Headstarting is a collaborative effort between WWT, BirdsRussia and the RSPB, and occurs as part of the International Arctic Expedition mounted each year by BirdsRussia under the leadership of Dr. Evgeny Syroechkovskiy.

Spreading the Word

Nigel Jarrett (closest)

This post comes from WWT’s HQ at Slimbridge:

News of our incredible success hatching a phenomenal number of spoon-billed sandpiper chicks is spreading far and wide.

Yesterday, Nigel Jarrett was interviewed on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 live from Russia which prompted listeners’ texts and phone calls in support of the project after Jeremy Vine posed the question whether we should save the spoon-billed sandpiper from imminent extinction or just “let it go”.

The question also sparked quite a flurry of supportive tweets on Twitter including RareBirdAlertUK: “What a brilliant start to save the spoon-billed sandpiper. 17 newly hatched chicks…” , Plantmadnige: “Extinction should not and need not be an option.”, Benjaminion88: “Spoon-billed sandpipers hatched in captivity! Great news”,  and yarmy73: “We should do our best to save all creatures nearing extinction!”. Great to have the support out there!

If you missed it, you can hear Nige’s interview on the Jeremy Vine show here – scroll forward approx 1 hour, 41 mins.

The news was also covered in the regional, national and international media. This included

The Guardian Online

Independent I

MSN News

Birdwatch News

Topix.com

Daily Me

BBC Gloucester

Also, Evgeny Syroechovskiy from Birds Russia is scheduled to give an interview (in Russian of course) about the project on the BBC World Service in Russia.

The team are in Anadyr for the next month or so but have limited internet connection for blogging, so we at WWT HQ here in Slimbridge will try to keep you up to date on this blog from their phone calls and texts as things progress over the next few weeks.

Thanks for all your comments so far – they have really given the team in Russia a boost to know so many people are behind them. Please keep them coming!

  1. Adam Robert Hough Reply

    amazing storey and well done to the chicks keep up the good work

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