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Saturday 12 January 2013

Target number of species 180.

We have been asked by a number of people how many species we expect to see on this venture.

Sociable Lapwing, species number 49 an unexpected bonus!
The total species we have on the list is 231. There are a number of extinct species which we will see in a museum but will not count in the species total, although we will register that we have seen them on the Wader Quest species list (which see).

Species number 1. Common Snipe
There are also a number of species that live on remote islands that, due to a budgetary restrictions (ie we can't afford it), we will not even be attempting to see. Also assuming that we will not see all the species that are potentially available, we feel that we would be happy to reach 180 and so have set that as a target on the top of the site where we record the number of species seen.

Our last species to date, number 82. Purple Sandpiper.
With an injection of cash we could contemplate seeing a few more and if we were millionaires we'd try to see them all, but alas we are not so we must cut our cloth according to our purse, which has not gone as far as we had hoped due mainly to taxes on flights severely ripping apart our planned budget.

They're not all easy! Number 42. Greater Painted Snipe.
We have been very fortunate in meeting some exceptionally generous people on our travels and so have managed to save quite a lot here and there on accommodation, guides and even transport, to all those who have helped in this way a sincere and heartfelt thank you (and of course also to all those that have offered for the future).

Here's one for the future, hopefully next month, Wrybill.
Photo: Brent Stephenson.
It should also be remembered that the point of Wader Quest is not the number of species seen, that is just an amusing by product. There is not, to our knowledge, a record set for the number of waders seen in a twelve month period so we are not trying to compete with that. The primary purpose of this venture is to draw attention to what is happening to the world's waders.


Here's one we probably won't see, Caspian Plover.
Photo: Tommy Pedersen.

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