Wader Quest the Newsletter
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Volume 1 Issue 2 July 2014 Wader Quest the newsletter Come and meet us: Editor’s diatribe — Rick Simpson 15th-17th August 2014. British Birdwatching Fair: www.birdfair.org.uk What is the difference between a birdwatcher and a 23rd-24th August 2014. Dutch conservationist? Bird Fair: www.dutchbirdfair.nl/ To my mind there should not © © Elis Simpson 5th—7th September 2014. Fal- be any difference at all. If we, sterbo Bird Show: who are passionate about birds, www.sofnet.org/fbs are not the ones actively trying to save them from hardship and 22nd-23rd November 2014. harm, then who will? North–west Birdwatching Festival It was this thought that Martin Mere WWT: dramatically transformed our www.wwt.org.uk need to see a Spoon-billed Sandpiper, while we still could, Forthcoming talks: into a desire to help save the 11th September 2014 North species from extinction in the Bucks RSPB local group: The first place. Cruck Barm Milton Keynes MK13 The journey that Elis and I 9AP www.rspb.org.uk/groups/ have been on together is northbucks incredible, not just literally, flying across the globe alighting in 14 3rd November 2014. Sutton countries on 6 continents, but Ibisbill Ibidorhycha struthersii Coldfield RSPB local group: Bish- also the more significant journey op Vasey’s Grammar School, we have made from being ‘belonged’ to us in the first Elis and I have been Sutton Coldfield B74 2NH people desperate to see a place! Even the few birds of this discovering projects both large www.rspb.org.uk/groups/ Spoon-billed Sandpiper, come genre that live in dry areas are and small where people are suttoncoldfield what may, to what we are today, not free from problems. making a difference. Local founders of a brand new charity Afforestation is occuring across communities supporting beach dedicated to wader southern Africa for example, nesting bird protection Inside this issue: conservation. savannah turning to trees, the programmes, schools becoming In the following pages you will increased use of off road involved with the self same Limited edition Wader read about our current position vehicles is eating away at projects, concerned citizens Quest Collectables 2 and what we plan for the future hitherto undisturbed habitats. taking the local authorities to snapped up but we can’t help occasionally Pollution of seas and fresh task for the lack of effort being The Wader Quest casting an eye back over our water, transformation of rivers put into conservation, it is great mobile charity shop shoulders at those glorious 15 due to dredging and conversely to see and the more we see the Hooded Plover appeal months of freedom and silting due to soil errosion. It all more it makes us believe that — 2013/4 breeding adventure from time to time. looks pretty bleak. there is a growing section of season update But the fun and frivolity of all Yet there is good news, we society that is not solely led by that travel brought home some have been discovering that, if the need for ‘economic growth’ Wader Quest Magel- of the more serious problems you look, there are hundreds if and ‘wealth creation’; two lanic Plover project 3 that waders are facing; wetlands not thousands of people across polpular sound bites of Meetings, events and being drained, Prairies and this benighted planet that are politicians today. talks Steppes being turned into getting off their backsides to do We need to take stock and agricultural wastelands, something about all this, apart think about these words found Black Stilt and Shore perversely, the abandonment of from the essential researchers on a wall in a Brazilian school: Plover captive breeding 4 traditional farms allowing open and field ornthologists there is a Only when the last tree is felled, programme, NZ areas to become overgrown and veritable army of volunteers who The last fish dead unsuitable for waders to care enough to give up their own And the last drop of water Little Curlew tracking 5 continue to thrive and intertidal time freely to be an antidote to polluted, project by AWSG zones are being ‘reclaimed’. all this negative impact we Will mankind realise he can’t eat Reclaimed? As if they ever humans are having. money! The Gauteng Wader Challenge, South 6 Africa- photographing waders within a 100km Featured wader: Spotted Redshank Tringa erythropus radius Inland wader watching 7 Prizes required Wader Quest World Watch 8 Contact Information Corporate Sponsors © Elis Simpson Page 2 Wader Quest the newsletter Limited edition Wader Quest Collectables snapped up! We recently launched a limited edition They first went on sale at the Norfolk Bird Wader Quest Collectables item with a batch Fair where they aroused a great deal of of 20 hand-crafted Spoon-billed interest and several people also contacted Sandpipers. Each one is in a slightly us having seen them on our blog postings. different pose and as they are all hand They had a truly international appeal, we painted each is unique. The models were found ourselves scurrying off to the Post numbered and a small certificate of Office to send parcels both within the UK authenticity included in the hand-made and beyond to Finland, Canada and even boxes. New Zealand! These little models proved very popular We are hopeful that we will have more and we soon sold out. available soon, our man in Brazil is working When we first got them we placed them on them as we write so if you missed out on on a table to photograph them and we felt the first batch, you’d better be quick with that we were in possession of our own little © Elis Simpson the second, they won’t be around for long terracotta army. Our terracotta army. we suspect. The Wader Quest mobile charity shop! Almost every High Street in the land is now littered with charity shops vying to relieve you of your money for their chosen ‘just cause’, so why, we thought, should Wader Quest be any different? We were very fortunate in that we happened to come across a couple of treasure troves in the form of people downsizing their living accommodation and wanting to ‘get shot’ of a load of old junk. We volunteered to shift this ‘junk’ to the visits to the local dump, cleaning, buffing, We have now completed six car boots and local tip, our payment being that whatever sand-papering, painting and polishing we as a result have raised around £250 which we thought salvageable we could keep to set off for our first car boot sale to see what is a very useful sum at this stage. In sell in our charity shop. The deal was done. we could raise for the charity. addition some of the better items that we Unfortunately we do not yet have We cannot say that this is a vast return on have received we have sold on ebay and sufficient funds to risk the overheads of our time, but at least it is enjoyable for the that has brought us a further £340, after renting a shop in the High Street, so we most part and many of the car boot costs. We therefore consider this to be a came up with the idea of a molbile charity organisations let us have a discount or worthwhile use of our time and will shop, i.e. a series of car boot sales! even a free pitch as we are rasing funds for continue to carry out these sales as and After a great deal of toing and froing with a good cause. when we can, and besides, it’s fun. Hooded Plover 2013/14 breeding season update The 2013/14 breeding season for the organisations a strong case has now been bird from 35 pairs is a shocking result. Hooded Plovers was a mixed one. made for nominating the eastern form of On the Bass Coast the birds fared better, There were some successes and equally Hooded Plover to be raised to Vulnerable but still the results look dismal. From 29 there were many failures too but, as status. If this is achieved it will assist pairs of birds there were just 7 chicks BirdLife Australia’s Beach Nesting Birds greatly in the mangement of the species as fledged. In this case it is thought that high Programme Project Manager, Grainne a whole. Much of the data that has been tides and fox predation were the main Maguire put it, ‘this comes as no surprise collected to make this case has come from causes of failure. for a species that has a multitude of threats the 1,000+ volunteers that form an army of The Bellarine Coast produced 4 chicks facing it’. ‘Hoody’ protectors across Australia. and the Surf Coast a further 3 with one Due to the work that has been carried out The news from the Mornington Peninsula, chick being killed by an unleashed dog less by BirdLife Australia and other where we visited with Renee Mead during than a week before fledging. our trip to Australia, was that over the whole On Waratah Bay 6 birds fledged while on peninsula 37 pairs of Hooded Plovers were Philip Island there were 21 nests, monitored, 139 eggs observed and just 34 containing 50 eggs of which 22 hatched but chicks observed of which just 1 fledged. only 8 fledged. This success rate was down 25% on the In Western Australia the annual survey of average and since hatching rate was down Hooded Plovers counted a total of 658 by 10% it shows that chick mortality rates birds of which a little over 10%, 69, were were high this year.