Volume 1 Issue 4 January 2015 Wader Quest the newsletter Forthcoming talks: 19th January 2015 19:15 hrs. Editor’s diatribe — Rick Simpson Cheltenham Bird Club: Bournside School, Warden Hill Road, Chelten- ham, Gloucs. GL51 3EF 6th February 2015 19:30hrs. St Vincent’s Roman Catholic Church, Tatton Street, Knutsford. © © Elis Simpson WA16 6HR 10th February 2015 19:00 hrs. The Parks Trust: Howe Park Wood Education & Visitor Centre, Chaffron Way, Tattenhoe, Milton Keynes. MK4 3GG 11th March 2015 19.00 hrs. Powick Parish Hall, Powick, Worcester, Worcs. WR2 4RT Inside this issue: Andean Avocet Recurvirostra andina — Elis Simpson Weeting Heath Nation- 2 al Nature Reserve’s Eurasian Stone- Curlews Wash Wader Ringing 3 Group Sooty Oystercatchers Haematopus fuliginosus of the race opthalmicus. Broome, Western Australia WWRG cont’d 4 — Elis Simpson. The Shore Plover that Firstly I’d like to start by wish- over the money to the WWT To our immense surprise and found its way home ing you all a wonderful and (£3,526.06) which we had delight we sailed through the 5 wader filled 2015 and wish you raised through JustGiving and £5,000 barrier in October just Waders in Working all success in whatever you are now were on our own. six months through the finan- Wetlands: Shorebird Extravaganza endeavouring to do in the com- Our first big goal was to com- cial year. A quick call to the ing year. plete the pledge to raise a fur- Charities Commission saw us Project updates 2014 was a bumper year for ther £1,000 for the BirdLife being told we now had to show Elis and me. It started with us Australia Hooded Plovers and in that it was sustainable, so frus- 6 Garden Route Shore- finishing off the travelling that order to do so opened up a tratingly we still have not been bird Project South we started way back in 2012 number of avenues to raise able to register: but we will. Africa with trips to The Gambia, India funds. We were pleased to have been Garden Route cont’d 7 and back to Thailand. It had We started a charity shop, but able to finance the first of our been a bumpy road along the this was not a high street chari- purchases for wader conserva- WHSRN: Thirty years of way and although we have been ty shop, it was a mobile one tion projects and also to take shorebird conservation sorry to put away our passports where we sold the items donat- on a fantastic group of Trustees we were pretty glad we were ed to us at car boot sales. We to help us steer through the WHRSN cont’d 8 able to rest for a while. also decided to ask people to future that lies ahead. Team Wader Quest 9 Mind you we didn’t rest for support us by becoming spon- Our first Anniversary World South Africa. long as in March we finally de- sors at a very reasonable rate; Watch went as well as we had cided that Wader Quest should this was well received and expected and gives us reason Northern Lapwing 10 become so much more than brought us yet more much to hope it will be even better in red listed just rushing around the world needed income. We also contin- 2015 (see page 9). looking at waders; there was ued with our various lines of So, it has been an eventful Bristle-thighed 11 the serious issue of wader con- merchandising the most popu- year not least as it was full of Curlew servation to be looked at. That lar of which seem to be the events such as the Norfolk and is why we decided to set up our Wader Quest Collectables British Bird Fairs, The WWT Wader Quest Anni- 12 wader conservation charity and enamel pin badges. Martin Mere Bird Watching versary World decided too that we would keep In order to register as a chari- Festival and a trip to Europe for Watch — 29th & the name Wader Quest as many ty the Charities Commission the Dutch Bird Fair and the 30th November people had already become told us we need to reach an Falsterbo Bird Show. Now we familiar with it. We are now on annual turnover of £5,000. We look forward to what 2015 Events and news 13 another quest, a quest to help thought it very unlikely that we might bring. protect the world’s waders. would achieve this in our first We wish to thank you all for Two minute teaser In order for us to raise funds year so applied instead to be your support in 2014 and look 14 for our chosen projects we recognised by the HMRC as a forward to sharing many stories Trustee news, con- needed to come up with some charity for tax purposes ena- and successes with you all in tacts and sponsors new ideas. We finally handed bling us to claim Gift Aid. 2015. © Wader Quest 2015. All rights reserved. Page 2 Wader Quest the newsletter Norfolk Wildlife Trust Weeting Heath National Nature Reserve’s Eurasian Stone- Curlews — Darrell Stevens our ring combinations of returning birds which are then logged in the database. During this process a single male bird was recorded from pair 2 on compartment 4, which is situated in front of the public viewing hides. The male’s ring combina- tion was WHI/G, B, BTO. He last nested on the nature reserve in 2011 on com- partment 5 and had not been seen since in subsequent years. When the ring com- bination was put into the database, we discovered the bird was a 23 year old male who was ringed in 1990. This makes him the oldest bird recorded since the RSPB started the stone curlew ringing project. This year he turned out to be part of one of the most successful pairs of birds on the nature reserve and helped to fledge three chicks. He was witnessed attacking and killing Eurasian Stone-Curlew Burhinus oedicmus with chick - Laurie Webb a grass snake in April with his partner for nearly 15 minutes before they both dragged it out of the warden’s view. You NWT Weeting Heath NNR, which is bination allowing for individual identity in can watch the footage here: owned and managed by Norfolk Wildlife the field. http://youtu.be/0x6IHV4H0Rs Trust, has long been known as a favourite A different pair attempted to kill a mole Breckland breeding site for the Eurasian and feed it to their chick at the start of the Stone-Curlew. It also provides the oppor- summer. In all the years of Stone-Curlew tunity for visitors to view breeding birds monitoring at NWT Weeting Heath NNR which in turn helps take the pressure off this type of behaviour has never before other sites in Breckland. Some Stone – been recorded. Curlews can be site faithful - returning to This year a new type of ring combina- the same area to breed each year - while tion was tried out on chicks, which includ- other birds are more transient and move ed numbered flags: so keep an eye open between different breeding locations. The for them on your travels. RSPB has been conducting a colour ring- ing scheme on Eurasian Stone-Curlews for many years and each individual pullus is ringed with a different colour ring com- Eurasian Stone-Curlew WHI/G, B, BTO found to be 23 years of age — Matt Twydell The RSPB has a team of Stone-Curlew wardens which patrol nest sites in the Brecks carrying out nest monitoring and ringing. NWT Weeting Heath NNR is one NWT Weeting Heath — Rebecca Worsfold of the best monitored reserves in Breck- land with many long term monitoring pro- Darrell Stevens: Brecklands Reserves jects in place; many of these projects Manager have been conducted for over 25 years. Norfolk Wildlife Trust The data from all these projects is accu- www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk mulated in an annual report, and all data is held in a long term database. This con- tains a great deal of information about the population and vegetation dynamics on the heath and forms the single most im- portant grass heath data set available for a single site in the Brecks. Part of this database is the large accumulation of breeding stone curlew records for the site. The 2014 breeding season shaped up to be a good one for the nature reserve Eurasian Stone-Curlew taken from an unusual Eurasian Stone-Curlew chick showing its with six birds fledging and ringed. Each angle using the Weeting Stealth Cam — Norfolk unique ring combination — Matt Twydell year the warden makes a note of the col- Wildlife trust. © Wader Quest 2015. All rights reserved. Volume 1 Issue 4 Page 3 Wash Wader Ringing Group — Ruth Walker caught in January. Incredibly, 61% of these were already ringed! It was particularly in- teresting to catch a good sample of winter- ing birds as the majority of Sanderling are caught in the summer or autumn when the flocks are a mix of resident and passage birds. In February, a freshly deceased, ringed Eurasian Oystercatcher found on the beach turned out to have been ringed as an adult on the Lincolnshire side of the Wash in August 1982! Incredibly, in the interven- ing 32 years it had never been recaptured. At a minimum age of 34 years, this bird was older than some members of the team! As it was found in such good condition, its legacy will be to become a Group decoy and hope- fully help us to catch more birds in the fu- ture.