Falsterbo Bird Show and Wirral Wader Festival weekend.

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Last weekend (Falsterbo 30th Aug – 1st Sept / Wirral 31st Aug  – 1st Sep) saw two events take place that Wader Quest was involved in.

The Falsterbo Bird Show is an annual event that takes place at the southern tip of Sweden famous for its visible migration, especially of raptors and other soaring birds such as storks. This year the weather was kind from our point of view but this meant fewer birds to keep an eye out for in the sky.

It was, for us, another enjoyable and worthwhile event. We were thrilled to see some of our old friends and equally delighted to make new ones.

Falsterbo is an established affair having been going now for 10 years, six of which we have attended. This year for the first time there were a couple of small marquees, and loads of gazebos with organisations and optics companies in them. There are talks on all three days and there are exhibitors from across Europe and beyond as well as Scandinavian organisations.

Once again we converted much of our takings into signed Lars Jonsson posters (of wader chicks and eggs), which we will be making exclusively available to attendees of our AGM in October and, if there are any left thereafter, by post.

A limited number of Lars Jonsson 2019 posters 70 x 50cm will be available at the Wader Quest AGM in October.

We enjoyed an informal pre-show dinner hosted by Erik Hirschfeld in Malmö on the Thursday evening before the event. Fantastic food, great conversation and very agreeable company as always.

Left to right: Erik Hirschfeld, Tormod Amunson, Rick Simpson, Teet Sirotkin, Elis Simpson, Ragnhild Jonsson, Jeanin Day, Lars Jonsson, Niklas Aronsson, Yanina Maggiotto and Gabriella Häkansson.

 

We also should thank Anna Carter and Eva Hjärne (aka the two lovely ladies – which they certainly are) as they are kind enough to put up with us in their lovely home, for the duration of our stay, making an already pleasurable weekend even more so.

Anna (left) and Eva from a previous year.

The event was also the scene of an amazing coincidence. Elis and I noticed a group of four Chinese youngsters looking at and photographing the Eury the Spoon-billed Sandpiper book. Elis jokingly said there would be a small charge for photos whereupon one of the girls proudly told us she had been involved in the translation to Chinese, a project that we have mentioned in our recent newsletter. When we informed her that it was we who had written the book she was incredulous and so were we come to that. If you think about it, the two authors and one of the two translators being in the same place, at the same time unplanned, both away from their normal homeland, is a big coincidence. It is indeed a small world at times.

Rick and Elis with Shangxiao Cai and the Eury book.

Meanwhile in England the Wirral Wader Festival reached its 5th year. This year in honour of the RSPB’s 40th anniversary at the Dee Estuary reserve, the event was held at Burton Mere Wetlands.

Apart from the usual attraction of the birding to be had at this fantastic reserve, the admission for all was free over the weekend. The Wader Festival event took place in the reserve house with a small marquee in the garden. Second hand books were for sale in the house while in the marquee a number of other interesting stalls including, of course, our own, which was run by volunteers Gail and Phil Picket, to whom we are very grateful for giving up their weekend to represent Wader Quest at the event.

This year there was no children’s painting competition, however one of the previous winners, and Wader Festival regular, Molly Dunne turned her artistic hand to making an Oystercatcher pom-pom chick.

Next Wader Quest event will be the Inspiration of Waders Event and AGM on the 27th of October. This will be quickly followed by Wader Conservation World Watch on the 2nd and 3rd of November.

Rick and Elis Simpson will be attending the International Wader Study Group conference in Morecambe Bay on the 20th – 22nd September.