Temans,
Siapa tahu informasi singkat ini bermanfaat. Yus From: Roz Jessop [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:47 PM To: VWSG Updates Subject: [!! SPAM] News from Broome And more wind or Why do we bother to camouflage the net? Our last report was called Wind, wind and more wind. So I don't need to go in to details of the weather this time, just note the title. We set the net on the same beach as the last catch, Quarry Beach. The migratory shorebirds using the bay this winter are being very faithful to Quarry Beach and the rocks at West Quarry Beach so we had little option of where to go. The problem with Quarry Beach is that it has many small stones and pebbles all through the sand making camouflage very tricky. Add to this the very strong drying wind and there is basically no point in putting any camouflage on the net so once again we just lay it down in a car-tyre track and left it! The wind was so strong that by the time I fired the net a pile of sand some 30cm high had built up at the eastern end of the net. After the net was set the rest of the team arrived and it was a pleasure to see some 12-15 kids in attendance. I had done 2 talks for DEC in the previous fortnight for their 'Summer Holiday Schools Programme' and they had obviously thought catching birds sounded fun! Twinkling was required from the western end of Quarry Beach and while birds kept landing in front of, and close to the net, they were never settled due to the very strong wind. At one point we had 200 Red-capped Plovers and Red-necked Stints run up the beach and huddled down 20cm from the net! Why does Clive make us camouflage the net with 100% coverage 1 grain thick!? We had to go out on the beach and move those birds as they were very settled, and of course, too close to the net to catch safely. More comings and goings of birds and twinklers and the tide steadily making on the net (which was set below high tide) started to make me a little edgy and finally I could wait no longer for Red Knot and we took a catch of 64 mixed small species. The wind kept blowing and was very cold for Broome standards with 21 deg and 48km/hr winds at net fire 1130hrs. The cool weather and small catch made this a perfect opportunity to get the next generation of shorebird biologists involved and I had some very young processing teams! They were exceptional at handling the birds carefully and we had some teenagers banding and moulting and younger ones measuring gluing releasing etc. Of the 12 Red-capped Plovers we caught all were male and one had first been banded in November 2002. Thanks is usually brief but I would like to thank Bec and Chris of BBO for extra help with gear and to BBO for the loan of a car and trailer as my car broke down 300ms from home at 7AM as I set of to get the gear from BBO. Also thanks to Grant, Clare, Bec, Chris and Ady for twinkling and to the parents of all the kids for bringing them along to get involved and particularly to all the kids themselves who impressed me greatly. Catch totals below. Cheers Chris and Ady SPECIES NEW RETRAP 1ST YEAR 2ND 2ND YEAR AND OLDER TOTAL Curlew Sandpiper 2 2 4 0 0 4 Greater Sand Plover 25 0 25 0 0 25 Lesser Sand Plover 2 0 2 0 0 2 Red-necked Stint 20 1 21 0 0 21 Red-capped Plover 9 3 0 0 12 12 TOTALS 58 6 52 0 12 64
