28 Apr 2024

Wader Quest’s year so far.

by | posted in: American, arquata, Curlews, Eurasian Curlew, Fundraising, Haematopus, Jack, Limnocryptes, minimus, Numenius, Our Blogs, Oystercatchers, palliatus, Science and Research, Shorebirds, Snipes, Wader Conservation, Waders | 0

This year, 2024, we are championing the Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata as our species of the year. The reasons for this are clear.

It is a species in peril, being recognised as Near Threatened by the IUCN and on the UK Red List for birds. Across the UK we have lost almost half of our breeding population and that is significant because we host around 25% of the world population. As Wader Quest is based in the UK and it is the UK that holds such a proportion of the world’s Eurasian Curlews it is a cause close to home. Therefore, we have supported two initiatives this year, which are trying to promote the concerns we all have about Eurasian Curlews.

Funding News

This month we have passed the £60K mark regarding funds we have raised and either donated or granted to wader conservation projects. It also includes the funds we are still holding that will be exclusively used to fund wader conservation around the world in future.

So, a big thank you to every one of our supporters be they Friends, Sponsors, people who have donated and even those who have bought our merchandising for helping us achieve this total.

 

In January we awarded our £1,000.00 2023 Anniversary Grant to Greengage Films to part fund a public information film about the plight of UK Eurasian Curlews.
In February we also part funded Curlew Action, with a grant of £1,000 for their “Fieldworkers workshop” at Kings Lynn, Norfolk, England, bringing together Curlew field workers from across Europe to share information and ideas.
Staying within the UK we have also sent a grant to the Tyne Tees Regional Jack Snipe Project to part fund a Pulsar Axion2 LRF XG35 Thermal Scope to help locate Jack Snipes Limnocryptes minimus in darkness but it works equally well during daylight hours especially in dismal British winters like the one we just experienced.

 

In addition, we have made two payments to projects in Brazil. In January we donated £465.39 to Aves Limícolas Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro to assist with the funding for wader protection and local education projects in Cabo Frio, a popular holiday destination on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state where tourism often conflicts with the needs of wildlife and on the beach in particular with waders.

The second Brazilian project to benefit from Wader Quest funding is Projecto Aves Limícolas Peruíbe, this time in the state of São Paulo. We have purchased colour rings to the value of £418.00 suitable for American Oystercatchers as part of their study of the species breeding on the beaches of São Paulo to measure success rates and longevity, and therefore population trends in another popular holiday destination.