Volume 6 Issue 4 SUPPORTING Jan 2020 SHOREBIRD Wader Quest the newsletter CONSERVATION DO YOU LOVE YOUR WADERS? Confirmed talks by Rick and Elis Simpson: all ‘Wader Quest’ unless THEN WHY NOT JOIN THE WADER QUEST TEAM? otherwise stated. WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO BECOME 21/02/2020 (19.15) Marylebone INVOLVED IN THE RUNNING OF WADER QUEST AS PART OF A WORKING Birdwatching Society (An Inspiration of Waders) GROUP, WHICH WOULD OPERATE INDEPENDENTLY OF THE TRUSTEES. 02/04/2020 (19.45) Sevenoaks WE WOULD BE LOOKING FOR HELP IN ROLES SUCH AS I.T. SUPPORT, WEBSITE RSPB local group 09/04/2020 (19.45) North Bucks. POPULATION, MEMBERSHIP, WADER CONSERVATION WORLD WATCH RSPB local group (An Inspiration of PROMOTION, MARKETING ETC. Waders) 14/04/2010 (tba) Shoreham District IF YOU ARE INTERESTED AND WOULD LIKE TO BE INVOLVED IN ANY ASPECT OF Ornithological Society WADER QUEST, THEN PLEASE GET IN TOUCH EITHER AT 28/04/2020 (19.30) Shrewsbury RSPB local group [email protected] OR [email protected] 29/04/2020 (19.30) Huntingdonshire RSPB local group 07/05/2020 (19.30) Sheffield RSPB local group (Confessions of a Bird Editorial - Rick Simpson Guide) As we welcome in the New Year continued to grow, albeit slowly. 21/05/2020 (19.30) Wensum Valley let us spare a thought for all We have welcomed 56 Birdwatching Society those regions devastated by dis- new Friends or Sponsors during For a complete listing with times asters, natural and man-made, the year, but of course this is and venue, visit the website Talks political turmoil and conflict. As offset a little by those who did not page. If we are giving a talk near we reflect upon the year past and renew mainly, we feel, because of you come and meet us. the effort we have made to make the hike in fees, but our member- the world a better place for wad- ship has crept up from a little Events for 2020 ers/shorebirds, it is worth re- below 300 to a little over that membering that some do not figure now. We do need to re- Pensthorpe Bird and Wildlife Fair Sat 16th & Sun 17th May have the luxury to be concerned mind those with Standing Orders £500.00 – Donated to Community British Birdfair about such things and others who to change the amount as the fees Workshop for Far Eastern Curlew Fri 21st to Sun 23rd Aug do have the will to help, simply have change (in April 2019) as we Conservation Action in Pantai Falsterbo Bird Show cannot due to constraints beyond are still getting payment coming Desa Sungai Cemara, Jambi, Indo- Fri 4th to Sun 6th Sept their control. in at the old level. nesia. Northwest Birdwatching Festival That said, those of us Our financial year runs Sat 17th & Sun 18th Oct who can, should not give up hope from April to April, so figures Wader Conservation World Watch and do whatever is within our about what we have raised and 31st Oct & 1st Nov reach to do our bit, and that is spent are largely irrelevant, but what Wader Quest is all about, 2019 did see a total of £6,571 doing what we can and hopefully going to wader projects around enabling others to do the same. the world from the Wader Quest Inside this issue: During 2019 we contin- grants fund. ued to grow despite the restraints £1,000.00 – Donated to Curlew 1-2: Editorial life has placed upon the various Country Shropshire the Lowland £500.00 – Donated to The Curlew 3-5: Brazil appeal Trustees for differing reasons. Curlew Recovery Project – Eura- Action for Curlew Packs for volun- 6-7: Wader Quest merchandising That is because, we believe, that sian Curlew recovery outside teers. 8-10: Sands of Change - S 2: Ep 1 what we aim to achieve is a just reserves and upland areas. 10-12: Red Knot colour ringing and worthy cause. We know 13-16: Indonesia there is still a great and untapped 17: Silhouette Quiz seam of enthusiastic wader lovers 18-19: Maianbar, NSW, Australia 20-24: Waderologists A-Z A is for... out there who have yet to hear 25: Waders in poetry / From the library about what we do, so please do 26/27: Featured Wader - Diademed pass on information about Wader £500.00 – Donated to Theatre Sandpiper-Plover Quest to everyone who would be Kimberley for their Shorebird 28-29: UAE; in search of Lapwings interested. We have not been Quest project in Roebuck Bay, £775.00 – Donated to Wildfowl 30: World wader news in brief very proactive in 2019 and yet we Western Australia. and Wetlands Trust to purchase 31: Housing development near Langstone Harbour 32: Waders in art 33: Wader photo gallery Total raised for conservation by Wader Quest to date: 34: Wader Conservation World Watch7 35: Grant application guidelines 36: Contact details and sponsors £34,330.44 © Wader Quest 2020. All rights reserved. Page 2 Wader Quest the newsletter Editorial - cont’d an incubator for Eurasian Curlew head- The Wader Conservation World page of this newsletter. starting. Watch came and went with numbers down This year we have had to say a little from last year, largely due to lack of goodbye to a number of Trustees who have time at the preparation stage, we hope that moved on and we wish them all well with we’ll be able to secure some help with this their new projects. Lee Dingain, Rachel in 2020 reaching a larger audience and Walls, Oliver Simms and Sue Healey. They therefore achieving better results than in all played crucial and active roles in building 2019. Wader Quest during their tenure as Trus- We held our first AGM event in tees, some from the very beginning. To all Norfolk organised by Andrew Whitelee and of them we say a great big thank you, Wad- Ian Dearing. It was a great success and we er Quest is all the stronger and better for hope to repeat something similar again in having had their support and input. Natural- 2020. ly, although we still have sufficient numbers 2019 was also the year we real- of Trustees to run the charity, if anyone £1,296.00 for geolocators (Light level re- ised a dream with the publishing of Eury The would be interested in joining us then we’d corders); Icelandic breeding Purple Sandpi- Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Chinese. 2000 be delighted to hear from you and we will pers, Highland Ringing Group/Research copies have been printed and will be used give you details of what is involved. We Centre for Environmental Science, by Spoon-billed Sandpiper in China at work- would particularly welcome anyone who Raufarhöfn, Melrakkaslétta, Iceland. shops in schools, teaching the children would like to take on the role of overseeing about the life and hardships of being a the finances as Treasurer or who could offer HIGHLAND RINGING Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the reasons for help and advice in this respect. GROUP protecting them long into the future. We Another new facet of Wader would still like to repeat the operation in Quest this year was the creation of the £1,000.00 to the Small Mammals Conserva- other countries along the Spoon-billed Wader Quest grants Panel. This is a panel of tion and Research Foundation, Nepal for Sandpiper’s migration route so if you know three persons; Andrew Whitelee (Chair), studying of Wood Snipe in the Himalayas. of anyone who may wish to get involved in Rick Simpson and Jannick Hansen. When such a project do let us know. applications for grants are received they will be reviewed by the panel and a joint deci- sion will be reached as to whether to make the grant or not. So, what lies ahead for 2020? During January and February, all donations £1,000.00 6th Anniversary Grant; Shore- received will be ring-fenced and collected to birds Peninsular Malaysia Project, Nature be donated to the Western Hemisphere Camp Programme, Teluk Air Tawar – Kuala Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) for Muda, Malaysia. their appeal concerning the Brazilian oil spill clean up. See pages 3-5 for details. We will attend all our usual events during the year and hope that as many of you as possible will visit our stands to say hello and buy some merchandising (see 2019 was also the momentous page 6). year that we finally got Charity Commission We will be actively seeking people recognition as a charity in England and to join the Wader Quest Working Group. Wales. This was due to the hard work and The group is to be run inde- dedication of Andrew Whitelee, one of our pendently of the Board of Trustees, whose Trustees and his partner Penny Insole, who role remains the overseeing of Wader Quest is a constant supporter of Wader Quest Rick and Elis Simpson continue to activities and finances. giving her time and expertise to Wader give talks and, although they do this inde- We envisage having just two Quest by assisting with editing both forth- pendently of Wader Quest they recruit, meetings of the group per year (plus the coming books and general articles and help- make sales and collect donations, 100% of AGM) as most of the connectivity needed ing out at Bird Fair and other events on the which stays with Wader Quest. This year can be accomplished via email, video con- stand. they have raised £2962.93, this broken ferencing etc. We brought out five new pin down as; sales £1892.00; donations New way to support wader conservation; badges in 2019 and re-did the logo badge £464.93; sign-ups and renewals £606.00 sign up to Amazon Smile and make extra which now has a backing card for it; see (this figure includes two people converting money for Wader Quest.