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waders and their estuarine food supplies - Vlaams Instituut voor de ...

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catchers to take only certain prey from a mixture of different<br />

size classes <strong>and</strong> prev species.<br />

Methods<br />

Studies<br />

The data presented in this paper have been taken from<br />

57 articles. 6 stu<strong>de</strong>nt reports. 4 unpublished theses, but<br />

also from unpublished data files of Anne-Marie Blomert.<br />

Klaus-Michael Exo, Kees Hulsnmn. Cor Smit <strong>and</strong><br />

the live authors: all sources are listed in the appendix.<br />

The studies were performed in 20 areas (Fig. 1), of<br />

which ten are siiualed in Great Britain <strong>and</strong> Northern<br />

Irel<strong>and</strong>, six in the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> one in Denmark.<br />

France. Morocco <strong>and</strong> Mauritania. All studies were<br />

done in the field on free-living Oystercatchers. except<br />

those indicated as C in column 'Cap' of the appendix<br />

which refer to caged birds. Captive birds were either<br />

taken to the mudflats where they were allowed to Iced<br />

in temporary cages (Hulscher 1976. 1982. unpubl.) or<br />

BUR = Burry Inlet<br />

CON = Conway River<br />

EXE = Exe estuary<br />

FOR = Forth estuary<br />

FRI = grassl<strong>and</strong> in Friesl<strong>and</strong><br />

MOR = Moreeambe Bay<br />

0OS = Oosterschel<strong>de</strong> esluary<br />

PAE = Frisian coast neat Paesens<br />

SCH = Frisian isl<strong>and</strong> Schiermonnikoog<br />

SKA E Skallingen<br />

SKO = Skokholm<br />

SOM = Baie <strong>de</strong> Somme<br />

STR = Strangford Lough<br />

TEX = Frisian isl<strong>and</strong> Texel<br />

TRA = Traih Melynog<br />

VLI = Frisian isl<strong>and</strong> Vhel<strong>and</strong><br />

WAS • Wash Bay<br />

YTH = Ythan estuary<br />

PREY PROFITABILITY AND INTAKE RATE<br />

they were offered <strong>food</strong> on artificial mudflats (e.g.<br />

Swennen et al. 1989), Captive birds thus led in an almost<br />

natural situation, hut occasionally the <strong>food</strong> supply<br />

was manipulated either bv erasins* surface tracks<br />

that might reveal the presence of ihe prey (Hulscher<br />

1982). or by implanting prey at different <strong>de</strong>pths<br />

i Wanink & Zwarts 1985. 1996).<br />

Prey size<br />

Size classes taken were known because prey remnants<br />

could be collected, <strong>and</strong>/or the prey size was estimated<br />

when ihe birds held the prey in the bill. In the latter<br />

case, bill length or the size of ihe colour ring could be<br />

used as a ruler of known si/e. Calibration experiments<br />

showed lhat observers could estimate prey size this<br />

way rather consistently (Ens 1982, Goss-Custard et al.<br />

1987, Boates & Goss-Custard 1989. Baser al. 1996b).<br />

Such estimates were usually accurate. In others, errors<br />

could be corrected. For instance, comparison of the<br />

size frequency distribution of remnants of fiddler crabs<br />

Uca tangeri taken by Oystercatchers (Ens unpubl.) <strong>and</strong><br />

Fig. I. Map of the study areas in NW. Europe indicated hy three letter co<strong>de</strong>s [too •Old* areas vi ere situated in Africa: ihe Bay olDakhla, Morocco<br />

(formerly Western Saharal <strong>and</strong> the Banc d'Arguin. M.HIM :<br />

177

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