Event title:
Celebrated World Migratory Bid Day – 2021 at Chukh Bird Research Station (CBRS), Eastern Mongolia
Date:
10th August, 2021
Organizer: Chukh Bird Research Station (CBRS) of Mongolian Bird Conservation Center of Mongolia (MBCC)
Participants:
Total 35 people which were consisted of 17 School students, 6 people from University, and 12 local people.
Summary:
It is very important to organize WMBD events among the local kids and herder families at Chukh Lake, in northeastern Mongolia which is an important stopover site for many species of migratory birds especially for shorebirds, but this small steppe lake is very sensitive during the dry periods and it needs well public awareness among the local herder families.
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
We celebrated World Migratory Bird Day – 2021 on 10th of August at Chukh lake, Eastern Mongolia during the peak period of shorebird migration. There were a total of 35 people including school children, university students and local people have participated in our organized event. Although some changes were made to our program due to the restriction of the Covid-19 pandemic, we organized our event following the infection control regime such as put on mask and sanitize hands for all participants before entry.
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
The event was organized in Chukh Bird Research Station. Mr. Amarkhuu Gungaa who is a Research director of Mongolian Bird Conservation Center opened the event and after that Ms. Uchrakhzaya Tserenbat, a coordinator of CBRS introduced their two years result of migratory shorebirds monitoring at Chukh lake. After that Ms. Baasansuren Erdenechimeg presented about migration studies of shorebirds, cranes and some species of raptors that tracked from Eastern Mongolia last three years.
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
After tea break, the event continued that our oldest but youngest volunteer Ms. Khaliun Sukhbaatar who is a 12th grade student from a local school to gave us an impressive talk about her three years of experience at bird research station.
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
Hands-on training about how to ring and measure shorebirds, and how to identify them was the most interesting part of the event, especially for kids. We introduced to them about the safety rules for handling birds and the importance of wearing a color-flags and released birds by them.
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
In the final part of the event, we introduced common shorebirds and waterbirds in Chukh lake and did some bird watching. We prepared a WMBD themed t-shirt and “Shorebirds of Chukh” calendar with shorebird photos for all participants. Finally organizing team and participants took photos together and our event successfully finished.
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
©️Chukh Bird Research Station
Outcome
Our community have been conducting shorebird monitoring at Chukh lake, eastern Mongolia since 2019. Also we conducted a few avian research and wetland conservation works in wetlands, lakes and rivers among the Mongol Daguur region in recent years and achieved very good results. However, we did not adequately present our studies to the public, specifically in local people.
Therefore, to fill this gap to celebrating WMBD-2021 in our station is the most suitable way to introduce our research work to the local people and school children, increase their ecological education, their knowledge about the place where they live, and inspire them to care and protect this beautiful nature.
In celebrating the WMBD-2021, we wanted to make the community aware of the concept that “Share the shore with shorebirds”. There is the following reasons that we would like to celebrate under this concept.
First of all, the Chukh lake, our research place is a small-sized, very sensitive lake compared with other similar lakes in this region, because there are no natural obstacles along the shore, such as rocks and stones, and everything can be reached directly by car, motorcycle or foot.
Second of all, a total of 78 herder families are living together with 65,284 head of livestock (in 2020) around Chukh lake. A large number of livestock especially cows and horses drink from the lake and stand in the lake to cool off during the warm seasons.
Due to the above reasons, frequent parking near the lake and a large number of livestock can disturb the shorebirds and some species of ducks and geese with their chicks resting and feeding on the shore of the lake, become restless and uncomfortable.
So, our main goal was to change the attitude of the local people and explain why migratory shorebirds need to be kept at peace on the shore during their migration season and what is the importance of wetland sharing.
Watch the event video:
About Chukh Bird Research Station (CBRS)
Chukh Bird Research Station (CBRS) is coordinated by the Mongolian Bird Conservation Center of Mongolia (MBCC) which is one of the leading non-governmental organizations in avian research and conservation in Mongolia. MBCC was established 2015 and currently implements a number of research and conservation projects on avian species and their habitats in Mongolia.
The main aim of the CBRS is to carry out long-term and sustainable monitoring of breeding and migratory shorebirds population of Chukh lake, and to conduct ecological and biological studies of the lake and its biodiversity. In addition, we aim to provide hands-on field training opportunities for students and local specialists, to support master and doctoral research theses for young researchers, and to promote science-based environmental knowledge for local people. We have been conducting shorebird monitoring at Chukh lake since 2019 and achieved very good results.
