Update from Jodie Clements Apologies for the lack of updates from Meinypil’gyno this season! Technical problems and a busy season led to fewer updates this year, but here is a summary of events since the last post when eggs were beginning to hatch. Egg candling. Look closely and

Update from Nigel Clark I start writing this as we are stuck in a traffic jam on the way back to Shanghai to catch our flights home. The trip should take 3 hours but we have only moved a kilometre in the last hour and a half. That is the problem of travelling on the Chinese golden wee

Update from Kane Brides (WWT) Hello from Rudong, on the shores of the Yellow Sea in China! Since arriving and meeting up with Professor Chang and his team of students from Nanjing Normal University we have had a busy schedule! The team have been working flat out around the clock carry

Update from Kane Brides (WWT) A year certainly does come around quickly! As I type, I am sat at London’s Heathrow with a team of people ready to fly out to China to continue working on Spoon-billed Sandpipers. In fact, we are not the only people getting ready for travel. The Spoon-bil

Update from Jodie Clements (3 July 2019) In early July, chicks were hatching left, right and centre! And with new life, came new challenges… The first chick hatched on 1st July, the earliest to hatch in the rearing house since headstarting in Meina began. During incubation, natural or

Update from Jodie Clements (24 June 2019) In addition to the eggs in the last post, another 4 eggs were collected. These came from K6 and his unmarked partner. This clutch was quite intriguing with the eggs appearing larger than normal, especially once put in the incubator with the ot

Blog from Guy Anderson (Nature Recovery Unit, RSPB) While searching for spoonies on the tundra around Meina, we often bump into other waders rushing through their short breeding season. Some of these share much of their year with our spoony friends. Red-necked, Long-toed and Temminck’

After a slow start locating spoonie pairs, relentless searching (and a bit of luck) enabled us to find several more pairs and 9 clutches were collected for headstarting. The incubator now has 34 precious Spoonie eggs developing within it! By collecting eggs this early in the season it

They’re on their way! We’ve had a few problems posting this year but the team have still been compiling them and we now have four installments ready for you that will be posted over the next couple of days. Our sincere apologies there’s been a delay but we hope you e

Update by Guy Anderson (Nature Recovery Unit, RSPB). The first week after spoonies arrive back on their breeding grounds in early June is a critical time to find territories. This is when they are most vocal – lots of displaying, and lots of singing – a Dunlin-like bubbling tril