good birding
Gary
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Marking animals in general is still also one of the most common methods for estimating and modeling population changes (size and demographics). Unless the population is particularly tiny, some form of mark and recapture is the main way to measure population size, age classes, gender ratios, change of population etc. (Using logic and statistics, over time you can get a good estimate of real population from mark and recaptures).
This kind of information can be very useful for conservation efforts because you can predict future population sizes based on age and gender ratios. Thus you can often measure the success or failure of conservation plans much earlier than the results from mere counts.
Of course whether some form of marking is a good thing also depends on the specifics of each case, and I know nothing about whether mortality changes for banded birds. I imagine different species are affected differently. There has been lots of research on some types of marking animals in general and sometimes it can increase mortality, while other times it doesn’t.
Jeremy
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Spot on Chris.
I would like to respond to a number of comments raised on this issue by stating some facts, not necessarily in the order of importance:
Only a small percentage of birds are ever caught and banded, they act as a sample of the whole population on which to base management decisions;
Bird banding is carried out by people who volunteer their time, money and expertise because they want to contribute to the scientific study of birds and assist in their conservation;
We don’t know enough about any species to say that banding is a waste of time and an unnecessary intrusion into a bird’s life. Banding was started in Australia in a coordinated way in 1953 but it has always been run on a shoestring and by volunteers who have worked hard to fill the gaps in the knowledge of our birds life histories. The Australian Bird and Bat banding Scheme is run by two staff, one for only a couple of days a week;
Banding is only carried out in accordance with strict conditions determined by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme and by banders who have received extensive training and experience;
Modern techniques such as satellite tracking are an additional techniques to banding and not alternatives to it. Most transmitters have a very short life. Bands last the life of the bird (in most cases). I chose powder coated colour bands for my Black-necked Stork research rather than the more costly satellite tracking as they provide long term data that satellite tracking doesn’t. The results have been very impressive;
Banding is one tool in a tool box of methods to research birds. To not use it would be like driving your car at night with your lights off;
Any adverse effects detected on birds from banding have been swiftly addressed by the banding office. When it was found that penguin flipper bands had reduced the foraging efficiency of penguins by a small percentage their use was discontinued. Banders are more than happy to receive documented cases of harm so that it can be prevented in the future. These cases seem to be extremely rare or non-existent. But if a case does arise then people witnessing the problem should advise the banding office with the relevant evidence but shouldn’t jump to conclusions as the cause of the problem may not be what is first thought.
It is a shame that there is a small number of people on this site that are strongly anti-banding. The sentiments expressed are certainly a slap in the face to the dedicated people who spend many hours working to learn more about our birds by carrying out bird banding activities. It would be great if you could come on board and help promote banding as it is an extremely valuable tool in learning more about our birds, many of which are under threat. Banding is not the threat. It is part of the armoury to help fight the decline. We can have a hands off approach and then watch as our birds disappear without any knowledge of why.
Greg Dr Greg. P. Clancy Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide PO Box 63 Coutts Crossing NSW 2460 0266493153 0429601960
Jeremy, Chris and others
I’m sure there are many ways birds can lose feet. We had a couple of cockatiels in an outdoor aviary some time ago. One lost a foot without any other obvious injury. I can state categorically that there were no bivalves or fishing lines in the aviary, and the bird wasn’t banded! We never worked out how it happened – perhaps collision with the cage, or rodent attack? Anyway, the bird coped very well with one foot, but bizarrely, a year or more later it lost the other foot. Again, no indication of what happened, but this time there was more of an injury to the leg, and some loss of blood. Whilst it could still fly, its ability to move around the aviary, climb and feed were badly compromised so we had it euthanised by a vet. The cause is still a mystery, so I guess there are a range of ways a wader can lose toes or a foot.
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All the data in the world amounts to nothing if it can’t be translated into something tangible in terms of helping to preserve birds under threat. I re-iterate: we have collected enough information to know that many species on the Asian flyways are under severe pressure. I don’t know exactly what we should be doing, but interminable banding seems to be, to me, akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burns…
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While it is true that banding has been undertaken for many years, there still remains many questions that only banding can answer – for instance local movements within estuaries after birds have settled into the summer or winter estuary of their choice.
We all know our estuaries are constantly under development pressure and key to being able to make strong cases for bird conservation is knowing how they use a specific estuary and what areas are important to them. Banding can play an important role in identifying where cohorts within an estuary’s migratory flock go, or if some birds are outside current niche knowledge and require additional survey work find unknown roosting or foraging sites.
The other point perhaps that should be made about the long-term nature of banding studies is that, due to pressures coming to bear across borders throughout the flyway, the niches of the birds are constantly changing. We all know the pressures birds are forced to bear: due to outright loss of habitat, increased habitat pressure from human activities, climate change affecting prey species and a whole host of other pressures that are pertinent to specific habitat areas and/or others that we may not know about yet.
In a changing world banding and radio-tracking work, are some of the techniques that allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of how pressure on bird habitat is changing their movements, affecting their weight (a measure of habitat quality declines in some cases), longevity, fecundity and of course reactions to stochastic events – to name only a small amount of the data that can only be sourced by capturing and recapturing birds.
It is not perfect I agree, we would all love to be able to just watch birds and not lay a hand on them, but managing populations is hard enough with the relatively small amounts of data that are coming through from banding (only a small percentage of the birds we see in the Hunter estuary have bands attached). Can we really manage and conserve without well thought out and specifically targeted information sets that only banding can give us?
Allan Richardson Morisset NSW
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I think it is time to stop banding. it can’t be argued that it does not stress birds. We know where waders go, what feeding points they need on migration and this information is doing nothing to stop countries including our own country from ruining habitat for commercial gain. Banding and stressing more birds is not going to fix the problem.
Gary
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I for one think it is high time that the due process of banding birds is seriously looked at, especially with the technology that is becoming available such as radio transmitters and RFID tags which is what is used for racing pigeons even though at this stage it is rather expensive. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about such a thing ( The use of satellite transmitters for bird movements is currently restricted by transmitter size (geese, swans, cranes, penguins etc.) or other species such as penguins that undertake long-distance movements. Individuals may be tracked by satellites for immense distances, for the lifetime of the transmitter battery. As with wing tags, the transmitters may be designed to drop off when the bird moults; or they may be recovered by recapturing the bird ) and also about RFID Tags Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the use of a wireless non-contact system that uses radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data from a tag attached to an object, for the purposes of automatic identification and tracking. Some tags require no battery and are powered and read at short ranges via magnetic fields (electromagnetic induction). Others use a local power source and emit radio waves (electromagnetic radiation at radio frequencies). The tag contains electronically stored information which may be read from up to several meters away. Unlike a bar code, the tag does not need to be within line of sight of the reader and may be embedded in the tracked object.
RFID tags are used in many industries. An RFID tag attached to an automobile during production can be used to track its progress through the assembly line. Pharmaceuticals can be tracked through warehouses. Livestock and pets may have tags injected, allowing positive identification of the animal.
Since RFID tags can be attached to clothing, possessions, or even implanted within people, the possibility of reading personally-linked information without consent has raised privacy concerns. If a fund was started to help this Technology advance so that they could be put on smaller birds I am sure that most of us who do not support the like of canon netting ( which is going on at this very moment up in Broome ) would gladly donate money to this cause. Before all the pro banding fraternity get on their band wagon just think about what I have said, and as for asking for information to find birds just get off your backsides and get out there instead of being a critical armchair birder. I know that this technology will still mean we have to capture some birds but not in the number that cannon netting does now!
I know there has been plenty of debate about this subject but I believe it is time for a CHANGE.
Kindest Regards Geoff Jones Website http://www.barraimaging.com.au Slideshows http://barraimaging.smugmug.com/
We know there is a decline. We know where the migration routes and feeding grounds are. Banding has done its job it that respect. Are we going to keep banding Red Knot when there are a dozen birds left in the wild? Enthusiastic amateurs indulging their hobby of banding birds in the name of science might be spending their time more profitably campaigning to save the Cheetham Saltworks from development, for example.
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I don’t think anyone has ever claimed that banding will itself halt any declines. I was under the impression it was about proving that there is a decline and where the birds routes and feeding grounds are.
Could anyone ever claim that a particular wetland deserves protection if they had no idea what effect its availability has on any species? Perhaps things would be far worse than they are without the data we have.
Peter Shute
Growing up in Brisbane, we went to the beach very often, both calm Moreton Bay and ocean beaches. Your “purple people eaters” are probably the same as our “Soldier Crabs”. Alas, they are rarely seen in those vast numbers today.
Shirley Cook
Thanks, I accept that explanation so no need for references. What I was a “little bit skeptical” about is that being attributed as the best explanation for any particular bird seen without feet. I apologise for not making it clear. At the very least I think there are a number of plausible ways a bird could lose feet, and not the data to make entanglement the immediate best explanation. As I said in my initial email; “not to say it couldn’t happpen.” I just think it’s hasty to immediately put that forward as the probable reason for podlessness (I made that word up!) in response to somebody asking about seeing a bird in such condition.
Jeremy
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The foot being ripped of is not how the foot would be lost, either David’s explanation of ripping/tearing of tendons or of the fishing line cutting into the flesh leading to infection and then gangrene are how I had been led to believe the foot/leg could be lost from fishing line. I’ll see if I can find some sort of reference for it but gangrene makes sense to me.
Cheers, Chris
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Of course I pretty clearly stated that I don’t think tangling is impossible. What I stated was that I was skeptical about it as the most likely explanation in this instance. If you see a bird missing feet or toes, I don’t think putting forward one particular explanation as the most likely cause is very accurate.
Jeremy
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It seems odd that species that have fed on or near these bivalves for many thousands of years are dumb enough to let themselves be injured regularly by them to this extent.
There’s no doubt that they occasionally get trapped, as this has been observed. But is there any evidence that this can lead to loss of a toe, let alone a whole foot?
According to this web page, fishing line entanglement is very common: http://www.fishingmonthly.com.au/Articles/Display/11532-The-Dangers-Of-Discarded-Line
Peter Shute
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I saw the footless Pied Oystercatcher on a sandbank in Merimbula Lake yesterday. Feeding on the mudflats nearby were two Eastern Curlews; one of which was limping badly and was making very heavy work of its foraging.
When it flew to another spot I could see that its injured foot remained splayed and was not tucked up for flight as usual. Anadara is a large estuarine bivalve and I wonder if the Curlew tangled with one?
The mudflats are home to millions of small purple crabs (we called them purple people eaters when I was a child and I don’t have my reference books with me to find the proper name). The crabs swarm across the mudflats in waves and it was interesting to watch the flow of crabs when four Bar-tailed Godwits and one Silver Gull began feeding on them.
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