The Spoon-billed Sandpiper holds a special place in our hearts at Wader Quest. This is because it was the species that kickstarted our wader conservation journey. When we realised just how close to extinction this species was, we felt compelled to do something and the result was the charity we are today. Thankfully, due to much effort on the part of the many dedicated people involved, Spoonies are still with us and, although still declining, they are doing so at a much slower rate.
One of the reasons that this decline has been slowed is the amount of work that has gone into discovering the needs of this species and implementing those findings in conservation strategies.
A recent paper from China concerning Spoon-billed Sandpiper diet and foraging habitat selection, has highlighted a particular food source that is crucial to their survival. The study demonstrates a particular element in their feeding habits and a specific habitat that is a very important factor in this respect. That habitat consists of very shallow levels of water on mudflats or other suitable substrates where their food gets trapped after the tide ebbs away. The prey items involved are creatures that live on, or just under, the surface of the mud or sand (epibenthos), examples being shrimps, worms, mudskipper fish etc.
Very helpfully the authors of the paper have provided a graphic to be downloaded which pretty much sums up their discovery. (Below.)
This information, added to the data that the Spoony conservationists already have, enables them to highlight potential, and indeed actual, spoony feeding habitat and allows them to work towards securing it for the future.