BirdForum

When Elis and I were in Florida at the end of last year we saw and photographed a number of colour-ringed Piping Plovers. We knew that we would be able to find out a bit about these birds from our friend Robin Diaz who we met at Crandon Beach on the Atlantic coast. She in turn put us in touch with Mary Bomberger Brown who was able to shed some light on the bird we found on the Gulf coast at Bunche Beach near Fort Myers.

Piping Plovers Charadrius melodus are considered Near Threatened...

Rick and Elis

Exactly 3 months after we had to call a halt to our wanderings in search of the world's waders, we will be starting again. We and our family have greatly appreciated the support we have had from everyone after making this difficult decision and we hope that we will be able to continue to make Wader Quest interesting for all those that have been following us. The family is right behind us and we feel that the time is right now to start thinking about our commitment to the world's waders once again....

Rick and Elis

Since Wader Quest is all about disappearing waders a short time ago I decided to read Last of the Curlews by Fred Bodsworth.
I am not one for anthropomorphism, attributing birds and animals with human emotions and reactions, but Mr. Bodsworth does a good job at making the book readable and interesting by referring to the bird's instinct an innate urges rather than any rational thought process, which I for one found pleasing.

It tells the story of one of the last Eskimo Curlews...

Rick and Elis

Its been a strange year. I haven't been out as much as I would have liked, or as much as I had intended. I've also had a couple of crushing disappointments with 2 of my favourite sites. Both had seen the benefit of 'aggressive habitat management' which had decimated undergrowth, trees, basically anything green which birds would use to sit, eat or sleep. Such was the impact on one of these sites- my nearest RSPB reserve- that I really couldn't see myself going back.

However, I...

Green Sandpiper

South Island Snipe, Coenocorypha iredalei.
Formally considered a subspecies of Subantarctic Snipe C. aucklandica. This is still considered a subspecies by IUCN

History: This species once lived across South Island and Stewart Island and its surrounding islets. It became extinct on South Island after its occupation by humans coming from Polynesia. It survived on nine smaller islands until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1964 there was an attempt to relocate the remaining...

Rick and Elis