10 years ago, Mary Colwell started a 500 mile walk across Ireland & UK in support of Curlews.
"I liked something about the way Curlew lived in the world, sang to the world, and drifted through the world with a light touch."
Blog about her book:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/04/29/c...
#ornithology
Nice!
Previous BTO longevity record for Curlew was 32 years 7 months, set in 2011.
Blog with longevity records for other waders:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
#ornithology
Good question. Researchers suspect that a lot of five-egg nests are four plus one, with another female adding the fifth. I don't know of an occasion when the same female has had a five-egg clutch in two years.
Laying four eggs seems to be pretty hard-wired!
Four eggs ✅
Five eggs ❌
Chicks from five-egg Ringed Plover nests are far less successful.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...
WaderTales blog #156
#ornithology
Do you have tracking data for waders?
You can help new "Global Relevance of Protected Areas" project:
www.globalwader.org/collaboratio...
To learn more about how shorebird tracking is aiding conservation, check out this blog:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m...
#ConservationScience🌍
How long does it take juvenile waders to learn how to feed efficiently?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/l...
#ornithology
Special issue flyer. Photo shows bar-tailed godwits (image: iStock)
Editorial team behind the special issue: Tiia Kärkkäinen, Pablo Salmón and Barbara Helm
Figure from the editorial: Features and topics of the studies included in the Special Issue. (A) Global distribution of studies with Flyway System boundaries and names defined according to BirdLife International. The circle size represents the number of studies per country. (B) Taxonomic composition of studies grouped into broad species categories. (C) Distribution of studies across physiological domains addressed in this issue. Each category represents a primary focus, although several studies span multiple topics.
✨ Editorial: a summary and synopsis of the studies included in the special issue on migration physiology written by the editorial team @pablosalmon.bsky.social @barbarahelm.bsky.social #TiiaKärkkäinen
➡️ vist.ly/4ucex
#ornithology #birds #migration #physiology
Learning from hunters.
Fascinating information from one hundred years ago.
Blog about Pacific Golden Plover and Slender-billed Curlew:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/s...
#ornithology
Pacific Golden Plovers wintering in Europe?
And Slender-billed Curlews?
WaderTales blog #157:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/s...
#ornithology
One more egg? 🐣
It's not a good idea to incubate a fifth egg.
Ringed Plover research by Oddvar Heggøy et al:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...
#ornithology
Waders/shorebirds have relatively high annual survival (and low productivity).
Bird ringing/banding is key to mearsuring survival.
When a survival rate falls it can have a rapid impact on population level.
🎂 Blog from 8 March 2018:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/m...
#ConservationScience🌍
Waders/shorebirds have relatively high annual survival (and low productivity).
Bird ringing/banding is key to mearsuring survival.
When a survival rate falls it can have a rapid impact on population level.
🎂 Blog from 8 March 2018:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/m...
#ConservationScience🌍
"There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest."
A fifth egg messes with incubation.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...
#ornithology
Here's a blog about spring moult in Black-tailed Godwits, published 🔟 years ago, today.
Did you know that summer plumage birds have a different smell to winter ones? wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/s...
#birds
Nice paper from Alex and Paige.
A Slender-billed Curlew was shot in Canada in 1925 👇.
The bird was lost.
The species is now extinct.
How did we allow this to happen?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#ornithology
New WaderTales blog features a neat experimental study by Oddvar Heggøy and colleagues on the costs to waders of incubating five eggs: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...
😉
Here's a blog about spring moult in Black-tailed Godwits, published 🔟 years ago, today.
Did you know that summer plumage birds have a different smell to winter ones? wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/s...
#birds
"There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest."
A fifth egg messes with incubation.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...
#ornithology
Colour-ringing is starting to make a big difference too. Avocet record for UK/Ireland goes up by one year each year.
The oldest UK Black-tailed Godwit will be 30 when (if?) it returns from Iceland at the end of the 2026 breeding season. It's a colour-ringed bird that is seen regulalrly, quite often by observers that were born several years after it was ringed.
For comparison, the longevity record for BTO (Ireland and UK) Common Ringed Plover is 21y 10m 12d (from ringing to latest report).
More longevity-records here:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
@btobirds.bsky.social
#ornithology
Do you have tracking data for waders?
You can help new "Global Relevance of Protected Areas" project:
www.globalwader.org/collaboratio...
To learn more about how shorebird tracking is aiding conservation, check out this blog:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m...
#ConservationScience🌍
Hi Darren. Yes - waders do 'egg dump'. The different one in the picture is a dummy egg, used to increase clutch size in this study. Here's an Icelandic Ringed Plover nest with five real eggs. More in the blog.
Four eggs ✅
Five eggs ❌
Chicks from five-egg Ringed Plover nests are far less successful.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...
WaderTales blog #156
#ornithology
Redshank chick
Curlew v Forestry
Relevant WaderTales blogs.
Estonia
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/03/16/k...
Iceland
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/06/18/i...
Scottish peatlands
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/06/19/t...
Recreating wader habitat
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/08/16/p...
#ornithology
Greenshanks will soon be returning to Scottish breeding sites.
Unlike their cousins that breed in eastern Russia, they won't have flown far.
Research by Highland Ringing Group, supported with £ from @scottishbirding.bsky.social.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/m...
#BirdingScotland
Which Oystercatchers stay in Iceland, and deal with short days and much colder temperatures, and which ones cross the Atlantic?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/w... 🎂6️⃣
Thanks to colour-ring readers!
#ornithology
p.s. update from 2021
wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/o...
Verónica Méndez et al
They'll have been busy feeding! Feathers to moult and fat needed for the trip to Iceland. These islandica birds are on later schedules to the limosa that breed at Welney. More here:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/g...
We met up with LG-YE, one of the ProjectGodwit Black-tailed Godwits, in Portugal last week (not in photo 👇).
It will soon be back in the Nene or Welney Washes.
There were 50,000 godwits in the Tagus rice fields!
More here:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/b... 🎂6️⃣
#ornithology
