Posting on behalf of Jim Coey, Misssauga
This may be the final stage in an on-going battle to save critical
stopover habitat for shorebirds in east Asia.
Mark Cranford
Ontbirds Coordinator
Mississauga, Ont.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2006 3:57 AM
Subject: Joint Saemangeum Monitoring Programme: April 02 Update
Dear Members,
Birds Korea and the Australasian Waders Study Group (AWSG) have started
preliminary investigation and on-site groundwork for the Joint
Saemangeum Monitoring Programme (for more details please see
http://www.birdskorea.org/timetoact.asp). Nial Moores, Dr. Phil
Battley, and John Geale have been at Saemangeum since the evening of the
30th March.
Key points:
1) Tides are still flowing into the Saemangeum area. There is therefore
still a large gap in the seawall - but developers are claiming that the
Saemangeum seawall will be completed on April 24th 2006 ie in just three
weeks time. We need to do all that we can to raise the interest of
international media and register international disgust (eg mailing
Korean embassies).
2) Bird numbers are in the meantime building well, including ca 1300 Far
Eastern Curlew, 1800 Great Knot and 11 000 Dunlin in Dongjin yesterday
(April 1st).
3) Progress is being made in organising events and workshops to involve
more people and raise awareness (domestically and internationally) of
both Saemangeum and of the need for focused monitoring of this
reclamation project to fully gauge its impact on the shorebirds that
stage here.
5) The characterisation of the Programme by a very few people as
unnneccesary interference in domestic issues by a non-Korean group (ie
Birds Korea) has happily opened up good opportunities for us to prove
that we are - as we have always said - a domestic (Korean-based) group,
one with a strong international outreach (eg AWSG) but also one seeking
cooperation where we can with key individuals and organisations within
Korea.
(Birds Korea already has around 200 fee-paying domestic members, as well
as 400 international members overseas, and in the past week we have
been joined by 25 new members (Korean nationals), with 2 further members
re-confirming membership for the year ahead.)
6) Donations which we received for the Programme are now being used for
vehicle rental and to fund other logistical support. Again we would like
to thank very much all those who donated to the Programme, and would
like to remind everyone that more support would still be very welcome!
7) Internet access in the immediate area is a little limited but we will
be posting details of shorebird counts etc as often as we possibly can:
please check the website for updates at
http://www.birdskoreaorg/birds_latest.asp.
A huge amount of work has gone into evolving this project over the last
six months, and we are confident that the data we will obtain here will
be internationally significant and of long-term value. One aim is of
course to show the terrible impact on shorebirds of this catastrophic
and redundant form of habitat destruction - and in doing so we will be
in a much stronger position to react should another reclamation in Korea
ever be announced.
Thanks again - as ever - for your interest and support.
Nial and Charlie Moores, Park Meena, Kim SuKyung
Birds Korea: The national and international network dedicated to the
conservation
of birds and their habitats.
http://www.birdskorea.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Mark Cranford
ONTBIRDS Coordinator
Mississauga, Ont.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
905 279 9576
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Apr 3 22:37:25 2006
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From: "David Ellingwod" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: [Ontbirds] Trio of Snowy Owls - Tara
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 22:34:40 -0400
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I saw three snowy owls within a kilometer of each other just east of Tara
this afternoon. One was perched on a fencepost near the Tara welcome sign at
the east edge of town on Bruce County Road 5. Its colouring was lots of dark
barring contrasting with a white background. Going 700 metres further east
near the top of a hill, two snowy owls kept company within 30 metres of each
other. The colouring of one was a grey background with light barring
(possible immature), while the other was very white with few dark markings.
I first saw them at 4:45 pm and they were still in the same area at 6:30 pm.
Directions: Tara is located 20 km west of Owen Sound at the intersection of
Bruce Road 5 and Bruce Road 10. The snowy owls were in fields on Bruce Road
5 less than 1 km east of Tara and before the top of the first hill.
David Ellingwood
Tara, ON
