VII Spoonbill Workshop Proceedings 2013

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organizers:

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Proceedings

EUROSITE VII SPOONBILL WORKSHOP

Knowledge transfer-benefits for spoonbills and associated waterbirdsSantoa, Victoria and Joyel Marshes Natural Park

Cantabria, SpainSeptember 25th-30th2012

Editor

Juan G. Navedo*. Conservation Biology Research Group. University of Extremadura. Spain.

Editorial Board

Claudine de le Court. Consejera de Agricultura, Pesca y Medio Ambiente, Junta deAndaluca, Spain.

Petra de Goeij. Animal Ecology Group, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies(CEES), University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Tibor Mikuska. Croatian Society for Birds and Nature Protection, Osijek, Croatia.

Otto Overdijk. Werkgroep Lepelaar, Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands.

Csaba Pigniczki. Directorate of Kiskunsg National Park, Kecskemt, Hungary.

Book citation: Navedo JG. (ed.). 2013. Proceedings of the Eurosite VII Spoonbill Workshop.Cantabria, Spain.

Chapter citation (e.g.): De Goeij P, Lok T, Overdijk O, Piersma T. 2013. Dutch spoonbills stickto their traditions. pp. 19-24. In: Navedo JG (ed.) Proceedings of the Eurosite VII SpoonbillWorkshop, Cantabria, Spain.

Layout: 7PIES.com

*present address: Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnolgicas. Universidad Austral. Chile.


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Foreword

The workshop has provided a unique opportunity to celebrate key EU policies, strengthentheir implementation and promote the interchange of knowledge, experiences and ideas

between people involved in studying and managing wetlands for the conservation ofspoonbills and associated waterbird populations. Our aim was to share information andbuild practical know-how about drivers of population regulation and ways to improvemanagement effectiveness in habitat restoration, especially between the well-knownspoonbill Atlantic population/countries and other spoonbill populations/countries. Wehad also shared advances in communication, awareness and raising support to improvewaterbird conservation.

In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Habitats Directive and that of the now famous

Santoa sentenceunder the Birds Directive, this workshops focus on knowledgetransfer was an ideal opportunity to celebrate 20 years of the Habitats Directive,improving connectivity between migratory waterbird populations and flyways. Ourcollective aim was to generate results from the workshop, which will be useful forstrengthening this core legislation for the next 20 years and beyond.

International Spoonbill Working Group

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Institutional words

The celebration of the VII Spoonbill Workshop has represented for Santoa and Arnuerocouncils, as well as for Cantabrian Government, an excellent window to show our

villages and regional countryside in Europe. The marshes are part of our history and ourculture, and it is our mission to protect, preserve and promote the high ecological andenvironmental values of our surrounding landscape. Therefore it is an honor to beginwith these words this document that will undoubtedly be a reference in the study of theEurasian spoonbillPlatalea leucorodiafor the future generations.

We are very proud to welcome you in our villages, and it was a great opportunity tocollaborate with the International Spoonbill Working Group in terms of developingmanagement practices and research for the conservation of waterbirds. This can be

possible thanks to the Santoa, Victoria and Joyel marshes Natural Park, a protectedarea where sand dunes, cliffs, coastal pastures, muddy fields, marshes and other wetlandtypes merge to provide a privileged place for our regular visitors, and internationalambassadors of our villages, the spoonbills.

With the hope that your stay in Santoa and Arnuero and your work had been the mostsatisfactory as possible, we are sure that you will enjoy the contents of this Proceedings.We look forward to welcoming you again in Santoa, Victoria and Joyel marshes Natural

Park, Cantabria, Spain.

Milagros Rozadilla ArriolaMayoress

Santoa Town Council

Jos Manuel Igual OrtizMayorArnuero Town Council

Blanca Martnez GmezRegional Minister of Rural Development

Government of Cantabria


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Credits & Acknowledgements

These Proceedings were the technical outcome of the VII Spoonbill Workshop, heldin Santoa, Victoria and Joyel marshes Natural Park, North Spain, from 25th to 30thSeptember 2012.

The main theme Knowledge transfer-benefits for spoonbills and associated waterbirds,supported by 23 scientific communications and two special sessions and theparticipation of 35 people from 14 different countries, had been successfully achieved.

The International Spoonbill Working Group, EUROSITE, Ecoparque de Trasmiera,Ayuntamiento de Santoa, Consejera de Ganadera, Pesca y Desarrollo Rural from CantabrianGovernment, sincerely thanks the implication of the following people and institutions:

Collaborating partnerships

MINISTERIO DE AGRICULTURA, ALIMENTACIN Y MEDIO AMBIENTE, www.magrama.gob.es.EURONATUR - Connecting Nature and People,www.euronatur.org.OBRA SOCIAL LA CAIXA - More Opportunities for People, www.obrasocial.lacaixa.es.CONSERVAS EMILIA - Seafood Canning Factory, www.conservasemilia.com.LUCID PAPERS - English Language Editing Service, www.lucidpapers.com .AVES CANTABRICAS - Environmental Consultancy and Ecotourism, www.avescantabricas.com.

Honor Committee

Mr. Micheal OBriain, Deputy Head of Unit, DG Environment, EU Commission.Mr. Federico Ramos de Armas, Secretario de Estado de Medio Ambiente, Ministerio deAgricultura, Alimentacin y Medio Ambiente.Mrs. Blanca Martnez, Consejera de Ganadera, Pesca y Desarrollo Rural,

Gobierno de Cantabria.Mr. Jos Manuel Igual, Alcalde, Ayuntamiento de Arnuero.Mrs. Milagros Rozadilla, Alcaldesa, Ayuntamiento de Santoa.
http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/http://www.euronatur.org/http://www.obrasocial.lacaixa.es/http://www.conservasemilia.com/http://www.lucidpapers.com/http://www.avescantabricas.com/http://www.avescantabricas.com/http://www.lucidpapers.com/http://www.conservasemilia.com/http://www.obrasocial.lacaixa.es/http://www.euronatur.org/http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/


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Organizing Committee

Mrs. Nicole Nowicki-Caupin, Special Delegate, Eurosite.Mr. Otto Overdijk, International Spoonbill Working Group.

Mr. Javier Manrique, Director Gral. de Montes y Conservacin de la Naturaleza, Gobiernode Cantabria.Mrs. Carmen Prez, Ayuntamiento de Arnuero.Mr. Fernando Palacio, Ayuntamiento de Santoa.

Scientific Committee

Dr. Martin Schneider-Jacoby, Euronatur, Germany.

Dra. Cristina Ramo, Doana Biological Station (EBD/CSIC), Spain.Dr. Antonio J. Lucio, Gobierno de Cantabria, Spain.

Technical Secretariat

Mrs. Cristina San Emeterio, Ecoparque de Trasmiera, Ayuntamiento de Arnuero.Mr. Alejandro G. Herrera, Aves Cantbricas.

Coordination

Mrs. Lourdes Gonzlez, Directora del PN Marismas de Santoa, Victoria y Joyel, Gobiernode Cantabria.Mr. Ramn Meneses, Ecoparque de Trasmiera, Ayuntamiento de Arnuero.

Scientific Coordinator

Dr. Juan G. Navedo, International Spoonbill Working Group.

Last, we also thank Tom Stuartfor helping with english editing of some contributions;Diego Martnwho lend his nice spoonbill drawings to illustrate this Proceedings; Giselaand Miguel, from Posada Soano, for their delicius meals and friendlly manner; Casona delAgua and Hotel Estrella del Norte too; and finally, Dovidena Bonet, from La Yaya Company,

that provide participants with spectacular meals during coffee-breaks that significantlycontributed for the success of this Workshop.


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The remarkable recovery of the North Atlantic spoonbill breeding population.Otto Overdijk.

An overview of the Eurasian spoonbill situation.Otto Overdijk, Mike Smart , Juan G. Navedo.

Implementation of the AEWA Eurasian Spoonbill Action Plan: advances for eachpopulation and priorities for the next years.Juan G. Navedo, Otto Overdijk , Mike Smart , Szabolcs Nagy , Patrick Triplet.

Dutch spoonbills stick to their traditions.

Petra de Goeij, Tamar Lok, Otto Overdijk, Theunis Piersma.

Long-term monitoring and management of the spoonbill population inAndalusia: a comparison among three coastal colonies.Claudine de le Court.

Population development in Mauritanian spoonbills.Otto Overdijk, El Hacen Mohamed El Hacen.

Recent trends of the breeding population of Spoonbill in France.Loc Marion.

Breeding success of the only Belgian spoonbill colony with an exploratory diet study.Geert Spanoghe, Hilbran Vertstraete, Ralf Gyselings.

Dispersal and migration of Eurasian spoonbills breeding in Croatia.Jelena Kralj, Tibor Mikuska, Mirko etina, Otto Overdijk.

Stopover sites and migration seasons of Eurasian Spoonbill in the easternAdriatic region and the Dinaric Karst.Borut Stumberger, Peter Sackl, Luka Boic, Gordan Lukac, Draen Kotroan, MihailoJovicevic, Metodija Velevski, Davorka Kitonic, Martin Schneider-Jacoby, Romy Durst.

Movements of Eurasian Spoonbill based on metal- and colour-ringingrecoveries between 1908 and 2012 in Hungary.Csaba Pigniczki, Zsolt Karcza

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Enhancing the role of emergency sites for the conservation of migratorywaterbird populations: a tribute to Martin Schneider-Jacoby.

Juan G. Navedo, Otto Overdijk.

Where do spoonbills make the crossing to Africa? Limes Platalea Project.Francisco Hortas, Javier Ruiz, Rubn Rodrguez.

Post-nuptial migration of the Eurasian spoonbill in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.Rafael Garaita, Sonia Larrabide.

Habitat management and restoration in Hungary and their effects for spoonbills

and associated waterbirds.Csaba Pigniczki, Andrs Rcz, Jnos Olh, Lszl Tajti, Zoltn Ecsedi.

How spoonbills benefit from measures to combat floods and high water levelsin the Biesbosch National Park.Jacques van der Neut.

Do providing nest sites and materials increase breeding success of the Black-faced spoonbill Platalea minoron an islet with poor vegetation?In-Ki Kwon, Ki-Sup Lee, Ji-Yeon Lee, Jeong-Chil Yoo.

Impact of a recently created wetland on Eurasian spoonbills at Urdaibaimarshes (N Iberia).Juan Arizaga, Ainara Azkona, Xarles Cepeda, Jon Maguregi, Edorta Unamuno,Jose Mari Unamuno.

Networking for spoonbills.

Nicole Nowicki.

Workshop Conclusions.International Spoonbill Working Group.

List of Participants.


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The remarkable recovery of the North AtlanticSpoonbill breeding population

Otto Overdijk

Natuurmonumenten, Working-Group spoonbills International, Schiermonnikoog, the NetherlandsCorrespondence: [email protected]

Three hundred years ago it is assumed that all large brackish river deltas in NW Europe,like Elbe (D), Eems (D-NL), IJssel/Flevo (NL), Rhine (NL), Schelde (NL-B), Thames (UK),Somme (F), Seine (F), Loire (F) and many more smaller ones, were occupied by breedingspoonbills. The historic numbers of breeding pairs are not known, but in periods offood shortage people took shiploads of spoonbill eggs from the marshes for their

own benefits. Just as an example, in 1851 people took eggs from the spoonbill colonyHorstermeer (NL) twice a week. At the peak of the breeding season it was possible to get1,600 spoonbill eggs twice a week! (Bril 1954). Before those times, in 1808, Napoleonmade a special law in The Netherlands in which he rewarded men who killed spoonbills(and other associated waterbirds) with 1 florin per adult bird and 0.5 florin for each

juvenile bird. This was a measure to protect fishing rights/food resources. In 1936, inHolland the first bird protection law was made (Staatsblad700 1937). Most waterbirds(including the spoonbills) were protected: it was forbidden to have, to trade and even toattempt to catch the birds, its eggs or its nest, was liable to punishment.

It is believed that two or three hundred years ago there were more than 3,000 breedingpairs in the North Atlantic part of Europe. In Holland there were several coloniescontaining 1,000 breeding pairs or more (Voslamber 1994). As Europe developed furtherand further, the habitat for spoonbills came under high human pressure due to landreclamation, drainage, house building, intensive farming and the use of chemicals andfertilizers in agriculture, etc. Their numbers declined sharply, and around 1950-1960 manyformer breeding sites were empty. Only in Holland a small isolated population of around

150 pairs could survive (Voslamber 1984). At that time, the nearest breeding site waslocated in SW Spain, Coto Doana, 2,000 km away from these northern breeding sites.

In Holland, in 1905, a private nature protection association (Natuurmonumenten) wascreated and this organization bought a wetland (Naardermeer) for nature protectionreasons. The Government was aiming to use this wetland as a garbage storage site for thecity of Amsterdam, but a spoonbill colony was established here. In the following years,more and more wetlands were saved for nature, simply by buying and managing them.

After the 1970s many PCBs and other toxic chemicals (e.g. DDT) were banned. Theland reclamation stopped and hunting was strongly restricted. Later, also the buildingof fish traps started and this lead to an increase in available food for spoonbills. Also
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the birds (Dir. 79/409/CEE) and habitats directives (Dir. 92/43/CEE) and the creation ofinfrastructure for nature (connecting nature reserves) have had positive contributions tothe recovering of the breeding population.

Here I present the evolution of the spoonbill population since 1983. The size of thebreeding population in The Netherlands was monitored and supplementary data fromother breeding sites were collected and written down in a database file. Also data wereretrieved during previous Eurosite Spoonbill workshops. Only fragmentary data werefound on historical breeding.

The large gap between the two breeding sites, Holland and southern Spain in 1950 (Fig.

2) was slowly filled up. Breeding started in the Loire delta first, and later also in Somme,Camargue (both in France), Germany and Belgium. The number of breeding sites in SWEurope colonies increased quickly too, especially between 1995 and 2005 (de le Courtthis publication). Besides this, the mean number of breeding pairs at each site alsoincreased (Table 1).

In early 1980s the Loire delta (F) was more or less permanently used by breedingspoonbills (Marion this publication). It is unknown if this colonization involved birds fromthe Dutch population. But the establishment of spoonbills in Germany, Belgium, Denmark

and in the UK, this expansion involved birds hatched in Holland, as some of them wearPVC colour-rings. In the mid-1990s the first breeding attempt was recorded in theGerman part of the Wadden Sea (Mellum) and later also the other German Wadden Sea

Figure 1.

Map of Europe (from www.

eea.europe.eu) with areas

with an elevation between 0

and 5 meters above sea level

(in grey). This is almost equal

to the present distribution

of breeding grounds for

spoonbills. If sea level rises

as predicted, spoonbills and

several associated waterbirds

will face a major problem in

future and will have to find

new breeding grounds.


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islands were occupied by spoonbills. In 2011 there were over 400 breeding pairs breedinghere. Also the first breeding attempt in Denmark occurred in mid 1990s, and nowapproximately 75 pairs breed there. In the UK the first attempts were recorded in 1998, inGalloway and in Suffolk (Orfordness). In 2010 spoonbills also bred in Norfolk (Holkham),with other small colonizations. In Belgium first breeding attempts were recorded in 2000at het Zwin and later in the river Schelde area, near the city of Antwerpen (Verrebroek).In near future the breeding population in NW Europe can grow further, especially incountries at the periphery of the current breeding area: in the UK, Ireland and Poland

(Oder delta), for example. In the key breeding sites (i.e. in Holland), it seems that densitydependent regulation has already started (Lok et al.2009). This means that the populationin Holland is (almost) at its carrying capacity. However, sea level rise might be a major

Figure 2.

Distribution of Spoonbill

breeding areas (key

populations in NW Europe) in

the period from 1800 till 2030.

1800 (reconstruction)

1980

2010

1950

1990

2030 (foreseen)


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problem for breeding waterbirds, since most spoonbills breed at an elevation of 0-5 meters

above sea level (Fig.1) and it is predicted that the sea level might rise by approximately 2-4meters in the coming 50-100 years (IPCC 2007). These are also the areas where spoonbillsare using to establish new breeding colonies (Fig. 2). In Holland site managers are preparingthemselves for this predicted sea level rise by buying land at a higher elevation (currently5-10 meter above sea level) or land behind large dikes protecting reserves behind them.

References

Bril EJ. 1954. Historische gegevens van onze vroegere ornithologen en de avifauna vanNederland. p. 82.

de le Court C. 2013. Long-term monitoring and management of the Spoonbill populationin Andalusia: a comparison among three coastal colonies (this publication).

IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. An Assessment of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Lok T, Overdijk O, Horn H, Piersma T. 2009. The Spoonbill Platalea leucorodiapopulationof the Wadden Sea islands: does population growth level off? Limosa 82: 149-157

Marion L. 2013. Recent trends of Spoonbill breeding population in France (this publication).

Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, nummer 700. 1937. Vogelweg 1936, dewet van 31 december 1936 houdende nieuwe bepalingen ter bescherming van in hetwild levende vogels.

Voslamber B. 1994. De ontwikkeling van de broedvogelaantallen van de Lepelaar Platalealeucorodiain Nederland in de periode 1961-1993. Limosa 67: 89-94

Table 1.

The number of breedingsites in the North Atlanticpopulation and the meancolony size, broken down for

5-year periods.

Year Breeding sites in Mean colony size

NW Europe (n) (n breeding pairs)1965 5 26

1970 5 31

1975 9 35

1980 8 38

1985 11 45

1990 12 55

1995 21 66

2000 48 50

2005 61 60

2010 70 63


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An overview of Eurasian Spoonbill situation

Otto Overdijk 1, Mike Smart 2, Juan G. Navedo 3, 4, *

1Natuurmonumenten, Working-Group spoonbills International, Knuppeldam 4, 9166 NZ

Schiermonnikoog, the Netherlands.2143 Cheltenham Road, Gloucester GL2 0JH, UK.3Conservation Biology Research Group, University of Extremadura, Spain.4Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnolgicas, Universidad Austral, Chile.* Corresponding author:[email protected]

Keywords:Population trends; P.l.archeri; P.l.leucorodia; P.l.balsaci.

The Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodiais distributed from the East Atlantic to Indiaand China, with three recognized subspecies P.l.leucorodia, P.l.balsaciand P.l.archeri(Triplet et al.2008). In 2007, figures of the nominate subspecies showed 4,800 breedingpairs (bp) for the Atlantic population; 5,500 bp for the Central/ Southeast European (C/SE); and 5,000 bp for the Eastern population (Triplet et al.2008). P.l.archeriwas partiallyestimated as 1,100-1,200 bp and 750 bp composed the P.l.balsacipopulation (Triplet et al.2008).

A specific session held during the VII Workshop to update spoonbill breeding populationand trends at each country within the species distribution range confirms the health of theAtlantic population with 4,700-6,300 bp. On the contrary it reveals a worrying situation for

the C/SE one (Table 1), with decreasing trends in all countries around the Balkan PeninsulaGreece and Turkey (Figure 1). Moreover, the species became extinct during the last yearsin Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia and Albania. This population is currently

Subspecies Population Flyway Wintering colonies min max trendsP.l.leucorodia C/SE Europe Adriatic Tunisia & Italy 39 1482 2374 Slight decrease

P.l.leucorodia C/SE Europe E Mediterranean Nile Valley 22 1268 1793 Decrease

P.l.leucorodia W Europe Atlantic NW Africa & Iberia 102 4729 6301 Increase

P.l.leucorodia E Europe ? Asia ? ? ? ?

P.l.archeri Red Sea ? ? ? ? ? ?

P.l.balsaci Mauritanian 6 750 750 Decrease

Table 1.

Compilation of spoonbill

breeding pairs (min-max) and

trends for each recognized

population in 2012.
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composed by 2,750-4,150 bp (Table 1), and birds use two different flyways to migrate.Since spoonbill colonies in Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula, the main breeding sites,showed only a slight decrease, the big fraction of the overall decrease registered for this C/SE population seems to affect colonies in countries around the Black Sea and Greece. LastlyP.l.balsaciis still on risk with an estimate of 750 bp. (Table 1), and no information from thepopulation in Eastern Europe neither about P.l.archerihas been received (Table 1).

Overall, the situation of the Eurasian spoonbill in 2012 is much better than decadesago, with a healthy population in the East Atlantic but with decreasing populationsin C/SE and the P.l.balsaci. Even more important, there is still a poor knowledge aboutthe situation of Eastern European and P.l.archeripopulations. Mitigating the factorscurrently threatening C/SE and P.l.balsacipopulations, as well as obtaining the crucialinformation about the situation of Eastern European and P.l.archeripopulations, emergeas priorities to solve during the next years for the long-term conservation of the species.

Acknowledgements

All participants in the VII Spoonbill Workshop as well as other people that sent informationfor this compilation: E.S.Karauz, A.Zuljevic, M.Tucakov, S.Volponi, B.Kiss, I.Ham, J.Gergely,I.Balogh, C.Ramo, M.Mez, V.Encarnaao. We also thank B.Stumberger for help with the map.

References

Triplet P, Overdijk O, Smart M, Nagy S, Schneider-Jacoby M, Karauz ES, Pigniczki Cs,

Baha El Din S, Kralj J, Sandor A, Navedo JG. (Compilers). 2008. International singlespecies action plan for the conservation of the Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia.AEWA Technical Series n 35. Bonn, Germany, 40 pp.

Figure 1.

Map showing trends of

spoonbill breeding populations

at each country with available

data in 2007 and 2012 (Mapcredits: Borut Stumberger).

trend:

absent increase

decrease stable

extinct unknown


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Implementation of the AEWA Eurasian Spoonbill ActionPlan: advances for each population and priorities forthe next years

Juan G. Navedo 1, 2, *, Otto Overdijk 3, Mike Smart 4, Szabolcs Nagy 5, Patrick Triplet 6

1Conservation Biology Research Group, University of Extremadura, Spain.2Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnolgicas, Universidad Austral de Chile.3Natuurmonumenten, Working-Group spoonbills International, Knuppeldam 4, 9166 NZSchiermonnikoog, The Netherlands.4143 Cheltenham Road, Gloucester GL2 0JH, UK5Wetlands International, Wageningen, The Netherlands.6Syndicat Mixte Baie de Somme, Place de lAmiral Courbet 1, 80100 Abbeville, France.* Corresponding author:[email protected]

The International Spoonbill Working Group developed, with the participation of dozensof managers, researchers and, overall, spoonbillers belonging to 75 different countriesthroughout the species distribution range, the Action Plan for the Eurasian spoonbill(Triplet et al.2008). The implementation of this Action Plan was foreseen in 54 RangeStates. Specific activities for each spoonbill population at subspecies level wereidentified and prioritized in order to reach the long and short term targets stated in the

Action Plan for the conservation of the species. Furthermore, a ten year implementationperiod was foreseen.

During the VII Spoonbill Workshop a special session was organized to evaluate, afterfour years (thus nearly half-way), the degree of implementation of any action foreach population at the subspecies level. Following the same approach used duringthe development of the Action Plan, each action was scored by all participants inthe workshop divided in three groups (East Atlantic, Central European and P.l.balsacipopulations) depending on its actual implementation (Table 1). If there was not aconsensus within the evaluation group for a given score, half-points were used to

score actions (Table 2). Furthermore we grouped each detailed action in Legislation,Management or Research in order to calculate the average score and estimate whichtype of actions had been better implemented for any population.

Table 1.

Scores used for theevaluation of the EurasianSpoonbill Action Plan

implementation in 2012.

Score Meaning4 Action fully implemented, no further work required

3 Significant results (51-75%), but still work to be done

2 Some work done (11-50%), further action is required

1 Little or no work (0-10%) carried out
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Actions detailed in the AEWA Action PlanE Atlantic Central Europe P.l.balsaci

for the Eurasian SpoonbillDesignate the species as protected in all countries along the flyways in all the range states 4 2 4

Maintain the integrity of the coastal ecosystem at Banc dArguin 1 1

Designate and maintain key breeding, feeding and stop-over 2.5 3

sites as Protected Areas (SPAs in EU countries) and Ramsar Sites

Restore former feeding areas and prevent drainage of existing feeding areas 2.5 2.5

Prevent overgrowth of feeding areas by management of 1 2

vegetation succession and/or invasive plants

Take measures to limit activities which may reduce the availability of food 2 2

(e.g. Overfishing, disturbance, scaring at fishponds, constructions which

may limit movement of prey species, wind farms, human settlements and

infrastructures, development, regulation of rivers)

Maintain the area of fishponds managed extensively in Central 1.5

Europe and adjust their management to the needs of the species

Develop management plans for key breeding, feeding and stop-over sites 4 2.5

Reduce mortality caused by collision with overhead power lines 2 2

Reduce direct mortality caused by poaching 4 2

Reduce direct mortality caused by toxins 2 2

Phase out organochlorines (especially DDT) along the entire migratory flyway 2 1

Restore wetlands for breeding, maintain adequate water 3 3

level at colonies and create water supply systems

Protect colonies threatened by flooding 2 2.5

Preserve colonies from burning and cutting reed, by avoiding such activities around colonies 3.5

Take measures to protect threatened colonies against 3 1

excessive redation (notably by fox, wild boar or jackal)

Manage competing species if necessary and appropriate 1.5 1

Protect nesting colonies from disturbance 2 3

Determine and monitor breeding success and calculate the values 3 2

necessary to meet the target in relation to survival rate

Determine and monitor survival rate through colour ringing and satellite telemetry 3 2.5

Identify limiting factors with a view to promoting further expansion of breeding 4 2.5

range and to creating early warning system against potential threats

Identify additional wintering and stop-over areas along the flyways and their 2 3

role in limiting the growth of the different populations/subspecies (i.e. The

influence of the conditions at wintering sites on breeding success)

Identify any potential age and gender differences in use of stop-over and wintering sites 2 3

Determine migratory status and the migratory flyways (study movements during 4 1.5

non-breeding season using colour-ringing and satellite tracking)

Complete full survey of breeding areas (Turkey as a priority) 2.5

Study the sensitivity of Spoonbill to disease and toxins 2

Identify key mortality factors and hot spots 1 1.5

Collect and analyse genetic samples (Turkey, Hungary, Mauritania) 4 1 4

Study the feeding ecology of the species 3 1.5 4

Table 2.

Implementation of each

action detailed in the Eurasian

Spoonbill Action Plan.


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Overall, the East Atlantic and Central European populations obtained average scores (SD) of 2.6 1.0 and 2.2 0.7, after combining 25 and 27 different actions, respectively(Table 2), with all research, management and legislation actions being similarlyimplemented (Figure 1). P.l.balsaciobtained the highest average score of 2.8 1.6, butonly five actions were evaluated for this population (Table 2). Moreover, there seem

to be great differences in the type of actions implemented, with research being fullyimplemented while the unique management action detailed in the Action Plan (i.e. takemeasures to protect threatened colonies against excessive predation, notably by fox,wild boar or jackal; Triplet et al.2008) was even not started yet.

On the other hand, information about populations and trends of P.l.archeriand theEastern European population of P.l.leucorodiaat any country within their distributionrange was still lacked. Therefore, the implementation of the Action Plan for bothpopulations did not already start in 2012 (and not scored in Table 2).

As indicated by the average scores obtained (i.e. close to 2.5 which would meanthat each action was half-way implemented) the Action Plan for the conservation ofthe Eurasian Spoonbill seemed to be successfully implemented after four years for

P.I. balsaci

CentralEuropean

East Atlantic

Implementation of the Action Plan0 1 32 4

Figure 1.

Average scores of research,

management and legislation

actions of the Eurasian

Spoonbill Action Planimplementation in 2012 for

each population.

research management

legislation


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East Atlantic, Central European and P.l.balsacipopulations. However, there still arespecific issues of concern, especially dealing with legislation measures for the CentralEuropean population (Table 2) and management actions for P.l.balsaci(see above),that need to be tackle in the near future to guarantee its conservation. By contrast,the non-implementation of the Action Plan for the Eastern European and P.l.archeri

populations threatened the conservation of the species, since two of the five recognizedconservation units would not reach in 2018 the expected long-term target detailed inthe Action Plan (Triplet et al.2008).

Finally, it is remarkable that the implementation of the Action Plan has to be specificallysupported by funding in the following years by international agencies. If not, one caneasily guess that the Eurasian Spoonbill would loss in the near future a great part of itsgenetic diversity, beginning with P.l.archeri.

Acknowledgements

We thank all participants in the VII Spoonbill Workshop for their work during this session.

References

Triplet P, Overdijk O, Smart M, Nagy S, Schneider-Jacoby M, Karauz ES, Pigniczki Cs,Baha El Din S, Kralj J, Sandor A, Navedo JG. (Compilers). 2008 International singlespecies action plan for the conservation of the Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia.AEWA Technical Series n 35. Bonn, Germany, 40 pp.


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Dutch spoonbills stick to their traditions

Petra de Goeij 1, *, Tamar Lok 1, 2, Otto Overdijk 3, Theunis Piersma 1, 2

1Animal Ecology Group, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (CEES), University of

Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands.2Department of Marine Ecology, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research, PO Box 59,1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.3Werkgroep Lepelaar, Knuppeldam 4, 9166 NZ Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands.* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Keywords: Site-fidelity; winter site choice; migration; tradition; survival; density dependence.

Introduction

Migrant birds face a choice where to spend the winter based on trade-offs betweenmigration distance (costs) and the quality of the wintering site (benefits). In breedingcolonies in The Netherlands, near-fledged spoonbills Platalea leucorodiahave beencolour-ringed since 1982. The considerable resighting efforts along the flyway haveshown them to spend the winter in wetland areas in France, Spain and Portugal, andfurther south in West Africa (especially in Mauritania and Senegal). Over this period theDutch breeding population faired well as it increased from an historic low of 150 pairsin 1968 to 2,400 pairs in 2010. This may have led to changes in wintering destinations,with effects on the relative use of different areas, and to changing responsibilities forthe conservation managers in the different regions of the flyway.

In order to examine possible changes in winter destination we need to examine whetherspoonbills are site-faithful, and to establish site fidelity we need to simultaneouslyestimate survival rates. We here summarize recent analyses of these vital rates for

spoonbills breeding in The Netherlands. Thus, the first step is to examine whetherspoonbills are site-faithful to their wintering (and breeding) sites and at which point oftheir lives such individual routines become established. If spoonbills would move aroundfrom one wintering area to another in different years, it would be hard to discover howwinter site choice affects the vital rates of spoonbills. Our analyses concern spoonbillsindividually marked in The Netherlands in the period 1988-2010 (Lok et al.2009, 2011,2013). We will distinguish site fidelity at three spatial regions, i.e. either Atlantic France,Iberia or Mauritania & Senegal.
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Methods

For our analysis of site fidelity to the wintering areas in association with subsequentsurvival in juveniles and adults, we used data from 5,627 spoonbills that were colour-ringed as chicks just before fledging in breeding colonies in The Netherlands between

1992 and 2009. We compared winter site choice and age-dependent site fidelity forthe period 1992-2010. The observations of colour-ringed spoonbills come from a largenetwork of voluntary and professional ring-readers throughout Europe, supplementedby expeditions to major wintering areas in West Africa: the Banc dArguin National Park(Mauritania) and the Senegal delta (Mauritania and Senegal).

The analysis is based on resightings of live birds, which can be treated as recapture data(Lebreton et al.1992). The first observation refers to the ringing of the bird as a pre-fledged chick in The Netherlands. To select birds at their likely terminal wintering areas,we used resightings between October and February for Mauritania and Senegal, but

only the months December and January in France and Iberia, as these sites are known tobe used as stop over sites during both migrations for the birds wintering further south(e.g. Navedo et al.2010). Dead recoveries were excluded from the analysis because they

Figure 1.

(a) Estimates of winter sitefidelity to France (opendots), Iberia (grey dots) andMauritania and Senegal(black dots) as a functionof age.

(b) Estimates of annualsurvival probabilities inFrance (open dots), Iberia(grey dots) and Mauritaniaand Senegal (black dots) as afunction of age. From Lok etal. (2012).


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were rare and because of the uncertainty that these birds actually died in winter. On thefew occasions where individuals were observed in different wintering regions within awinter, we treated these birds as wintering in the southernmost region where they wereobserved (see also Lok et al.2011). By applying a multistate-mark-recapture approach,we investigated whether and how wintering site choice and fidelity changed with age.

To examine temporal changes in survival rates of birds wintering in each region, wedid an additional analysis on only adult birds (3 years old). Immature birds generallyremain in the wintering areas and use to only return to the Netherlands in their 3rdyear to begin breeding (Lok et al.2009). We selected data of spoonbills that had beencolour-ringed as chicks in The Netherlands between 1988 and 2007, and who werethen resighted as adults between 1994 and 2010 (n = 2,095 birds), either in summerin the Netherlands (n = 1,931 resightings) and/or in winter in one of the three mainwintering regions (n = 783 resightings): (1) France, (2) Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and

(3) Mauritania and Senegal (see Lok et al.2011). The suitability of the three winteringregions was assessed in terms of adult survival. Data prior to 1994 were excludedbecause resightings in winter were too sparse. A multi-event mark-recapture modellingapproach was used to estimate annual survival over the years for the three winteringareas, and to estimate temporal changes in the probability to winter in each area.Models were run in E-Surge (version 1.7).

Results

During their first southward migration, most Dutch spoonbills (52%) migrated to thesouthernmost wintering region (Mauritania and Senegal). From the 1st to the 2nd winterof life birds were more likely to make a southward than a northward move; indeed, therewere hardly any bird that moved to a more northerly wintering area. For the rest oftheir lives spoonbills remained highly site-faithful. This resulted in most birds winteringin Mauritania and Senegal (66% by the 2nd winter), against 7% in France and 27% inIberia (Fig. 1a). Survival was actually lowest in the region to which most birds went, i.e.

Mauritania and Senegal (Fig. 1b).

With an increase in population size, annual survival for birds using all three winteringareas decreased (Fig. 2a). The survival trends for France and Iberia were similar, butannual survival in Mauritania and Senegal was consistently lower. There was a steadyincrease in the proportion of juveniles that ended up wintering in Europe (Fig. 2b).

Discussion

Dutch spoonbills do not seem to be very flexible in their choice of a wintering area. Theyshould have chosen for Iberia and France where they had higher survival, but the majority


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still chose for Mauritania and Senegal. A possible explanation for this persistent migrationto wintering areas in West Africa is that before this study, winter conditions were muchbetter there and survival higher than in Europe. Survival in Mauritania and Senegal thendecreased through density dependence or other (food-related) factors so that at somepoint (before our study started!) survival became higher in Iberia and France.

Figure 2.

(a) Annual survival of adultbirds and:

(b) initial state probabilities,the probabilities to choose

to winter in France, Iberia orMauritania and Senegal, as afunction of year and year ofbirth. Lines and shaded areasrepresent means and 95%confidence intervals. FromLok et al. (2013).


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In fact, conditions for wintering in France and Iberia have been improved. EuropeanUnions Birds and Habitats Directives improved habitat- and species protection (Donaldet al.2007). Because of the severe droughts in Spain and Portugal in the 1990s, watermanagement was drastically changed, with an accompanying increase in the extentof suitable wintering habitat especially in Doana area (e.g. Novo and Cabrera 2006).

In addition, average winter temperatures in France and Iberia increased over the lastdecades (Tank et al.2002). This would have reduced the costs of thermoregulation ofspoonbills and may have increased the activity of the prey. Over the same period, a newexotic prey species, the Louisiana (freshwater) crayfish Procambarus clarkiibecame adominant inhabitant of the newly established wetlands and in some places it is a prey ofspoonbills (e.g. Aguilera et al.1996). Although many spoonbills made the wrong choiceof wintering areas (a choice leading to lower survival), as a population the spoonbillsshowed catch up, since more and more spoonbills choose for Iberia and France over theyears, but the change came slowly. Would this have been caused by migration distance

being inherited either by learning (juveniles following parents) or on the basis of geneticsimilarity? This seems unlikely, given that in only 16 out of 29 known cases juvenilespoonbills born in The Netherlands had the same wintering destination as their parents.This suggests that young spoonbills are rather free to choose their wintering area earlyin life. Their choice may be influenced by whom they fly southwards with. As juvenilesoften fly together with adults, and most adults fly to Mauritania and Senegal, theirlearning from experienced birds may slow down the switch from West Africa to north ofthe Sahara, to Iberia and France.

Interestingly, at least over the period of study annual survival has decreased in allwintering areas. The question is how much this is influenced by density dependence.Is there competition on the breeding sites, in the post-breeding feeding areas, on thestopover sites during migration or in the wintering areas? Has food availability orhabitat quality in general declined? As far as we know, no detrimental changes havetaken place in the breeding environments in The Netherlands, although we lack detailedinformation on food conditions around the breeding colonies. In fact, as reproductivesuccess of Wadden Sea island colonies decreased with increasing colony size, there

may be competition for the best feeding sites around the colonies (Lok et al.2009).Also very little is known about the food conditions along the migration route and in thewintering areas in Europe and West Africa. One thing is very clear though: the world ofspoonbills keeps changing. The increased part of the Northwest European populationrelying on European wintering grounds, and faring well by doing so, in combinationwith the apparent inflexibility of spoonbills to change their wintering habits, createsa serious responsibility for the conservation managers to ascertain the suitability ofEuropean wetlands for wintering spoonbills. If we want to take care of them based onan understanding of the factors limiting their populations, we better keep up the ringing

and ring-reading efforts in Europe and West Africa!


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References

Aguilera E, Ramo C, de le Court C. 1996. Food and feeding of the Eurasian Spoonbill(Platalea leucorodia) in Southwestern Spain. Colonial Waterbirds 19: 159-166.

Lebreton JD, Burnham KP, Clobert J, Anderson DR. 1992. Modeling survival and testingbiological hypotheses using marked animals: a unified approach with case studies.Ecological Monographs 62: 67-118.

Lok T, Overdijk O, Horn H, Piersma T. 2009. The Spoonbill Platalea leucorodiapopulationof the Wadden Sea islands: does population growth level off? Limosa 82: 149-157.

Lok T, Overdijk O, Timbergen JM, Piersma T. 2011. The paradox of Spoonbill migration:most birds travel to where survival rates are lowest. Animal Behaviour 82: 837-844.

Lok T, Overdijk O, Piersma T. 2013. Migration tendency delays distributional response todifferential survival prospects along a flyway. American Naturalist 118: 520-531.

Navedo JG, Orizaola G, Masero JA, Overdijk O, Sanchez-Guzman JM. 2010. Long-distancetravellers stopover for longer: a case study with spoonbills staying in North Iberia.Journal of Ornithology 151: 915-921.

Novo FG, Cabrera CM. 2006. Doana: water and biosphere. Madrid, Spanish Ministry ofthe Environment.

Tank A, Wijngaard JB, Konnen GP, Bohm R, Demaree G, Gocheva A, Mileta M. 2002.Daily dataset of 20th-century surface air temperature and precipitation series for theEuropean Climate Assessment. International Journal of Climatology 22: 1441-1453.


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Long-term monitoring and management of theSpoonbill population in Andalusia: a comparisonamong three coastal colonies

Claudine de le Court

Consejera de Agricultura, Pesca y Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andaluca, Spain.Correspondence: [email protected]

Keywords: Platalea leucorodia; breeding success; wintering trends.

Introduction

The Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodiais a long-lived colonial waterbird, with ascattered distribution throughout the Palearctic (Hancock et al. 1992). After a strongdecline in the last century, the population is now increasing in Western Europe. InAndalusia (SW Spain), monitoring of spoonbill population began in the 80s and aconservation program started in the 1990s.

In 1997, a regional spoonbill conservation plan was implemented in Andalusia. In the Odielcolony management has been directed towards improving the breeding success. The maincause of breeding failure in Odiel marshes was nest flooding during spring tides. Dependingon the tides height and the colony location, nest failure varied between 0 and 100%(average 40%) during a single tide event. Before spring tides, active colonies were visited andplatforms were set up under the most exposed nests in order that they could be moved up toavoid being flooded. Several types of nest platform were tested showing variable success.

Next to this, it has been shown that salt-excretion is energetically costly for coastalbirds (Johnston and Bildstein 1990). For example in the young White Ibis Eudocimus

albus, Bildstein et al. (1992) showed that birds were physiologically not able to eliminatethe salt efficiently, so parents had to shift their diet towards freshwater prey whenfeeding chicks. In the study area, fresh water is clearly a limited resource. In lagoonsfrequently used by spoonbills to drink and bath, water levels decline progressively as theseason advances. Thus management had been carried out to create and restore gravelpits and artificial basins in close proximity to the colony, with to aim to ensure thefreshwater availability as late as possible in the season. For this purpose, the perimeterwalls of a gravel pit were restored and a system of channels was built to collect runoffwater. After these management measures the number of spoonbills using the gravel pit

registered a strong increase (author pers. obs).
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In addition, other management techniques have been applied in order to increase nestsite availability and to favor the settlement of new colonies in selected places. In thissense, decoys and artificial nests were unsuccessful when used before incubation started(de le Court and Feria 2009).

Two experiments of captive breeding and release (hacking) of spoonbill chicks werecarried out, respectively in 1997 and 2006 (de le Court and Feria 2009). One of theobjectives was to develop techniques for promoting the formation of new colonies.

This paper reviews the main results of long-term monitoring of the species at this largearea and summarizes management measures carried out for its conservation.

Methods

In Andalusia spoonbills are found in coastal areas mainly in fresh- or brackishsaltmarshes. Until 1990 there were only two spoonbill breeding colonies in Andalusia:the Pajarera de Doana in the Guadalquivir marshes and the Odiel marshes colony. TheOdiel marshes (37.10N-6.58W) is a 7,185 ha complex of tidal salt marshes, saltpansand lagoons at the estuary of Odiel and Tinto rivers. The presence of the spoonbill colonyenhanced the site protection which was declared Natural Park in 1989. spoonbills breedin mixed colonies together with Grey Heron Ardea cinerea, Little Egret Egretta garzetta,and occasionally Purple Heron Ardea purpurea. Most spoonbill nests are located in a 480ha marsh island. The tidal regime is particularly marked with a large part of the islandflooded every day during high tide. The vegetation at the breeding sites is dominated bySpartina densiflora, Sarcocornia fructicosa, Arthrocnemum macrostachyum, Suaeda vera,Halimione portucolaides andLimoniastrum monopetalum.

At the end of the 1990s two new coastal colonies were established in Andalusia, one inthe Cadiz Bay and the other in the Isla Cristina marshes. Cadiz Bay (3619N, 0610W)has 16,000 ha, and was declared as Natural Park in 1989, including salt pans, fish ponds

and tidal marshes. The Spoonbill colony was discovered in 1997 (author pers. obs.) butthe presence of old nests indicated it was already active in 1996. In Cadiz Bay spoonbillnests are located on the small walls of an abandoned saltworks. spoonbills breed in closeproximity to Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis. The Isla Cristina colony (3707N -0711W) is located in the 2,145 ha protected area of Marshes of Isla Cristina, at theconfluence of the Guadiana and Carreras rivers, on the border with Portugal. spoonbillsbreed on the ground as in Odiel marshes, in mixed colonies with other egrets.The three spoonbill coastal colonies, Odiel marshes, Cadiz Bay and Isla Cristina havebeen intensively monitored every year during the breeding period. Visits for nest

counting and chick ringing have been carried out since 1984 in the case of Odiel, andsince 1997 for the others. At each visit, the number of active nests (with at least oneegg) and their contents (number of eggs and/or chicks) were reported. Additionally,


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aerial censuses and counts in foraging sites have been performed in the area.The numbers of breeding pairs was estimated by counting nests with at least one viableegg. The breeding success was estimated as the total number of fledglings in a givencolony divided by the number of nests. Data were gathered using a similar protocol andanalyzed with standardized procedures. In addition, within the International Waterbird

Census, mid-January counts of spoonbills were performed since 2004 by a coordinatedteam in more than 110 wetlands of Andalusia covering an area of about 140,000 ha.

To evaluate population trends (1984-2012), we used the program Trends and Indexesfor Monitoring data (TRIM; Van Strien et al. 2000). This program allows the analysis oftemporal series of counts, and can be used to estimate indexes and population trends. Toanalyse the influence of inter-annual environmental patterns on spoonbill reproduction,we used multiple regression models.

Rainfall patterns and water level are known to be the most essential factors relatedto the breeding success of wading birds (e.g. Bildstein et al. 1990). Therefore, todetermine whether the breeding population was related to climate, we applied amultiple regression with the number of breeding pairs as the dependent variable and

the winter rainfall and the average monthly temperature in the early breeding season asindependent variables. Winter rainfall was considered as the total rainfall accumulatedfrom October to March. Average temperatures in January, February and March were alsoused as independent variables.

Results and discussion

Breeding population

Until the 1990s there were only two spoonbill breeding colonies in Andalusia and thebreeding population was around 500 breeding pairs. From those dates onwards both

Figure 1.

Trends of the spoonbillbreeding population inAndalusia.


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the total breeding population and the number of breeding colonies showed a strongincrease, especially from the end of the decade. The breeding population showed a peakin 2011 with about 2,800 breeding pairs distributed over 19 colonies (Fig. 1).

Over the period 1984-2012, the number of breeding pairs showed a moderate increase

of 3.15% (TRIM: Imputed index = 0.0315, SD = 0.0009, p < 0.01) while the number ofcolonies experienced a strong increase, with an average annual change rate higher than8% (TRIM: Imputed index= 0.083 SD = 0.012, p < 0.01). The lowest numbers of breedingpairs were registered in 2012, 2005 and 1999, coinciding with periods following aparticularly dry autumn and winter.

Overall, the breeding population in the three colonies increased significantly as winterrainfall increased (R2= 0.27, F1,27= 10.31; p < 0.01). Fluctuations in winter rainfallexplained 27% of the variation in the number of breeding pairs, while temperature inJanuary or February did not contribute significantly to explain the fluctuations in thebreeding population. A similar result was observed in Odiel, with the breeding populationincreasing significantly after a rainy winter (R2= 0.27, p < 0.01). The size of the breeding

population was significantly correlated with mean temperature in January in Isla Cristinawhile it was not significantly related to climatic variables in the Cadiz colony.

When comparing the breeding populations among the three main coastal breedingcolonies, Odiel, Cadiz and Isla Cristina, different trends were observed (Table 1): in theOdiel marshes, the breeding population showed a slight (-1.4%) but significant decreaseover the period 1984-2012 (TRIM: Imputed index = -0.014, SD = 0.0014, p < 0.01). On theother side, the Cadiz Bay breeding population experienced a moderate increase of +5.9%(TRIM: Imputed index = 0.059 SD = 0.006, p < 0.01). The Isla Cristina colony showed the

opposite trend: a strong decline estimated to -7.4% (TRIM: Imputed index = -0.074, SD =0.0014, p < 0.01). Thus, even though the fluctuations in breeding populations were in partrelated to winter rainfall, other factors are likely to explain such differences. In the case of

Figure 2.

Trends of the spoonbillswintering population inAndalusia (mid-Januarycounts; see text for biologicalmeans).


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the Isla Cristina colony, spoonbills did not settle in some years for unknown reasons, butprobably related to human disturbance (pers obs.) From 2009 onwards there were only afew breeding attempts, all of them failed. Another small colony was established at a shortdistance in 2010 but even considering it as the same breeding colony, the annual trendremains still negative. (TRIM: Imputed index = -0.041, SD = 0.006, p < 0.01).The area is

surrounded by fish ponds and there are some conflicts with private owners.

The new colonies tended to show a higher breeding success than Odiel, especially CadizBay, but differences were not significant (F2,4= 2.39 p = 0.10). In all colonies breedingsuccess showed strong fluctuations from year to year (Table 1). In Odiel marshes, theaverage breeding success (0.6 fledglings per nest) was lower than reported for otherspoonbill populations (see for example Triplet et al. 2008), but showed an increase from0.3 fledglings per nest until the 90s to an average of 0.8 fledgling per nest in the lastdecade. The strong fluctuations in breeding success in the Odiel colony were positively

related to winter rainfall (F1,17= 13.69, p < 0.01) but negatively with mean temperature inMarch (F1,17= 16.80, p < 0.01). In the Cadiz colony rainfall had no influence but successwas improved with increasing temperature in March (F4,9= 3.39, p < 0.05). In the IslaCristina colony the annual fluctuations in the breeding success were neither significantlyrelated to winter rainfall nor to average temperature in January, February of March.

Wintering population

The spoonbill wintering population in Andalusia was on average 1,649 individuals witha record of 2,536 birds in January 2012 (Fig. 2). It showed a moderate increase (+4.6%)from year to year (TRIM: Imputed index = 0.046, SD = 0.001, p < 0.01). Such a moderateincrease is registered at all three coastal wetlands: Odiel marshes, Cadiz Bay and IslaCristina marshes. The wintering population was strongly related to the size of thebreeding population in the previous year (F1,7= 25.17, p < 0.01; R

2= 0.75) However,as reported by Lorenzo and de le Court (2007), the interannual fluctuations in thenumber of spoonbills in mid-January reflects the changes in the prenuptial migrationrather than the differences in the wintering population. Therefore to determine the real

wintering population and its potential relationship with the breeding population in theprevious year, the censuses should be carried out in early December, when the postnuptialmigration of the Dutch spoonbills has finished (and the return of the Spanish spoonbillsfrom the wintering areas has not yet begun; de le Court and Aguilera 1997).

Management

In Odiel, floating platforms were used from 2010 onwards, and the breeding successimproved to 80% (author unpubl. data). Hence, the increasing breeding success in the

last decade at this colony could be explained at least in part by a successful managementagainst nest flooding. These actions, although applied to a limited number of nests (40nests per year), may be useful for increasing local breeding success in other colonies.


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During the experiments of captive breeding and release, eggs were rescued from floodednests and chicks were hand-reared in captivity over a period of seven weeks. After thistime, the captive-born spoonbills were released into the wild; 104 birds in total. All birdswere marked and intensively monitored in the following months. Results indicate thatthe survival rate of captive-reared birds is high and similar to wild birds (author unpubl.data). In the period 2000-2007, at least 39% of the released spoonbills in 1997 hadbeen confirmed breeding. However, there was only a small amount of evidence for thecontribution to the formation of a new colony: only one of the released birds nested in a

new area, representing the first occurrence of breeding in a current small colony (5 pairs).

In Cadiz Bay, the main spoonbill colony was established in an abandoned saltpan,where the water levels are controlled by floodgates. The colony quickly experienced astrong increase and a high breeding success. However, in 2010 during a big storm theexternal edge collapsed and the colony was subjected to influence from spring tides,which caused the loss of all nests and abandonment of the colony. In the following yearreproduction started but failed while in 2012 no nest was found. Management for therestoration of the wall has been carried out and finished at the end of 2012. The main

problem in the Cadiz area is the maintenance of infrastructures because of progressiveabandonment of fishponds and saltpans traditionally conserved by local owners, whichreduces the habitat available for feeding and nesting.

Odiel marshes Cadiz Bay Isla Cristina marshesHabitat Tidal marshes, saltworks Tidal marshes, saltworks, Tidal marshes, fish ponds

fish pondsFirst spoonbill 1963 1996 1997breeding record

Average annual 334 pairs 72 pairs 76 pairsnesting population (s.d.= 112.9) (s.d.= 44.4) (s.d.=65.8)Trends in Slight decrease Moderate increase Strong declinenesting population (-1.4%) (+ 5.9%) (-7.4%)Variables related to (+) Winter rainfall - (+) mean t in Januarynesting population

Average annualbreeding success 0.6 chick/pair (0.04-1.4) 1.2 chick/pair (0-2.9) 1.0 chick/pair (0 -1.8)(min-max)

Variables related to (+ ) Winter rainfall (+) Mean t in March -breeding success (-) Mean t in March

Table 1.

Description of breedingparameters and trendsamong the three colonies.


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Conclusions

On a regional scale, the spoonbill breeding population in Andalusia, as well as breedingchronology and reproductive success, showed marked annual fluctuations related toenvironmental conditions. Nevertheless the general trend was one of a strong increase, a

trend observed in most colonies including Doana (Ramo et al. 2012). The positive trendof the spoonbill population may be explained at least in part by successful managementmeasures and wetland conservation in Andalusia, as well as in Northern Europe andalong the migratory flyway. The long-term monitoring contributed to a good knowledgeof the spoonbill population and its threats, and was helpful in developing managementtechniques, mainly towards the minimization of nest flooding.

References

Bildstein KL, Post W, Johnston J, Frederick P. 1990. Freshwater wetlands, rainfall, and thebreeding ecology of white ibises in coastal South Carolina. Wilson Bulletin 102: 84-98.

de le Court C, Aguilera E. 1997. Dispersal and migration in Eurasian spoonbills Platalealeucorodia. Ardea 85: 193-202.

de le Court C. 2001. The life history of the Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia. How to live in

an unpredictable environment. Unpublished PhD. Universiteit Antwerpen.de le Court C, Feria E. 2009. La Esptula en Andaluca. Bases para su conservacin.Manuales de Conservacin de la Naturaleza N 5. Consejera de Medio Ambiente, Juntade Andaluca, Sevilla.

Hancock JA, Kushlan JA, Kahl MP. 1992. Storks, ibises and spoonbills of the world.Academic Press Limited, London.

Johnston JW, Bildstein K. 1990. Dietary salt as a physiological constraint in white Ibisbreeding in an estuary. Physiological Zoology 63: 190-207.

Lorenzo M, de le Court C. 2007. Spoonbill winter population in the Iberian Peninsulaand Balearic Islands. 31st WbS Annual meeting of the Waterbird Society [Postercommunication].

Ramo C, Aguilera E, Figuerola J, Mez M, Rodrguez R, Garca L, Arroyo JL, del Valle JL,Garrido H, Green AJ. 2012. Factors affecting Iongterm breeding population trends of

spoonbills in Doana (Guadalquivir marshes, SW Spain). VII Eurosite Spoonbill Workshop[Poster communication].


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Triplet P, Overdijk O, Smart M, Nagy S, Schneider-Jacoby M, Karauz EZ, Pigniczki C, BahaEl Din S, Kralj J, Sandor A, Navedo JG. 2008. Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia.AEWA International Single Species Action Plan. AEWA Technical Series No. 35. Bonn,Germany.

Van Strien AJ, Pannekoek J, Gibbsons DW. 2000. Indexing European bird populationtrends using results of national monitoring schemes: a trial of a new method. Bird Study48: 200-213.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge all the people that participated in the spoonbill monitoringin the last decades and helped in some way in this work, especially the monitoring group

of Doana Biological Station, the staff of the Odiel Park and the monitoring team of theAgency of Environment of the Junta of Andalusia.


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Population development in Mauritanian spoonbills

Otto Overdijk 1, *, El Hacen Mohamed El Hacen 2

1Werkgroep Lepelaar, Knuppeldam 4, 9166 NZ Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands

2Parc National du Banc d Arguin, Nouakchott, Mauritania.* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Keywords: Floodings; jackals; Platalea leucorodia balsaci; predation.

Introduction

The Mauritanian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia balsaci is an endemic subspecies of theEurasian Spoonbill (Piersma et al. 2012) and living in Mauritania only. The nominatesubspecies is migratory, moving from/to its breeding grounds along the east Atlanticcoast. By contrast P.l.balsaciis resident in Mauritania and breeding in the Banc dArguinNational Park. This Mauritanian spoonbill is a bit small sized than the nominatesubspecies (Glutz von Blutzheim and Bauer 1966) and adults do have a black bill,with no orange spot on the bill if being an adult (O.O. unpubl. data), being this a cleardifference with P.l.leucorodia. During the non-breeding period (November till February)both nominate and endemic subspecies are mixed in the Banc dArguin. Nominatesare originated from Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France andSpain. The juveniles (1 year old) and the sub-adults (2-3 years old) from the nominatesubspecies stay during their immaturity also in the park. Overall, they do not migratenorthwards until they become mature at an age of 3 years (Bauchau et al. 1998).

Table 1.

Banded nestlings in Banc dArguin, broken down by yearand nesting site.

Zira Nair Arel Toufat Kiaune all2002 6 62003 -2004 -2005 1 12006 -2007 54 45 992008 1 3 42009 1 3 42010 97 140 2372011 -

2012 5 5 10all 111 197 3 45 5 361
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Methods

Since 1997 the park was visited once, twice or three times per year. During three or fourweeks long surveys were conducted through the park (e.g. Overdijk et al. 2000), andthe total number of spoonbills were counted, in some years broken down by adults and

juveniles. If we found breeding colonies, the numbers of nest were also counted andeach nest were separated in used, flooded or predated. In all years the reproductionrate was estimated for both subspecies.

Separating the juveniles of the subspecies was not an easy job. However, the percentageof banded P.l.leucorodiais quite well known. Each colour banded juvenile of thenominate subspecies was an equivalent for 6 not-banded juveniles of the subspecies.By extracting those P.l.leucorodiajuveniles from the total number found, we roughly

estimated the reproduction rate of the P.l.balsaci. Further, at some breeding sites it wasjust a matter of counting the juveniles because some were even still begging for food bytheir Mauritanian parents (O.O. pers. obs).

1800

1600

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0

numberofbreedingpairs

year

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Figure 1.

Population development inMauritanian Spoonbill.


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Results

While combining all data we realized that population size quickly decreased. Beforeour study started in 1997, the total number of breeding pairs was estimated at 1,610(Gowthorpe and Lamarche 1995). In 1999 the breeding population size was estimated

at 1,400 breeding pairs, in 2003 at 1,120 breeding pairs, in 2006 at 850 breeding pairsand in 2010 at 780 breeding pairs (O.O. unpubl. data). In 2012 we estimated the numberof breeding pairs at 750-800. It means that in a period of twenty years the populationdecreased with (almost) 50% (see also Triplet et al. 2008) (Figure 1).

In many years we found a very low (no success at all or smaller than 0.1 fledged juvenileper breeding pair) breeding success in the P.l.balsacipopulation. If available, we colourbanded as many juveniles (being nestling) as we could (Table 1). After 13 years ofmonitoring we were very happy to notice that in 2010 reproduction was on severalislands very successful (see photo 2). It was estimated that 600 successfully breeding

pairs rose over 1,000 juveniles and most of them fledged. We could colour-band 237juveniles in that year. We could band even more chicks but we run out of rings. Incontrast, in the 2012 survey we could band only 10 juveniles in the whole park.

Discussion

Banc dArguin National Park is a well protected site and the decrease of numbers ofbreeding pairs cannot be explained by the loss of habitat or overall food reduction (Veen

2011). Using satellite transmitters it was found that birds start breeding and, after layingeggs and short incubation, the breeding attempt stopped and birds left the breedingarea. Then the birds began a new breeding attempt, sometimes at the same and

Photo 1.

The breeding colony at island

of Zira (NP Banc dArguin-Mauritania) flooded on15-July-2010.


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sometimes at a different breeding site. The desertion of nests occurred in some years 4or 5 times, between April and October. In order to find out why birds left the nestingarea we installed infra red continue working photo cameras close near the breedingcolonies. It was found that flooding during spring tides forced the birds to leave thebreeding area (see photo 1).

In many years we found a very low (no success at all or smaller than 0.1 fledgedjuvenile per breeding pair) breeding success in the P.l.balsacipopulation. In some yearssome small colonies at rocky islands could produce a few number of juveniles. Thesandy islands at lower elevation were flooded in many years (see photo 1). Other sandybreeding islands were colonized by Golden Jackals (e.g. the island of Cheddid) and thepresence of those predators probably forced spoonbills to move. In the 2009 survey morethan five Golden Jackal burrows, which were recently used, were found at Cheddid. Amass movement was recorded from Cheddid to Nair (200-300 breeding pairs) in 2001

(Overdijk et al 2002). Lastly, in 2012, the low juvenile production was indeed caused byboth floodings and predation by Golden Jackals (O.O. pers. obs).

Acknowledgements

We thank the direction and staff of the PNBA for giving permission to carry out theresearch and for their friendly hospitality during our staging in the park. We thank theAdessium foundation for supporting us financially for the satellite tracking devices. Wethank also the WIWO foundation for supporting the wader counting expeditions from

1997 to 2001.

Photo 2.

Mauritanian Spoonbillcolony at island of Zira(PNBA) with lots of raising

juveniles.

Photo taken at 18 May 2010.

See also Figure 1, same colony.


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References

Bauchau V, Horn H, Overdijk O. 1998. Survival of Spoonbill on Wadden Sea islands.Journal of Avian Biology 29: 177-182

Glutz von Blotzheim N, Bauer KM. 1966. Handbuch der Vogel Mitteleuropas, band 1:428-441. Akademische Verlaggeselschaft, Frankfurt am Main.

Gowthorpe P, Lamarche B. 1995. Oiseaux du Parc National du Banc dArguin(Mauritanie) Collection PNBA, N 2.

Overdijk O, de le Court C, Gueye A. 2001, spoonbills count on Banc dArguin, Mauritania,January 2000. WIWO report 70. Zeist / Nouakchott.

Overdijk O, Marion L, Sall MA. 2002. Spoonbill count in park National du Banc dArguinMauritania in January 2002. WIWO report submitted, Nouakchott / Zeist

Piersma T, van de Velde M, Mohamed El Hacen EH, Lok T, Overdijk O. 2012. Molecularverification of the subspecies status of the Mauritanian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodiabalsaci . Ardea 100: 131-136.

Triplet P, Overdijk O, Smart M, Nagy S, Schneider-Jacoby M, Karauz ES, Pigniczki Cs,

Baha El Din S, Kralj J, Sandor A, Navedo JG. (Compilers). 2008. International SingleSpecies Action Plan for the Conservation of the Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia.AEWA Technical Series No. 35. Bonn, Germany.

Veen J. 2011. Voedsel van de Mauretaanse lepelaar Platalea leucorodia balsaci (inDutch). Internal report Werkgroep Lepelaar 2011.

Zwarts L, van der Kamp, J, Overdijk O, van Spanje TM, Veldkamp R, West R, Wright M.1998. Wader count on the Banc dArguin, Mauritania, in January-February 1997. Wader

Study Group Bulletin 86: 53-69.


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Recent trends of the breeding population ofSpoonbill in France

Loc Marion

UMR CNRS Ecobio, Universit de Rennes 1, campus Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes, France.Correspondence: [email protected]

Keywords:Distribution; Dynamics; Sacred ibis; Red Swamp crayfish; wetlands.

Introduction

After four centuries of absence, spoonbills Platalea leucorodiaare breeding again inthe Lake of Grand-Lieu area in Loire-Atlantique, sporadically since 1973 (Marion andMarion 1982) and regularly since 1987, but in very small numbers (3-7 pairs) until thebeginning of the 1990s (Marion 1996). The present paper describes the chronology ofcolonization of breeding spoonbills in France from this first record, for each breedingsite until 2011.

Methods

The data on breeding colonies have been obtained from annual censuses of thepopulation through personal research until 1997, and thereafter by coordination of anannual national census. The census of occupied nests in the Lake of Grand-Lieu neededthree weeks between May and June every year, by walking through Salix spp.and Alnusspp. forests along the shoreline (with only 1 or 2 visits to each part of the lake), whileit generally needed one to three visits in other colonies (references are given in resultswhen the local censuses have been published). The number of breeding pairs (hereafter

bp.) was estimated in some years for some colonies (Table 1). In these cases, the lowervalues give the minimum bp. and the higher values are estimates of the maximumbreeding pairs including late breeders, breeding failures (nests occupied only during apart of the breeding season), or nests only observed at distance.

Results

Most of the colonies are on the Atlantic coast, on the migration path of the Dutch

spoonbills (Fig. 1), with numerous cases of emigrant ringed birds from the mothercolony of Grand-Lieu (Marion 2006). This colony stayed at very low numbers for twodecades, before it suddenly increased at the beginning of the 1990s (Table 1) (Marion
mailto:loic.marion%40univ-rennes1.fr?subject=mailto:loic.marion%40univ-rennes1.fr?subject=


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and Marion 1994). The decrease to only 14 successful bp. in 2003 was probably due to afall in the water level at the foraging habitats (i.e. marsh meadows). Breeding spoonbillsreached the record of 159 bp. in 2010. However, in the main sub-colonies the breedingpopulation was 40% lower in 2011 (falling to only 92-98 bp.; Marion 2012), anduncertainty about estimate of possible late breeders was higher due to the presence of

non-breeders in the colonies (Table 1).

The second and third breeding sites in France appeared in the Brire marshes in 1992 andin the Erdre marshes two years later (Marion 1994), however, with few reliable quantitativedata. In Brire there have been several sporadic colonies, largely fluctuating between 23and 119 bp. (Table 1). Between 2006 and 2011 numbers fluctuated between 40 and 69 bp.,and between 3 and 14 bp. between 1994 and 2011 in the Erdres marshes (Table 1).

Curiously the next French breeding records occurred in 1996 in centralsouth eastFrance, a long way from the Atlantic migration route, in the Dombes in Ain department(one attempt), with another attempt in the Forez department (Crouzier and Rimbert1997). Breeding occurred at this latter area regularly from 2006 (Benmergui andCrouzier 2006). In 1997 a new breeding colony appeared at Orx (Landes), with 5-6 bp.until 1999, but it disappeared until 2005 and then fluctuated between 3 and 9 bp. until2011 (Table 1). In 1998 breeding occurred for the first time in the Camargue with 13 to15 bp. until 2005, and increased to 71 bp. in 2009 (Blanchon et al.2010) reaching 143bp. in 2011 (Marion 2012). In 1999 large marshes of Charente-Maritime were colonized

by breeding spoonbills, with one bp. at Moeze and again in 2004. Regular breedingstarted from 2006 at another site nearby (Brouage) increasing up to 31 bp. in 2011(including the new neighboring colony of Marennes) (Table 1).

Figure 1.

Distribution of breeding sitesof Spoonbill in France in 2011(numbers refer to Table 1).

1-10 pairs

11-20 pairs

21-40 pairs

41-80 pairs

81-120 pairs

121-160 pairs

8

13

9 23 10 11

1

71415

16

5

12 6

4


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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1973 1

1974 3

1975 0

1976 0

1977 0

1978 0

1979 0

1980 0

1981 3

1982 0

1983 0

1984 0

1985 01986 0

1987 7

1988 3

1989 7

1990 5

1991 5

1992 10 3

1993 18 2

1994 23 11 3

1995 27 15

1996 25 19 4 1

1997 22 23 5 5

1998 37 20 4 6 31999 32 51 4 6 4 1 3

2000 37 5861 5 0 56 6

2001 34 4552 5 0 35 6

2002 29 78 57 0 79 12

2003 1429 60 8 0 1317 16 1

2004 2930 116122 5 0 1215 02 23 1

2005 4151 4852 5 3 13 25 10

2006 6177 5864 713 56 4 26 56 28 2645 22007 6889 44 48 56 4 1837 8 26 3261 0 2

2008 77119 69 1215 68 8 50 8 35 3860 0 1 34 10

2009 111116 4749 1012 810 68 6478 10 45 5170 0 1 46 21 1

2010 150168 3841 810 69 68 111 10 55 3876 0 0 68 3 2 13

2011 92154 6468 1012 1 810 143 28 60 3560 0 0 47 1 3 79 3

Table 1.

Annual numbers of breeding

spoonbills (min-max breeding

pairs, see Methods) at

each French breeding area

(estimated numbers in bold).

Gran

d-L

ieu

Bri

re

Erdre

Dom

bes

Orx

Camargue

Moeze-B

rouage

Marquen

terre

Gu

ran

de

Angers

St-Georges

Adour

Bo

ismon

t

Brau

dSt-Lou

is

Blaye

Marennes


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In spite of its proximity to the Dutch population, the eastern Channel coast was onlyoccupied in 1999 at the Parc de Marquenterre (Somme). The number of breedersincreased rapidly from 3 to 60 bp. in 2011 (Table 1). Another colony appeared nearbyat Boismont in 2008 reaching 21 bp. the following year, but fell to just one bp. in 2011(Table 1).

In 2003 a new site was colonized at Gurande (Loire-Atlantique) with a peak of 51-70 bp. in 2009. However there are large differences between the number of pairs andconfirmed breeding records in this colony since 2006 (see estimated values in Table 1).spoonbills bred once at Angers (Maine-et-Loire) in 2006, while at a neighboring site,St-Georges-sur-Loire, one pair nested in 2008 and 2009. From 2007, a new colonyappeared in Barthes of Adour (Landes) fluctuating between 4 and 7 bp. until 2011 (Table1). Finally, one bp. was detected in the Gironde estuary at Braud-St-Louis in 2009,increasing to 3 bp. in 2011, while another two bp. appeared in the same estuary at Blaye

in 2010, increasing to 7 bp. in 2011 (Table 1).

Discussion

After a progressive, but still limited, increase of number of colonies in France (14occupied sites in 2011), the total number of breeding spoonbills strongly increasedafter 2005 (145-159 bp.) to reach 459-559 bp. in 2011. Overall decreases occurred in2001, 2003, and 2005, mainly affecting the Grand-Lieu and Brire colonies. Differencesbetween minimum and maximum breeding pairs tended to increase in recent years dueto nest failure (predation, human disturbance), and difficulties in distinguishing betweenreal breeders and non-breeders when the nests were not monitored.

Several factors played major roles in this history (Marion 2006). Immigration from theincreasing Dutch population which migrates along the Channel and Atlantic coastsplayed a initial role in the establishment of new colonies in France (except in Dombesand the Camargue where the first records seemed a result of accidentally escaped

birds from local zoos). The lack of disturbance by humans in the Grand-Lieu naturalreserve (until management of the Sacred ibis Threskiornis aethiopicus began) is also animportant factor. The higher carrying capacity of the larger feeding areas is probably thesecond important factor, particularly in Loire Atlantique and recently in the Camargue(the largest French wetland), while the small feeding areas in some sites (Erdre, Orx,Angers, St-Georges, Adour) probably did not allow significant breeding populations ofspoonbills. The recent increase of the invasive Red Swamp Crayfish in the marshes onthe Atlantic coast (Brire since the beginning of the 2000s, Grand-Lieu since 2007) andin the Camargue (since 1997), largely increased the food resources (Marion in press).

On the other hand, fluctuations in the water level in the feeding areas of the coloniesof Grand-Lieu and Brire (lower number of breeders with low water level) could explainsome fluctuations in the breeding population before 2006 (Marion 2006).


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Disturbance of Sacred ibis in mixed colonies as a generalized management measure forthis alien species in Europe (IUCN 2012) could also affect short-term trends of breedingspoonbills in France (Marion 1999). The social context in mixed colonies seems to beof particular importance for the development of breeding Spoonbill in France (Marion2006). A recent study stated that the potential attraction of breeding spoonbills by

Sacred ibis is not supported (Clergeau et al.2010). Nevertheless this was only basedon the chronology of the breeding of the two species after the deterrent actionsagainst Sacred ibis in other colonies, which altered the traditional timing of breedingby inducing an influx of this species in the refuge area of Grand-Lieu later in thebreeding season (L.Marion in prep.). Despite such a disturbance, there was still a strongcorrelation between number of breeding pairs of both species at Grand-Lieu (r Spearman= 0.84; p < 0.0001 between 1993 and 2011; L.Marion in prep.). Above all, shooting andother deterrent action against Sacred ibises in the mixed colonies of Loire-Atlantiquesince 2008 disturbed breeding spoonbills significantly. This is probably the reason for

the strong decrease of spoonbills in these main colonies following displacement in newsites, since the food resources did not seem to be limiting in this large wetland area.

Acknowlegdements

I thank all the counters who participated in the annual census of the breedingspoonbills in France: J.Cl. Beaudoin, M. Benmergui, E. Beslot, T. Blanchon, G. Bourls, S.Cardonnel, Ph. Carruette, M. Caupenne, F. Cazaban, R. Chazal, R. Hargues, P. Crouzier,F. Dupuy, A. Foss, M. Gauthier-Clerc, Y. Kayser, P. Lesclaux, D. Marchal, L. Marion, P.Marion, Y. Montan, D. Montfort, N. Sadoul, F. Sueur, and their organizations: Bretagne

Vivante, CNERA ONCFS Birieux, Conseil Gnral Gironde, CNRS-Universit Rennes1,CPIE Seignanx et Adour, FDC Landes, Parc du Marquenterre, LPO Charente-Maritime,LPO Anjou, LPO Loire-Atlantique, RN Courant dHuchet, RN dOrx, SESLG, Syndicat mixtegestion milieu naturels des Landes, Tour du Valat.

References

Benmergui M, Crouzier P. 2006. La Spatule blanche Platalea leucorodianicheuse enDombes. Ornithos 13, 378-381.

Blanchon T, Kayser Y, Arnaud A, Gauthier-Clerc M. 2010. La Spatule blanche Platalealeucorodiaen Camargue: nidification et hivernage. Ornithos 17: 217-222.

Clergeau P, Fourcy D, Reeber S, Ysou P. 2010. New but nice? Do alien sacred ibises

Threskiornis aethiopicus stabilize nesting colonies of native spoonbills Platalealeucorodiaat Grand-Lieu Lake, France? Oryx 44: 533-538.


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Crouzier P, Rimbert P. 1997. Deux tentatives de nidification de Spatules blanches Platalealeucorodiaen plaine du Forez (Loire) et en Dombes (Ain). Nos Oiseaux 44: 109-110.

IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. www.iucnredlist.org.Downloaded on 02 June 2013.

Marion L. 1994. La Spatule blanche. In: Atlas des oiseaux nicheurs de France. Yeatman-Berthelot D, Jarry G (Eds): Socit Ornithologique de France, Paris. pp. 50-51.

Marion L. 1996. Nidification de la Spatule blanche Platalea leucorodiaen France.Ornithos 3: 14-21.

Marion L. 1999. La Spatule blanche Platalea leucorodia. In : Oiseaux menacs et surveiller en France. Rocamora G., Yeatman-Berthelot D (Eds). Socit dEtudes

Ornithologiques de France, Paris: 114-115.

Marion L. 2006. Status of the breeding population of spoonbills in France and relationswith Sacred ibis. Eurosite Spoonbill Network Newsletter 4: 36-40.

Marion L. 2012. Spatule blanche Platalea leucorodia. In: Les oiseaux nicheurs rares etmenacs en France en 2011. Dupuis V. & coordinateurs espces. Ornithos 19: 297

Marion L. In Press. Is the Sacred ibis a real threat for bird biodiversity? Long-term studyof its diet in non-native areas compared to native areas. Comptes Rendus Biologies 336(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2013.05.001 ).

Marion L, Marion P. 1982. La Spatule blanche Platalea leucorodianiche au Lac deGrand-Lieu. Alauda 50: 241-249.

Marion L, Marion P. 1994. Premire installation spontane dune colonie dIbis sacrThreskhiornis aethiopicus au lac de Grand-Lieu. Donnes prliminaires sur la production

en jeunes et sur le rgime alimentaire. Alauda 62: 275-280.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/http://www.iucnredlist.org/


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Breeding success of the only Belgian Spoonbill colonywith an exploratory diet study

VII Spoonbill Workshop Proceedings 2013

Documents

Transcript of VII Spoonbill Workshop Proceedings 2013