Thirteen Spoon-billed Sandpipers have arrived in England after spending sixty days in quarantine at Moscow Zoo. The birds were captured on their breeding grounds in Siberia and the hope is that they can be used to start a captive breeding program in an attempt to bring the species back from the brink. Here’s hoping it goes well!
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Go Spoonies, go! Grow up quickly and make more Spoonies, we want many more!!
It’s good to have a backup plan, but now we need to redouble our efforts to ensure that the remaining wild birds have enough habitat to survive, because otherwise there would be nowhere to reintroduce the captive-bred birds.
I read the headline and imagined that they had turned up as vagrants! Can you imagine the pandemonium?
@Duncan: That raises the question – Is it ok to trample other birders for a look at a spoonie?
@Corey: a definite YES!