 John Kormendy (http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy)
Blue Crane - South Africa’s national bird - uses the grassland habitats at Wakkerstroom.
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BirdLife News-Bytes
04-02-2009
Stories in this BirdLife News-Byte: IBA bird guide training in Zambia; Wakkerstroom featured as 'threatened wetland of the month'; Chilean IBA workshop; Rusty Blackbird Hot Spot blitz; South American Grasslands Bulletin 8; World Wetlands Day 2009
IBA bird guide training in Zambia - The Zambian Ornithological Society (SOZ; BirdLife in Zambia) have started to train bird guides in Important Bird Areas. The first guide, Ruston Mukampola, was chosen because he has worked for several years as a field assistant on a Zambian Barbet Lybius chaplini (Vulnerable) project. He is now well on his way to becoming an experienced bird guide for the Nkanga River Conservation Area IBA. Dr Lizanne Roxburgh, Chairperson of the Zambian Ornithological Society, said that Ruston is the: “first ZOS IBA guide, and sightings of Zambian Barbet are guaranteed with him!” To visit the Nkanga River Conservation Area IBA – with its lodge and camping facilities – and to book Ruston, please contact nansaibm@zamtel.zm
Tags reveal birds' ocean odyssey - Electronic tags have offered an insight into the mysteries of the 20,000 km migration of Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus. A team of UK scientists found that the birds made regular "stopovers" lasting up to two weeks, probably to feed and replenish their energy reserves. The data was recovered from logging tags fitted to six breeding pairs of from Skomer Island, off the coast of Wales. The findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. To read more click here
Wakkerstroom featured as 'threatened wetland of the month' - Wetlands International is highlighting the Wakkerstroom Wetlands as "this month's threatened wetland" on its website. Accessible from the front page of the Wetlands International website, the special resource page on the Wakkerstroom Wetlands contains background information and links to further resources on the mining threat to the wetlands at the WOW Demonstration Project near Wakkerstroom in South Africa. For more information please click here
Chilean IBA workshop - An Important Bird Area (IBA) identification workshop recently took place in Concepción, Chile. Organised by CODEFF (BirdLife in Chile) and Birdlife International, the meeting was attended by various ornithologists and other institutions such as the National Environmental Commission (CONAMA), the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), the National Fisheries Service, the Museum of Natural History and the University of San Sebastian. At the meeting the existing Chilean IBA list was revised and several potentials IBAs in the south of the country were identified. The next workshop will be take place in Valdivia. For more information click here
 Andy & Gill Swash; www.worldwildlifeimages.com
Cock-tailed Tyrant is dependendent on tall grasslands in the Southern Cone of South America
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Rusty Blackbird Hot Spot Blitz - Rusty Blackbird (Vulnerable) has been steeply declining with estimates of an 85-99% population drop over the past 40 years. The cause for this alarming decline is not known and the increasingly sparse and patchy winter distribution of the Rusty Blackbird is making it more difficult to learn more about distribution, abundance, and ecology as a basis for conservation efforts. The Rusty Blackbird Hot Spot Blitz will occur, February 7-15 throughout the Rusty Blackbird winter range in over 20 mid-western and south-eastern states. Participants will visit locations where they have previously sighted or would expect to encounter Rusty Blackbirds and submit their observations. To find out more click here
South American Grasslands Bulletin 8 - the latest bulletin from the Alliance from the Grasslands, the Initiative for the conservation of the South American cone grasslands is now available. This initiative uses the Important Bird Area (IBA) approach to identify the most outstanding sites in the pampas regions of the Southern Cone. To find out more about this project click here
World Wetlands Day 2009 - Monday was World Wetlands Day – an event where government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community take advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetlands and the Ramsar Convention. This years slogan is 'Upstream-Downstream: Wetlands connect us all'. Since its inception in 1997, events have been held in more than 95 countries wordwide from lectures and seminars, nature walks, children’s art contests and much more. To find out more about the event, please click here.
Kayaking to Save The Albatross! - Hayley Shephard, a kiwi now residing on the West Coast of Canada, is currently attempting the very first solo sea kayak circumnavigation of South Georgia Island in efforts to help BirdLife's Save The Albatross Campaign. To read more about her amazing quest, please click here.
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