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Monday 11 March 2013

Resumption of Wader Quest. April 15th.


Exactly 3 months after we had to call a halt to our wanderings in search of the world's waders, we will be starting again. We and our family have greatly appreciated the support we have had from everyone after making this difficult decision and we hope that we will be able to continue to make Wader Quest interesting for all those that have been following us. The family is right behind us and we feel that the time is right now to start thinking about our commitment to the world's waders once again.

We have just booked our trip to the southern states of Louisiana and Texas in the USA leaving on the 25th of April we will fly to Houston and drive over to Cameron in Louisiana.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper
The rice fields in that area are a famous hot spot for returning Nearctic breeding waders and we hope to fill many of the gaps in our list on this trip. We will spend several days in the area looking for American Golden Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, Upland Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilson's Phalarope, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Baird's Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper and resident species American Oystercatcher.

American Golden plover
On the 27th we have the honour of giving a talk about Wader Quest to the Louisiana Ornithological Society (LOS) in Cameron at their AGM. Apart from giving us the opportunity to spread the word about the plight that the spoonies and indeed almost all waders face, we hope it'll be a good chance to pick up some local gen from the experts who know the area well!

Hudsonian Godwit
We hope we will have time to stop at a couple of sites in Texas on our way back to Houston airport, places such as Galveston for example where the last Eskimo Curlew was photographed and the nearby Bolivar Flats that have always held a draw for me since I read about them in an American birding magazine many years ago.

Pectoral Sandpiper.

It'll be a great thrill to be back in travel mode again and we are both excited about searching out the world's waders once again.

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