Archive for ‘News and Updates’ Category
New bird hide for Miranda
The result of a very successful working bee last weekend is a new hide. Considerably larger and more elaborate than the current hide, it was built at the shorebird centre, then dismantled and taken down to the shell bank. It is positioned several hundred metres immediately south of the existing hide facing out towards the [...]
Join us for our next Field Course January 2012
Our six day Field Course covers a lot of ground! intensive and fun! Join us from the 21st to 27th of January. Ornithology Shorebird identification catching and banding birds bird structure with a dissection shorebird monitoring techniques data collection and recording shorebird migration moult and its significance conservation of shorebird habitat chosing telescopes and binoculars [...]
Knots in the Bohai
One of the long held mysteries of the northward shorebird migration was “where are the Red Knots going?” Surveys around the shores of the Yellow Sea showed few large concentrations of knots, and it has only been in the last few years, through the work of Chris Hassell and the Global Flyway Network that we [...]
Godwits – by Keith Woodley
October 2009 was the much anticipated release date for Miranda Shorebird Centre Manager Keith Woodley’s book ‘Godwits: Long-haul Champions’ published by Raupo Penguin. This essential read both to birders and general readers will of course be available in the Miranda shop. For more on the book click here: Godwits_media_release
Yalu Jiang 2009
-an update on the Trust’s work in China. In 1999 Mark Barter first visited Yalu Jiang National Nature Reserve, China and discovered its significance for shorebirds. In 2004 MNT signed a memorandum of understanding which established a sister-site partnership with the reserve. Since then Adrian Riegen has led annual teams from the MNT to the [...]
E7 – a godwit on a mission
Many of you will have read or heard of the amazing journey of the godwit now known as ‘E7′. She together with several other godwits at Miranda and Farewell Spit were fitted with transmitters in February of 2007. The purpose of this exercise was to track their migration routes from their New Zealand patch up [...]
Godwits link New Zealand, North Korea and the United States
-an update on the Trust’s April 2009 trip to North Korea Shorebird researchers from New Zealand have discovered a direct link involving this country, North Korea and the United States. Among flocks of over 5,000 migratory birds near Pyongyang, were godwits from New Zealand, which had stopped there during northward migration to breeding grounds [...]
Mangroves in the Firth of Thames
-a review of Andrew Swales’ presentation at the Trust’s AGM. Before the 2009 AGM in May, Andrew Swales of NIWA, as our guest speaker, gave us a fascinating presentation on the work he and his colleagues have been undertaking in the mangrove forest area in the southern end of the Firth. Comparison of information from [...]
