Western Sandpipers stop in this BC Mudflat to feed during their 10,000 km migration

Western sandpipers are small coastal birds that weigh as much as a slice of bread. Every spring migrate from their wintering land until the south of Peru to reproduction sites in Alaska and Siberia. They stop to refuel in some key places of the journey (which can be more than 10,000 kilometers long), including Roberts Bank’s flat mud flat near Vancouver.

Roberts Bank provides one of the latest meals for birds on their north trip: the next stop stop is the estuary of the Stikine river, more than 850 kilometers away.

The documentary The last Sandpipers dinner, Written and directed by Isabelle Groc, he captures tens of thousands of western sandpipers while covering Roberts Bank. Explore why this Mudflat place alongside Gct Deltaport, a large terminal shipping content-is vital for their survival.

“If this Mudflat were not here and was not in this condition, then the birds would not be here,” says Adam Ross, a 14 -year -old Birdwatcher in the film.

It is estimated that from 42 to 64 percent of the global population of Western sandpiper is based on Roberts Bank to rest and refuel, and that almost all Western sandpipers will use the site at least once in their lives.

Because the western sandpipers stop at Roberts Bank

For decades, scientists believed that the western sandpipers were snapped on small marine invertebrates found in the mud.

But in the 90s, Bob Elner, an emeritus scientist in the environment and climate Change Canada, began to question the theory.

“I spent many, many hours on Roberts Bank, only looking at the western sandpipers, realizing that we had a huge enigma here,” he says in the film.

Roberts Bank’s mud has little oxygen and is, for the most part, free of invertebrate food visible for birds. So Elner and his colleagues started investigating what they could eat.

When they looked inside the stomach of western sandpopers, they were practically empty.

“Everything I could see in the stomach were some sand particles and a good dose of liquid,” says Elner. “So the mystery deepened.”

Subsequently, they looked more closely inside the sandpipers bills and, surprised with them, they discovered that birds had a very hairy language – “like a broom,” says Elner.

Using an electronic microscope to look between the hair, they found microscopic organisms called diatomee.

It turns out that the birds stopped at Roberts Bank to make special Snock: a base biofilm that covers the surface of the mud every spring, just when thousands of coastal birds arrive on the parking site. Biofilm is rich in omega-3 fatty acids produced by diatomee.

This is the energy drink that western sandproes need to complete their journey to reproduction sites in Alaska and Siberia. “No other bird that we know about biofilm feed,” says Elner.

Roberts Bank at risk

Roberts Bank is the last large basement mud remained in the summer of the Fraser river that provides this biofilm.

However, the site is intended for an important expansion of the port, which could compromise essential biofilm for millions of coastal migratory birds.

“With the threats of the development of the port, this bank will extinguish ecologically,” says Elner. “There is no known way to recreate Biofilm this productive … if it goes, this is the end of this as a parking stop. The birds will suffer very negative consequences. That species would be directed to the insurance.”

Roberts Bank’s loss would influence the wider ecosystem – including Orcas, Chinook Salmon and other species – and residents in nearby First Nation Tsawwssen.

“He has the largest Crabbing land promptly available, the closest to us,” says Steven Stark, a member of the Tsawwssen band. “This is historically our fishing and our crabbing and our collection soils. … The estuary, it is like a living organism and that breathes out there. In a certain sense it works together to survive and protect.”

In the documentary, The nature of things The presenter Sarika Cullis-Suzuki joins Elner and Ross on Roberts Bank’s Mudflats to find out more about the migration of western sandpiper and on the importance of the base biofilm for the survival of birds.

Clock The last Sandpipers dinner On CBC GEM E The nature of things YouTube channel.