Update from Baz Hughes and Guy Anderson
Since our last update ten days ago (apologies for the radio silence folks), JY has stayed put at Beihai, Guangxi Province, China. Will JY stay put in southern China all winter like HU and CT did, or will it move on? We’ll keep posting regular blogs to let you know.
JY satellite tag locations at Beihai, Guangxi province, China 9-24 November 2019
Meanwhile, KY has moved on to Vietnam, after stopping off briefly at the southernmost point in Mainland China. Jonathan Martinez described the site, at the southern end of the Leizhou peninsula, as “a very good spot for raptors and passerines migration in autumn. There are some saltpans not far from where it is at the moment and I’ve seen one SBS in spring on the saltpans bordering the small cove east of KY current locations”.
KY migration route, autumn 2019
But he also said “I would be surprised if it stays there…”
And quite right he was – as KY promptly headed off to Vietnam, where it has now remained in the same area since 20 November, on the coast, 20km south-east of Hai Phong, just to the west of Do Son beach. Its tag is giving regular, high quality fixes and we’re hoping that colleagues from the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force will shortly converge on its location to confirm its presence.
KY location in Vietnam, 24 November 2019
Meanwhile, on 20 November, with the good wishes of our BCST colleagues, EH headed on from its well-publicised stay at Pak Thale in Thailand across the Bay of Bengal to Bangladesh.
BCST Facebook post, 22 November 2019
But, after a 36 hour 1,464km journey, and only 100km from the Bangladesh coastline, we lost contact with EH.
EH migration route, autumn 2019
When we received the last fix at 04:11:52am on 22 November, the tag was functioning perfectly, had nigh on full battery power (3.9534 Volts) and was at a temperature of 24.062 degrees celsius.
So we don’t know whether the tag has just stopped working, or whether there is something more sinister afoot.
EH could be perfectly okay and wandering around a mudflat in Bangladesh, or it could be less than perfectly okay.
At the moment, we have no evidence to suggest one way or the other, but until we have, we will remain resolutely optimistic.
Sayam Choudhury, Assistant Coordinator of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force, will be mobilising a team of spoonie surveyors to try to locate EH on the Bangladesh coastline over the next few days and we wish them the very best of luck in finding EH alive and well.
We will tell you what they find as soon as we hear from them …
EH – in hope of finding you alive and well
Let’s all pray for the safety of EH.
Please be well and alive EH…..
Please, please be well. Let us know what you hear of EH. Thank you all for this dedicated and tough work to save a delicate, imperiled, exquisite species.