Press Release: Fly the Vulture Home Project financially

On 9th July 2007, the Committee of Fly the Vulture Home Fund represented by Gawin Chutima, Chairperson of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST - BirdLife in Thailand) together with Assistant Prof. Dr.Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua of Thai Raptor Group (TRG) and Rewadi Lertariyakrit, a key fundraiser of the fund, handed a cheque of 20,000 Baht to Associate Prof. Dr. Worasak Patchimasiri, Deputy Dean of Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, together with a large photograph of Anakin the Cinereous Vulture in flight after being released taken by a famed bird photographer Kanit Khanikul.
The donation came from remaining deposit of the Fly the Vulture Home Fund and was given specifically to a Fund for Curing Elephants and Wildlife to be used by Kasersart University Bird Rehabilitation Centre (KUBRC) at its Kamphaengsaen Campus for rehabilitation of wild birds. It confirms the Committee’s commitment to continue conservation of large wild birds after the endangered Cinereous Vulture and four Himalayan Griffons, all starved and fell in Thailand last winter, were successfully rehabilitated and released to the wild on 10th May 2007.
Moreover, to continue with its objective to rescue and rehabilitate large wild birds that may be stray or sick in Thailand, the name of the fund has been changed to ‘Wild Bird Rehabilitation and Release Fund’ (savings account no. 240-202731-1 at Tesco Lotus Fortune Town Branch of Siam Commercial Bank pcl.). The fund will be used to support rescue and rehabilitation of wild birds for release back to the wild by the KUBRC which is collaboration between Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation, BCST - BirdLife in Thailand and TRG.
For more information, call BCST 02 691 5976, 02 691 4816 or 02 691 4493; E-mail: bcst@bcst.or.th
From http://www.bcst.or.th/

Monitoring Spoon-billed Sandpipers in the Inner Gulf of Thailand

During November 2007–April 2008 BCST is undertaking monitoring of Spoon-billed Sandpipers in the Inner Gulf, between Chonburi and Phetchaburi. The objective is to monitor numbers and distribution throughout the winter period, and also to collect detailed information on ecology, behaviour and habitat use. The survey is being conducted jointly by shorebird researcher Somchai Nimnuan of King Mongkut’s University of Technology, and champion Spoon-billed Sandpiper finder Suchart Daengphayon from Khok Kham Conservation Club.

The Thai Inner Gulf is the most regularly used, and best-known Spoon-billed Sandpiper wintering site in Asia, with at least 10–20 birds present every winter. Besides the two well-known sites, Khok Kham and , single individuals were found at two additional, new, sites in December 2006, during the International Spoon-billed Sandpiper Workshop hosted by BCST and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources. Already, in November 2007, the two BCST researchers have found a further, previously undiscovered, site holding a single bird, with other birds at previously known sites, with at least 11 or 12 Spoon-billed Sandpipers so far known to be present.

Most Spoon-billed Sandpiper sightings have been on out-of-use salt pans, which hold the shallow water favoured by this species for feeding. But birds disappear from known salt-pan haunts for long periods, and we need to know the extent to which other habitats are used by Spoon-billed Sandpipers for feeding and roosting, as well as whether there are any disturbance factors that may affect the birds’ survival.

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, which breeds only in the Chukotsk Peninsula of NE Russia, is one of the most threatened birds in the world. It has declined 80–90% in the past twenty years and the world population is thought to be less than 300 pairs.

Related information: http://www.birdlife.org/news/pr/2007/10/spoon_billed_sandpiper.html