International Wader Study Group

After the fieldwork period (2013-2017), the European Breeding Bird Atlas (EBBA2) coordinated by the European Bird Census Council requires further resources for data analysis and production of the publication. Funding from 2018 onward has still not been secured, and therefore a Species Sponsorship for EBBA2 has been launched. It’s easy: you choose a species or several ones, and your names will be acknowledged on the website below the selected species at the EBBA2 website. Basic sponsorship is 50 euros, but you can opt for a premium Sponsor or Super sponsor and get more benefits. A sponsorship could be a perfect Christmas gift, especially if you opt to sponsor a shorebird! You can choose your favourite shorebird species or opt for another “orphan” shorebird. Around 30 shorebird species have not yet attracted a sponsor such as Black-tailed godwit, Ruff, Little ringed-plover! Top sponsored shorebirds are Lapwing and Great snipes; they already accumulated 5 sponsors! Choose your species there:   More information at: https://www.ebba2.info/2018/12/03/christmas/  

The committee for the Small Grant that IWSG have awarded since 2016, have decided to prolong the period in which members can apply for a grant (equaling £ 1000). The aim is to support shorebird studies that otherwise will not go ahead. This could many types of wader (shorebird) related projects: ecology, conservation studies, pilot studies looking at biological aspects of a single or a few species, or counts of staging birds at unexplored sites. Or something different that we haven't thought

News authored by Vojtěch Kubelka: We have lived with the assumption that many migrating shorebirds can fly over large distances to breed in the Arctic to utilise lower nest predation among other advantages, e.g. plenty of food during the short Arctic summer, continuous daylight or lower parasite prevalence. However, a new study: Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds published in Science has discovered recent rapid increase in shorebird nest predation,