1st August, 2015
The experts from China, Japan and United States arrived at Xiangshan County, Zhejiang and joined Simba Chan from Birdlife International for the tern ringing in the next three days. The Tern restoration started two years ago and got a very successful result. More than 1000 individuals of Greater Crested Tern and almost 50 individuals of Chinese Crested Tern bred last year. The population of Chinese Crested Tern was estimated less than 50 individuals in the past, the number increased in the last year study.
Except the conservation work in the breeding season, the experts would like to study the migration route and wintering site of Crested Terns. The first step was ringing juveniles of Greater Crested Tern and collecting the sighting record from Southeast Asia area.
2nd August
All of the experts arrived Xiangshan County, Zhejiang and had a briefing session of the bird ringing. But we had a bad news from the briefing, the wind too strong for us to go to the tern breeding island and we will need to postpone 1 day.
由於潮退,大船沒法靠岸,我們共轉船兩次,及分開兩艘船前往燕鷗島,船程要一個多小時。
Because of low tide, the big boat cannot come close to the island. So we need to change our boat and separated to two groups on two smaller boat and take more than 1 hours to the island.
我們已經延遲一日出發,其實今天的天氣也不理想,風浪還是頗大,估計是4至5級風,浪拍打船身也會濺濕舺板。
We already postponed for 1 day because of the weather. But the weather is not ideal today. The wind force level 4 to 5 also strong for us.
If you see any Greater Crested Terns (or any ringed terns) having a coloured ring on their legs, please send us the information (Including bird species, date and location of the sighting, Ring location on the body, number and the combination of the coloured ring) and photos (if any) via legflags @hkbws.org.hk
The Tern Breeding and Restoration project is held by the State Oceanic Administration of Xiangshan County, Zhejiang and Museum of Natural Science, Zhejiang.
Organizations taking part into this project include Nature Conservation Office of Jiushan Archipelago National Nature Reserve, Oregon State University, National Bird Banding Center, Fudan University, BirdLife International and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society.