Organisation: Agus Nurza
Project started: Nov 2009
Project ended: June 2010
Location: Singkil, Aceh, Sumatra

PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

  • Survey existing status of Storm’s Stork through field surveys
  • Publish the results of the study in a scientific journal of ornithology
  • Raise Storm’s Stork conservation awareness among local government and local people

INTERIM REPORT – April 2010

The initial target area for this survey was the remote Mukomuko River of the Singkil Swamp on the south-west coast of Aceh, Sumatra. This area was chosen because of historic records of Storm’s Stork in the early 1990s. When we visited the area we found the habitat to have greatly changed as a result of the tsunami of 2005, even whole villages had disappeared! Two weeks of survey produced no records of Storm Stork.

We conducted lots of questionnaire surveys in the area and these led us to identify a number of new potential areas to visit, including the Kuala Lama and Singkil Rivers, the Lae Treup Village area, a site known as Kolam Manis and an area of peat swamp known as Buloh Seuma within the Singkil Nature Reserve. We visited all of these area but it was only at the last site that we finally recorded Storm’s Stork. A single bird was seen flying high and was photographed on December 27th 2009 confirming the continuing presence of Storm’s Stork within the Singkil Swamp.

The project is now preparing a range of awareness materials giving information about Storm’s Stork and the importance of their conservation. These will be distributed in all the villages previously visited when we make a follow up survey to the site in early 2010.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Contact Agus Nurza agus.nurza@gmail.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project was kindly supported by an Oriental Bird Club small grant.