On July 19, 2010, a Department of National Parks oversummering shorebird survey team (Krairat Iamamphai, head of Bung Boraphet Wildlife Research Station, Thithi Sonsa and Somchai Nimnuan) found a first-summer Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) feeding on the upper shore between rows of bamboo wavebreaks in front of the 2nd Centre for Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation at Khok Kham, Samut Sakhon (Inner Gulf of Thailand).
Russian biologists have long suspected that Spoon-billed Sandpipers spend their first-summer in their non-breeding range (as is well-known in some commoner waders, such as Red-necked Stint), and do not return to breeding grounds until their second or third year. However, until the present sighting there were no confirmed observations of an over-summering Spoon-billed Sandpiper anywhere in its winter range.
This Spoon-billed Sandpiper was associated with a flock of about 300 (presumed first-summer) Red-necked Stints,468 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Asian Dowitchers, 420 Common Redshanks, 4 Common Greenshanks, 209 Lesser Sand Plovers, 210 Curlew Sandpipers, eight Great Knots, two Broad-billed Sandpipers and six Marsh Sandpipers.
The numbers of Spoon-billed Sandpipers presently known to occur in the Thai Inner Gulf are very small— perhaps now only around ten birds in total, of which only a proportion will be first-years—while the area of mudflats are vast. However, this finding should spur us to look for more over-summering Spoon-billed Sandpipers.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is now critically endangered, its global population now numbering no more than 120–220 pairs according to a recent paper in Bird Conservation International (Zockler et al., 2010). Thailand must conserve this species through protecting Inner Gulf Coastlines (both offshore mudflats and onshore salt-pans, which the birds are known to frequent for much of the tidal cycle) and by preventing the illegal netting of shorebirds for food, which still continues.
Contributed by Somchai Nimnuan, Wildlife Research Group, Wildlife Conservation Division, Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.)
Photo credit: Somchai Nimnuan (with digi-scope from distance)
The first-summer Spoon-billed Sandpiper found at Khok Kham on 19 July by the Department of National Parks Survey Team was again seen on 1 August, this time on salt-pans, by Mr Tee (Suhart Daengphayon).
