greenpages, since it has widenedits range. Fourof the six in Kazakhstanis possibleonly on the territory of severalstate specieslisted in the KazakhstanRed Data Book are also reservesand reservations: Sociable -in the Kurgald- includedin the Red Data Bookof the formerUSSR, and jinskyand Naurzumsky reserves, Ibisbill - in the Alma-Atinsky Asiatic Dowitcher and Little Whimbrel are included in the Red reserve,White-tailed Plover- in the Turgaisky reserve. It is Data Book of lUCN. extremelyimportant to createa widernetwork of nature reserves,because this provides the mosteffective action to At present,the conservation of rareand endangered protectrare waders and theirhabitats in Kazakhstan.

Ghanaianringing scheme launched

Phil Ireland and Steve Dodd

Reprintedby agreement with the editors,from the Shorelines feature in BTONews ).

Followingearlier discussion and advice from the British thesecond half of Septemberleft little time to arrange RingingOffice, Dr. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu of the Universityof funding,so we werevery grateful when the BritishAirways' Ghanainvited representatives from the BritishTrust for AssistingNature Conservation scheme stepped in with the Ornithologyto help set up the GhanaianRinging Scheme and generousoffer of flightsponsorship to Accra,the capitalof to trainlocal personnel in ringingtechniques. Ghana.The next10 daysof innoculations,telexing Ghana andobtaining visas were hectic, with British Airways again Manywill be aware of the work done in Ghanato educatethe comingto the rescueas messengerwhen the Universityof localpeople about the that use their shores. Great Ghanatelephone lines were out of order.Even so, it was effortshave been made to ensurethe birds'survival by notuntil the morningof theflight that Phil Ireland collected discouragingthe useof snaresto trapterns by the Savethe thevisas from the GhanaianHigh Commission in London: SeashoreBirds project. This project has been running for five the Britishpostal system, bureaucracy and complex forms years,and Dr. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu,instigator ofthe Save the betweenthem conspired to leavePhil just 20 minutes SeashoreBirds project and senior lecturer at the Universityof betweenarriving at Gatwickand his 'plane's departure. Ghana,feels that moreneeds to be learnedabout the other birds,and particularly the waders, which use these areas. Accrawas the venue for our first two days in Ghana,where planswere discussed and equipment checked, with oppor- Followingdiscussions with the BTO,it wasfelt that it wouldbe tunitiestoo for visiting and birdwatching sights. moreappropriate to set up an independentGhanaian Ringing Photographingwaves below the cliffs by the Gameand Scheme,rather than use British rings, and the firstrings to WildlifeService rest house nearly brought a prematureend bearthe inscription GRS ZOOLOGY LEGON GHANA have to ourvisit. A distantbuilding was a prohibitedsubject, nowbeen manufactured by Lambournes,makers of the resultingin our arrest by some of the locals.Accompanied BTO'srings. The Ghanaiansasked for the assistance of by halfthe localpopulation, we weremarched off to the Britishwader ringers to inauguratetheir ringing scheme, and localarmy officer, who eventually allowed us to retainthe hence our visit. film which had been removed from our camera.

Planninga visitto Ghanaduring the peakautumn passage in Allwe knewof the catchingsites before our visit was that I I

theywere coastal. We knewthere were lagoons which held ringed.The evening provided many lessons for the largenumbers of AvocetsRecurvirostra avosetta other Ghanaians,not least about the need to bewell organised to wadersand .Esiama, the firstsite we were takento, was dealwith a suddeninflux of birds.It provedinstructive for the 250 kmwest of Accraand turned out to be 13 kmof sandy Europeansas well,teaching us that however far from a shorebounded by an estuaryat eachend, backed by a string settlement,people will materialise. In themiddle of dealing of palms.All along were fishing villages, with lines of nets withthe birds we suddenly became aware of peoplerunning constantlybeing pulled in. The mostcommon wader was about,and we werein the thick of a disputeover the rightto Sanderling,with good numbers of RingedPlover Calidris fishon the estuarywhere our nets had been set. hiaticulaand Common Tringa hypoleucos. Forthe second part of ourstay, we movedto a hugearea of Thenewly fledged Ghanaian Ringing Scheme had purchased shallowcoastal lagoons three hours drive east of Accra.This a numberof mistnets and we hadbrought clap netting areawas obviously very productive, with large numbers of materialwith us, so the problemnow was to catchsome of wadersand terns, and also a greatdeal of humanfishing the birds.The next'dayand a halfwas spent in unsuccessful activity.There were not places for clap-netting so ourefforts attemptsto catch,partly due to ourimprovised mechanisms weredirected towards mist netting. The intentionwas to mist- forthe clap net but also due to theoccasional huge wave netat dawnand duskwith nets in the shallowwater, with the whichwould wash far higherup the beachthan the rest, aimof cathingwaders and particularlythe .In causingthe Sanderlingto takeoff or the netto beflooded out. practice,the first night was very productive for Black Chlidoniasniger, Little Sterna albifrons and Common Terns, Carefuldiplomacy was called for with dealings with the village 35 intotal, with success declining rapidly, with few waders children,who had been watching, since the Savethe beingcaught. SeashoreBirds project had been educating them not to catch birds.However, they did come to ourrescue by aski.ng why Severalfactors contributed to this lack of success, including we didn'tcatch birds the way they used to catchthem. Their thedrying of the waterin the lagoons,strong winds and the techniqueinvolved the useof snaresusing maggots as bait. waxing,bright moon. To minimisethese effects, some nets wereset amongst mangroves, and these resulted in greater Thesnares were promptly confiscated by Yaa, declaring them successin catchingwaders. Some interesting birds were illegal,but we didadapt their method by using maggots as a caughtin this way, including two Kittlitz's Charadrius meansof enticingthe birdsaway from the wavesand intothe pecuariusand a LittleBittern Ixobrychus minutus, the latter catchingarea. To the delightof all, it worked!And so the first beingthe onlyspecies other than waders and terns which birdringed by the GhanaianRinging Scheme was a Sanderl- wascaught during the visit. ingB00001. Our glee was short lived, since we caughtonly onemore that day, a CommonSandpiper, but a further Althoughthe intentionis to tryto findout more about all wader 24 werecaught the next. speciespassing through Ghana, four species have been singledout for special attention. These are , Spotted Unlikein Britain,the behaviourof wadersin Ghanais deter- RedshankTringa erythropus, Curlew Sandpiper Calidris minedby the stateof the daylight,rather than the stateof the ferrugineaand Sanderling. All are beingcolour ringed so that tide.The birds'normal routine was to feedin the early subsequentreports do notdepend on the birdbeing recaught. morning,rest at mid-day,feed again until dusk and then go to Avocetsare to havepart of theirplumage dyed yellow. roostovernight. Locals told us they had seen waders roosting underthe palms,but our attempts to waylaythem with mist- Whilstour visit was successful in catchingSanderling (44 nets did not succeed. ringed)only six Curlew Sandpiper were ringed and neither of theother two study species were handled. Our two main aims We trieda newtactic on ourfinal night in Esiama,setting wereachieved, namely to initiatethe RingingScheme and mist-netsover a Sandyspit at the mouth of the River Aman- providesome practical advice on techniques in relationto sureat nightfall.This proved highly successful, catching 50 waders.We hadnot intended to catchand ring large numbers birdsof variousspecies, including Sanderling, Common of birds.As we left,the team made up of Yaa,three field- Sandpiper,six Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus and small workers and their driver were about to embark on further numbersof KnotCalidris canutus, Turnstone Arenaria fieldwork to consolidate what we had been able to teach them interpresand Grey Plover squatarola. The first non- duringour stay. wader,a CommonTern Stema hirundo, was also caught and

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