Tearing down the nets (1 Viewer)

[rockfowl]

Good stuff Shi Jin!

Perhaps the campaign will also slow down the wealth of Chinese traders plying "died naturally" birds on ebay such as this character - http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/freegee/m...h=item19d69f52c8&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Have lots of images of nets/trapped/dead birds from Hebei should you need more ammunition.

 

[Shi Jin]

Thanks Mark

Bloody hell. That eBay site is like something from the 1800s.

Good luck on the campaign to get that closed down.

The Chinese equivalent, Taobao, may be a harder nut to crack.

It's a bird-trappers' emporium. I've got a dossier of screen-grabs that I'm going to circulate on my wife's weibo (Chinese twitter) for the next campaign.

Have a look at weibo, it's full of great stuff, and up to the minute campaigning from many activisits here.

Here's my wife's weibo:

http://weibo.com/huniao huniao = protect birds

If you go to those followed (not followers) - the one that has 51 entries, and click on the icons (excluding the news sites), you'll see the best of them.

Yes, I would very much like to put some of your net shots (including some "saved birds" shots if you have them) on to the Protecting birds in China webspace.

Thanks again Mark

 

[rockfowl]

Theres a piece of good publicity and news on the China Birding Facebook page -


Captive birds released,bird catchers caught,Xiang Yang City,China
Updated 16 hours ago
Last week, three bird lovers in Xiang Yang City alarmed the Forest Police that hundreds of wild Yellow-breasted Bunting (an endangered species), were caught.
The Forest Police and the volunteers took action and found the temporary location where the birds were held.
The bird catchers were caught and the captive birds were released to freedom.
The volunteers used the opportunity to explain to the public why these birds should be protected and not caught from the wild. - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4308240537618.165489.1034961836&type=1

Yellow-breasted appears to be on a noticeable decline judging by sightings on the East coast and numbers reported around Lake Baikal over the last decade or so.

Some more welcome news!

 

[Shi Jin]

Today's update on the poisoning of Oriental White Storks and many other birds is here.

http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

This is not a chemical spill. Poachers are to blame.

 

[Shi Jin]

The news site below was updated last night with the report that another 6 birds were found dead. If it were not for the heroic efforts of the local volunteers however, this number could have been many times more.

Their discovery of poachers' "lure pools" is significant.

Details are here: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

 

[china guy]

Here's a shocker from my part of the woods - something I've been sitting on for the past 9 months!!!!
At Chengdu Airport the new runway has been surrounded by complete ring of mist nets - supposedly for bird protection. According to the airport website the runways are 3.6km long - that will give you a net running to almost 8 km in length!!!!! The picture was taken last march - you can see birds in the net. We haven't been back since - with the security patrols and local paranoia over terrorism, lurking on the edges of Chinese international airports with cameras is most likely highly illegal and not one of our favorite past-times!!!! We don't know if the nets are still up - but we strongly suspect they still are.
Those who read my posts know my usual course of action when confronted with a net - take action to destroy - but nets around airports are a far more difficult task. Forestry Protection Police and local NGO's are not wanting to get involved with the authorities who run international airports - since it's a 'legal' government birdnet - set in place with the misguided idea that this is the best way to prevent birdstrike!!!!
So what is the best way to tackle this horrible problem - anybody here know anybody who has the sufficient pull to advise the airport that there are alternative ways of keeping birds off runways, and that netting the area is regarded as so environmental unfriendly that it's a huge embarrassment for the airport - any ideas????


What a great campaign -

 

[Gretchen]

Hmm... seems there's someone who knows about airports, and might know how some really "modern" airports deal with birds ... Mike?

 

[Shi Jin]

That's a shocker of a report and photo from Sichuan.

I searched 飞机场 airport 捕鸟 bird-trapping and various combinations containing 网 net on the weibo of Chengdu Birdwatching Society 成都观鸟会 http://weibo.com/u/1133669242 and Chengdu migrant-bird protection group 让候鸟飞成都小分队 http://weibo.com/u/3070541625, but drew a blank. A key-word search of Sina Weibo also throws up nothing (but that doesn't mean that there wasn't stuff posted of course).

I think the best thing to do is to check with the local groups to find out what the situation is now (and, hopefully, when the policy changed).

If (God forbid) it's still going on, I sense that, because of the current mood and various other factors, it can be quickly stopped.

S.

 

[Shi Jin]

Here's the news for Friday, 16th November:

http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

Thank you again for the many messages of support. I will try to get them all loaded onto the site by tomorrow.

Best regards from Beijing.

 

[china guy]

Hi Shi Jin - Roland informed the Chengdu Birdwatching society, which is also linked to the Chengdu Migrant Protection Group, last year. I don't think they are able to do much in this situation.

So I've gone off on another tack - found the contact site of the manager of Chengdu Airport - on the airport English language site.
http://www.cdairport.com/front_en/zjlxx.jsp

This is the message I intend to send:

Dear Manager - a rather disturbing picture, from Chengdu Shuangli International Airport, has appeared on the internet showing that the airport has set up kilometers of birdnets around its perimeter.
You can find the picture here, at Birdforum, the world's largest bird watching site that has 118,000 members

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2589931&postcount=26

The picture shows dead birds hanging in the nets. This has caused shock - it is very disturbing that wild creatures, some of which maybe rare migrants, are allowed to die slowly in such an appalling way. This is an environmentally destructive method of coping with runway bird problems, and it does not reflect favorably with an image of a modern, progressive international airport.
Are the nets are still in place - if so I would be happy to advise on methods of bird control that do not involve killing, in a slow and horrible way, thousands of birds.


Unfortunately the message won't sent - arggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh

I'll try again tomorrow - others are welcome to send a message

 

[Shi Jin]

Let's hope that the practice has been long-stopped.

If you would like me to arrange for the photo to be circulated on Sina weibo please let me know. I think it would horrify many people.

 

[Shi Jin]

All of the 13 Oriental White Storks in care continue to do well. The plan is to release them back into the wild tomorrow (Wednesday).

The details are here: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

Thank you again for your heart-warming comments in support of the volunteers who have made this possible.

So far 150 of them (those received by 7pm Beijing time, 11am GMT on Tuesday) have been loaded onto the site AND passed to the volunteers.

Please keep them coming!

 

[Shi Jin]

Great news.

At 10.25am local time today (2.25am GMT), all of the rescued storks took to the sky.

Details (as well as a dozen English-language news reports about the rescue mission and about the issues) are here:

http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

If you would like to congratulate the volunteers who made this possible, you can also do so at the above.

Best regards from Beijing.

 

[FXM]

I'd like to congratulate the volunteers on here if I may. Great job. I'll do the same via the link.

 

[china guy]

Please circulate the photo - and ask if anybody has seen the same at other airports.

It could also be pointed out that the kind of birds the nets stop would never cause an aircraft accident because they were far too small - which further underlines their horrific pointlessness!!!!

 

[MKinHK]

Hi Gretchen

I've seen nets at other airports including Shenzhen - very depressing. HKIA certainly does not use nets

I'm trying to find out if I can do anything, but the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly ...

In the meantime publicizing pictures like Sid's is definitely the way to go.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Shi Jin]

Thanks Sid and Mike

I will circulate on Weibo and also copy the local groups.

I'll let you know what happens.

 

[Shi Jin]

On Wednesday, shortly after the successful release of the 15 Oriental White Storks that had been nursed back to health, another two storks were found to be in difficulty, more than 100 miles along the coast (in "Happy Island" county).

Sadly, one later died. The translated report from Friday's edition of the Jinghua Times at the link below has the details.

Although describing how the volunteer rescue teams rushed from Tianjin and Beijing to help, it doesn't mention that Nemo was, again, leading the charge.

http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

 

[Shi Jin]

Good news.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the poisoning to death of 22 Oriental White Storks in Beidagang, Tianjin.

The report is here: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html

More good news is that there have been no more reports of poisoning there among the up to 350 Oriental White Storks and thousands of other birds that have migrated through the area in the past week.

The incident further along the coast, in Tangshan, that was reported one week ago (one Oriental White Stork died there) is still being investigated. No more deaths have been reported.

One final thing, the number of comments in praise of the remarkable work of the volunteers is stuck at around the 180 mark. If you have a moment, and haven't yet voiced your support, it would be great if you could help push the total over the 200 mark ;-)

Thanks to the volunteers, not only were 13 storks nursed back to health, but all the lure pools were found and made safe... before the arrival of 350 storks!

On behalf of Nemo and all of the volunteers, thank you so much for your support. It really does mean a lot.

 

[rockfowl]

More proactive stuff -
Migratory birds packed in crates saved by railway police - http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/747801.shtml#.ULvvjXcQt3k.facebook