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

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to locate the clams after they had been eaten, for a<br />

Curlew makes a small crater while h<strong>and</strong>ling the prev.<br />

We were able to locate the clams seen to be taken in relation<br />

to a grid of theos<strong>and</strong>s of numbered polei, •e;\ i .<br />

rated from each other by a few metres on the feeding<br />

area. After an observation period, during which we<br />

timed the h<strong>and</strong>ling of the clams being eaten <strong>and</strong> noted<br />

<strong>their</strong> positions, we searched the different craters. To<br />

PREY DEPLETION BY OYSTERCATCHER AND CURLEW<br />

-i 1 r<br />

3 4 5 6<br />

size of Mya arenaria in cm<br />

calculate the yield for the Curlews, the flesh which remained<br />

in the shell was weighed <strong>and</strong> subtracted from<br />

an estimated total flesh weight, <strong>de</strong>rived from a<br />

weight/leagtfa relationship. Figure ! shows ihe b<br />

dling time <strong>and</strong> the profitability as a funelion of the<br />

shell size for a single colour-h<strong>and</strong>ed I urlew (called<br />

20Y). which fortunately fed near one of our observation<br />

towers <strong>and</strong> has done so for five years. As Fig. 1<br />

Fig. 3. Frequency distribution of <strong>de</strong>pth of clams per size class m-4. 5-9 mm. etc.). The mean <strong>and</strong> the number of clams dug out are indicated.<br />

With the aid of grey bars ihe pan of die clams being taken by Oystercatchers <strong>and</strong> Curlews are shown The nisei figure shows the accessible percentage<br />

per si/e class lor Ossiercatcliers (upper 7 cm of the substrate), <strong>and</strong> formate <strong>and</strong> female Curlews (upper 12 <strong>and</strong> 14 cm. respectively).<br />

339

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