Icelandic Golden Plovers are on the way!
Many waders link Iceland and Ireland:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/f...
Some Golden Plovers from Iceland will make it as far as France and Portugal.
@birdwatchireland.bsky.social
Map from @tomasgunnarsson.bsky.social

Blog for bird photographers.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m... 🎂
#ornithology

Icelandic Golden Plovers are on the way!
Many waders link Iceland and Ireland:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/f...
Some Golden Plovers from Iceland will make it as far as France and Portugal.
@birdwatchireland.bsky.social
Map from @tomasgunnarsson.bsky.social

Icelandic Oystercatcher migration - a thread summarising eleven years of research by Verónica Méndez et al.
The questions - and a call for colour-ring sightings:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/m...
Published OTD in 2015. 🎂
#ornithology

Should researchers be handling wader chicks?
Important paper about conservation and disturbance by Camilo Carneiro, summarised in WaderTales blog #140:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/h... 🎂2⃣
#ornithology

If you have ever reported a colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit, this blog was written for you!
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/t...
Updated Cley-focused blog 🎂
#birds

Three of these six wader species are red-listed in the UK.
Which ones?
Answers in this blog about the eleven wader species on the list and how they 'earned' their places:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/u... 🎂4️⃣
#birds

Migration of juvenile Sanderlings is not strategic - things just happen.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/t... 🎂7️⃣
#ornithology

Should researchers be handling wader chicks?
Important paper about conservation and disturbance by Camilo Carneiro, summarised in WaderTales blog #140:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/h... 🎂2⃣
#ornithology

Migration of juvenile Sanderlings is not strategic - things just happen.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/t... 🎂7️⃣
#ornithology

Three of these six wader species are red-listed in the UK.
Which ones?
Answers in this blog about the eleven wader species on the list and how they 'earned' their places:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/u... 🎂4️⃣
#birds

Good news.
@rspbengland.bsky.social will receive 3 more years of money for Ringed Plover protection work in #Norfolk.
Distributions of plovers & people are predictable - which helps when you're trying to make sure that there is space for both!
Background:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/08/23/o...

** Messed up Oystercatcher thread **
Two links were duplicated - and hence two missing,
Link to winter counts:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/06/12/m...
Link to latest blog about migration of juveniles:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/09/03/a...

The latest Oystercatcher WaderTales blog is a call for colour-ring sightings.
Verónica and her colleagues are satellite-tracking juveniles but they need to know where their colour-ringed parents spend the winter.
Read about the earliest findings:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/08/07/w...
#birds

Oystercatcher pairs can be both resident, both migrant or mixed.
Migratory behaviour must affect timing of nesting, surely? So what happens when partners are on different schedules?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/08/07/w...
#migration

The next result was not expected!
It turns out that chicks raised by migratory fathers become migrants and chicks raised by residents stay in Iceland (almost without exception).
Mother's behaviour is irrelevant.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/o...
#birds

So, which birds migrate?
It takes a while to collect enough colour-ring data to start answering questions about migration. This 2020 paper also used isotopic analysis to broaden the picture:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/w...
#ornithology

How many Oystercatchers spend the winter in #Iceland (where days are short and cold, and food choice is limited)?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/m...

Icelandic Oystercatcher migration - a thread summarising eleven years of research by Verónica Méndez et al.
The questions - and a call for colour-ring sightings:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/m...
Published OTD in 2015. 🎂
#ornithology

Woodcock shooting season starts today in most of the UK (Scotland was 1 Sep).
Continental birds have not arrived yet so any shot birds will be red-listed British breeders.
GWCT suggests waiting until 1 December before targeting Woodcock.
More here:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/c...
#birds