Graham Appleton

Thousands of Black-tailed Godwits will fly back to #Iceland in the next two months. If they encounter strong northerly winds, flocks can turn up anywhere in Scotland. More here in blog from 21 March 2017 🎂 wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/wai…

Migratory distance - a thread 1/6 Birds that don't have to fly as far between wintering grounds and breeding areas must be at an advantage, surely? Not always! Five wader/shorebird blogs follow. #ornithology #waders #shorebirds

6/6 A recent paper by Méndez et al, showed that long-distance migrants may have less flexibility, when it comes to taking advantage of a warmer Icelandic climate: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/mig… End of thread #ornithology #waders #shorebirds

5/6 A Semipalmated Sandpiper study in Peru - at the wintering limit for the species - showed that birds travelling further were more likely to opt not to breed every year. Migration distance can be important. wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/gap… Paper: Eveling Tavera et al #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/fou… #ornithology

1/4 Estuarine waders in the UK are counted monthly (WeBS) but open coast birds are only surveyed occasionally. The next NEWS will be in winter 2026/7. In 2015/16, most Turnstones were on the open coast (but fewer than previously). wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/wad… #ornithology

4/4 It's not all bad news! The number of coastal Sanderling is rocketting, especially in Scotland and Wales! How many will we count in the 2026/27 winter? More about the survey results here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/wad…

Many Scottish Greenshank will have left English estuaries now, soon to be replaced by a pulse of passage birds heading further north. See BirdTrack graph below and this blog about Greenshank migration: wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/mig… 🎂6️⃣ #ornithology

3/4 One of the species highlighted in the last survey was Redshank. wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/wad… UK numbers dropped twice as fast on the coast. #birds #waders #shorebirds

Shorebird scientist are working together to make the most of tracking information collected by waders, as discussed here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/mak… Latest news update from the Global Wader team: globalwader.org/news Map "Over 100 million locations" #ornithology

Monday's Guardian. "Shooting restricted for six British wild birds to halt population decline. Woodcocks and pochard, pintail and goldeneye ducks among threatened species protected by proposals" Voluntary restraint to become legal protection? Background: wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/con…