WaderTales blogs in 2019

Nineteen new WaderTales blogs were published during 2019. Click on a link in bold to read an individual blog.

Ringed Plovers often have time to nest again if the first clutch is lost

Over 25,000 people, representing 130 countries, visited the WaderTales website during 2019.

• The most widely-read blog was Ireland’s Curlew Crisis, reflecting the international concern for the species and the culew family as a whole.
• It is great that the next most popular blog is Managing water for waders, as this is such a positive story about how farmers, conservation organisations and statutory agencies can work together to deliver better habitat for breeding waders and an improved water supply for farmers.
• In third place is Sixty years of Wash waders which describes six decades of scientific outputs of the Wash Wader Ringing Group. The WWRG’s founder, Clive Minton, died in tragic circumstances just a couple of months later and there are some lovely tributes here, on the International Wader Study Group website.

Migration

The distinctive white under-wing of a Steppe Whimbrel

The migration blogs cover a wide range of species:

• Generational Change uses colour-ring sightings to explore how Black-tailed Godwit populations have changed in distribution and migratory timing.
• Whimbrel: time to leave summarises a paper about the consistencies and variability of annual migration patterns of individual Whimbrel.
• Red Knot pay the price for being fussy eaters discusses the reliance of Delaware Bay birds on the unpredictable annual supply of horseshoe crab eggs. Why are Ruddy Turnstones better able to cope in a changing world?
• Not-so-Common Sandpipers mixes information about migration with a review of Common & Spotted Sandpipers by Phil Holland.
• Travel advice for Sanderling summarises research to understand the pros & cons of spending the non-breeding season in widely different locations. Birds in equatorial Africa do far less well than those in England and Namibia.
• In search of Steppe Whimbrel summarises a paper about two very special individual Whimbrel. Will this knowledge help to rescue a subspecies?

Breeding waders

Redshanks need long grass in which to hide their nests

There is bad news for Curlew and Redshank, some interesting information about the effects of ticks on chicks and an important stock-take of Fennoscandia’s breeding waders.

• Redshank – the ‘warden of the marsh’ focuses on Redshank that breed on saltmarshes and the agricultural subsidies that help to fund their conservation.
• From local warming to range expansion explores the role of climate warming in fuelling the century-long range expansion of Iceland’s Black-tailed Godwit population.
• Ireland’s Curlew Crisis focuses on the nationwide breeding survey between 2015 and 2017, which revealed a 96% decline in the number of pairs in the previous 30 years.
• Chicks and Ticks reviews a study of the effects of ticks on the survival probability of Golden Plover chicks.
• Fennoscandian wader factory summarises analyses of breeding wader numbers in Finland, Sweden and Norway over the period 2006 to 2018.
• Managing water for waders celebrates work to reduce flooding, store fresh water for farmers and create habitat for breeding waders.
• Time to nest again? asks how much of the advantage of being an early migrant could be associated with having an option to nest again, if the first attempt fails.

Winter waders 

Winter numbers of Oystercatcher and Knot have declined in Britain and Ireland

The Green Sandpiper blog reveals unpublished information about territoriality. The other two blogs in this section summarise population estimates of waders in Great Britain and Ireland, based on new papers in British Birds and Irish Birds.

• Winter territories of Green Sandpipers includes unpublished information from southern England, where survival is affected by the severity of winters.
• Do population estimates matter? is inspired by the waders section of Population estimates of wintering waterbirds in Great Britain, based on data from the Wetland Bird Survey and the Non-estuarine Waterbirds Survey.
• Ireland’s wintering waders complements the above blog, providing information from I-WeBS and WeBS for the island of Ireland and set in a European context.

The others!

Adding colour rings and individual flags to Grey Plover

One of the aims of these blogs is to engage people in projects that are in need of volunteers or other forms of public engagement – hence the Northern Ireland blog. The other two articles celebrate sixty years of The Wash Wader Ringing Group and share concerns about a new airport for Lisbon, to be built right next to the Tagus/Tejo Estuary.

• The Waders of Northern Ireland was written as a promotional tool for a 2019 breeding survey but covers wintering and passage species too.
• Sixty years of Wash waders celebrates the longest-running wader-ringing project in the UK  (and the world?), by summarising six decades of migration research.
• Tagus estuary: for birds or planes? What could go wrong if an international airport is built right next to an estuary that is important to Black-tailed Godwits?

Vast flocks of Black-tailed Godwit gather in the Tagus Estuary in February

WaderTales blogs are written by Graham Appleton, to celebrate waders and wader research. Many of the articles are based on previously published papers, with the aim of making wader science available to a broader audience.The intention is to add one or two new blogs each month. You can sign up to receive an e-mail notification when a new one is published. Full list of blogs here.

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Graham (@grahamfappleton) has studied waders for over 40 years and is currently involved in wader research in the UK and in Iceland.  He was Director of Communications at The British Trust for Ornithology until 2013 and is now a freelance writer and broadcaster.