The yellow-breasted bunting - eaten into extinction?

The Chinese diners eating a rare songbird into extinction and the conservationists fighting to save it.

I'm pleased to share my second article for the South China Morning Post and my forth about bird conservation.

The yellow-breasted bunting is a brightly coloured migratory bird which has seen its population drop dramatically in recent years, and is now considered critically endangered.

Yellow-breasted Bunting. Photo: Simon Chan

Experts believe the population crash to be due to the birds' widespread popularity as a delicacy in Southern China.  Today, the trade is illegal but it continues undercover.

Evidence of the illegal trade (2013). Photo: Simba Chan

Conservationists are fighting hard to understand the birds' migratory path in order to work out how best to protect the species. In the meantime, the bird has been spotted for sale on China's consumer to consumer website 'Taobao,' (intended for the caged bird trade, rather than for food) and there are calls to put an end to the trade on the site.

An innovative project in Hong Kong's New Territories is fighting back. Volunteers have joined an Eco-paddy club, where they learn how to farm rice and receive a proportion of the crop in return. At the same time, the rice paddies provide food and shelter for the Yellow-breasted buntings as they fly south for the winter.

Volunteers harvest rice in Hong-Kong's Long Valley. Photo: Wyman  Koo

Please go here to read the full published article or click here to download the pdf to see it in print.

I'd like to thank Vivian Fu of the Hong-Kong Bird Watching Society who first suggested I write about this.  For more on the Taobao story and efforts to stop the sale of endangered birds on the shopping site check out birdingbeijing.com run by China-based Terry Townshend.

Flying into Oblivion

China's key role in international fight to save one of the rarest birds in the world from extinction. 

I was very proud to see this piece published in the Sunday edition of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

A Spoon-billed sandpiper at the Tiaozini Mudflats, Jiangsu Province, China. Photo: Luke Tang

I was introduced to the plight of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper through a sustainability project run by the Japanese Department at the school where I work, and also by bird expert Professor Philip Round at Mahidol University. The world's spoon-billed sandpiper population numbers less than 250 breeding pairs.

Painstaking research has revealed the migration route of the spoon-billed sandpipers. The birds head south from their summer breeding grounds in Siberia, via Korea and the Chinese coast, to winter in Bangladesh, Myanmar and here, in Thailand.

What intrigued me most was the international network of conservationists behind the flight to save this critically endangered species.  It encompasses researchers, bird-watchers and NGOs running projects in all these countries as well as a UK based captive breeding programme.

These experts can pinpoint the exact movements of individual birds.

I wanted my article to follow the international flightpath of a particular spoon-billed sandpiper, code-named Green 05, and explore the efforts to save the species along the way. The piece begins in Russia and ends in Thailand, via Green 05's re-fueling site in Jiangsu Province, China. I highlight how the success of conservation work in one location is dependent on efforts succeeding elsewhere.

The full article is available online here. It was also published in print, click here to download the PDF version.

The birds spend the summer breeding in Chukotka in the Russian far east. Photo: Pavel Tomkovich  

Green 05 spotted in Chukotka. Photo: Dr Nickolay Yakushev.

The Tiaozini mudflats in China where the birds stop to rest and re-cuperate on their migration south.
Photo: Li Dongming SBS in China. 

Green 05 at the Khok Kham Salt Flats in Thailand, some 8000KM from her breeding ground. Photo: BCST

Please follow this link to read the article in full.

More about the mission to save the species can be found here. 

Can art save Thailand's oceans?

Please follow the link below to read my article published in the magazine 'Expat Life in Thailand.'  It is about Phuket based Eco-artist Pom, who uses plastic items washed up on local beaches to create art with a message.  She highlights how plastic pollution is ruining our oceans. In my article, I wonder whether art really can make a difference. Eco-artist Pom believes it certainly can.

Click here to read. Below are some photos of the artist's work, courtesy of Greenpeace South East Asia and also my wife Heidi. Eco-artist Pom can be contacted via her Facebook page.

Eco-Artist Pom sporting a waistcoat made from reused ocean debris.  Photo - Ewen Mcleish

Pom uses plastic pollution collected from the beaches of Phuket to create her work.  Photo - Heidi Mcleish 

Beautiful coral created from discarded plastic. Photo - Theerat Wattanakijrungroj

Pom's plastic bag jelly-fish. Photo - Heidi Mcleish

A selection of Eco-artist Pom's work. Photo - Theerat Wattanakijrungroj

Plastic waste collected by eco-artist Pom displayed in bottles. Photo - Theerat Wattanakijrungroj

Feeding the hungry: Bangkok's First Community Fridge

Please click here for my sixth article (published by Coconuts). It is about the Community Fridge at theCOMMONS (a mall in the Thong Lor area of Bangkok), and the efforts of ThaiHarvest|SOS to cut food waste.

Food vendors at the mall deposit leftover food in the fridge and ThaiHarvest|SOS distribute it the those in need around the city.

The article follows a day's donations from the upscale mall to a church community of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees outside of Bangkok.  

I'm very pleased to say that to date - the article has had over 14,000 Facebook shares! 

Below is a quick photo essay illustrating how the food is rescued:

Bangkokians love to eat out, but food often remains unsold at closing time.  Picture: theCOMMONS.

Gourmet bakery items cannot be sold the next day.  Picture: Ewen Mcleish.

The behind the scenes community fridge awaits donations from food vendors.  Picture: Ewen Mcleish. 

Fit to eat food, ready for collection. All donations are checked by a qualified food hygienist.  Picture: Ewen Mcleish. 

The donations were loaded onto a refrigerated truck and driven across town.  Picture: Ewen Mcleish. 

Bakery items waiting to be given out at the refugee church.  Picture: Ewen Mcleish. 

The food was handed out. Nobody took too much. Soon everything was gone. Picture: Ewen Mcleish. 

To read the article in full click here.