Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 11h

Curlew moult lasts a long time.
New paper in @waderstudy.bsky.social journal by Forster et al shows primary moult lasts an average of four months.
www.waderstudygroup.org/article/19691/
General blog about moult:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/t...
#ornithology

2 24

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 3d

'Moult, captured on camera'
WaderTales blog #151
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
Full catalogue:
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
#ConservationScience🌍

4 9

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 2d

Yesterday, IUCN declared the Slender-billed Curlew to be extinct.
How did we let this happen?
What lessons are there for the future?
WaderTales blog based on paper by Graeme Buchanan et al
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#extinction #ornithology

1 27 39

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 4d

'Photographic ornithology'
How can bird photographers contribute to shorebird research?
New WaderTales blog based on paper by Winfried & Wolfgang Daunicht, published in Wader Study journal.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
#ornithology @waderstudy.bsky.social

9 13

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 2d

Yesterday, IUCN declared the Slender-billed Curlew to be extinct.
How did we let this happen?
What lessons are there for the future?
WaderTales blog based on paper by Graeme Buchanan et al
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#extinction #ornithology

1 27 39

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 3d

'Moult, captured on camera'
WaderTales blog #151
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
Full catalogue:
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
#ConservationScience🌍

4 9

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Jen Gill @jengill.bsky.social · 4d

The latest wadertales blog (no. 151) describes how scoring moult from photographs can reveal moult season duration and how it varies between populations: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
#ornithology

7 20

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 4d

'Photographic ornithology'
How can bird photographers contribute to shorebird research?
New WaderTales blog based on paper by Winfried & Wolfgang Daunicht, published in Wader Study journal.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
#ornithology @waderstudy.bsky.social

9 13

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 6d

3️⃣/3️⃣
We are going to see more papers about breeding densities of nesting waders, based on remote monitoring of calls and displays.
Paper by Jarrett and Willis reminds us that we need to think about behaviour:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/c...
#ConservationScience🌍

1 4

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 6d

2️⃣/3️⃣
"Chick squeaks"
Amazing insights into the noises that wader chicks make:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/c...
#AnimalBehaviour

1 1 4

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 6d

1️⃣/3️⃣
Are you interested in the calls that waders/shorebirds make?
@waderstudy.bsky.social have kindly made a 'Perspectives' article available as 'open access'.
www.waderstudygroup.org/article/19261/
See thread for two WaderTales blogs about wader calls 👇
#ornithology

1 6 10

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 11d

One of the benefits of studying wader migration is that you learn how interconnected places are.
The world seems smaller and country borders seem trivial.
Black-tailed Godwit blog:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
#ornithology

11 27

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 8d

Studying breeding waders sometimes involves catching chicks multiple times.
Do these intensive studies have negative effects on chick growth?
Blog about reassuring paper by Camilo Carneiro et al from 5 Oct 2024 🎂
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/h...

How do wader chicks respond to being handled?

Every wader researcher knows that their actions can have negative consequences for the birds they are studying. Given that most shorebird species are in trouble or causing concern, conservation sci…

wadertales.wordpress.com

2 11 18

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 8d

Studying breeding waders sometimes involves catching chicks multiple times.
Do these intensive studies have negative effects on chick growth?
Blog about reassuring paper by Camilo Carneiro et al from 5 Oct 2024 🎂
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/h...

How do wader chicks respond to being handled?

Every wader researcher knows that their actions can have negative consequences for the birds they are studying. Given that most shorebird species are in trouble or causing concern, conservation sci…

wadertales.wordpress.com

2 11 18

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 9d

On this day in 2022, I was lamenting the addition of the tenth and eleventh waders to the UK red list:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/u... 🎂3️⃣
#ukbirding #birds

1 1 9

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 10d

Even small waders may take a gap year:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/g...

Gap years for sandpipers

Will this Semipalmated Sandpiper fly north to breed? With the approach of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, waders (shorebirds) that have spent the previous few months on the shores of Africa, the…

wadertales.wordpress.com

1

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 10d

Reminder!
@jeroen-reneerkens.bsky.social appreciates reports of colour-ringed Sanderlings:
submit.cr-birding.org/projects/181/
Counts of adult/juvenile Sanderlings in flocks are great too.
Blog about the Greenland Sanderling project:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/t...
📷 @markaeaton.bsky.social

10 10

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · Aug 28

Teenage waders?
Shorebirds - particulalry larger species - may not breed until they are 2, 3 or 4.
But what do these 'teenagers do' - and how does this impact upon their conservation?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/t...
🎂5️⃣
#ornithology

Teenage waders

Hudsonian Godwit in breeding plumage A paper by Juan Navedo & Jorge Ruiz, focusing on Hudsonian Godwits, raises important points about the conservation of the world’s larger shorebirds. Many cu…

wadertales.wordpress.com

1 6 17

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · Sep 4

Lovely video.
Where will this juvenile Sanderling spend the next few months? Somewhere between Rye and South Africa.
Wintering conditions will determine if it will migrate north in spring.
Blog about fascinating paper by @jeroen-reneerkens.bsky.social
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/t...

Barry Yates @rxnature.bsky.social · Sep 4

A juvenile Sanderling feeding on the shore this afternoon @ryeharbournr
One of a group of four.
Slowed to quarter speed, because they are so frantic...
@wadertales.bsky.social

4 21

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 11d

One of the benefits of studying wader migration is that you learn how interconnected places are.
The world seems smaller and country borders seem trivial.
Black-tailed Godwit blog:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
#ornithology

11 27

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 15d

🎂 WaderTales is 🔟 today 🎂
150 blogs
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
310,000 reads
Thank you to all of the scientists, bird ringers and colour-ring readers who have contributed to the science described in the tales!
Thread with highlights:
bsky.app/profile/wade...
#ornithology

12 21

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 18d

Sanderling
Netherlands to Israel!
Greenlandic or Siberian?
Great thread by Jeroen.
Blog about his migration research:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/t...
#ornithology

3 13

Reposted by Graham Appleton

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 15d

10 years ago, I published the first WaderTales blog.
Based on a paper by @tomasgunnarsson.bsky.social et al, it explains "How volcanic eruptions help waders".
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/t...
Ten years on, and there are 150 WaderTales blogs:
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
#ornithology

2 5 20

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 15d

Scores of ornithologists have kindly allowed me to tell their stories.
243,000 people in 209 countries (as defined by WordPress) have read one or more WaderTales.
MANY THANKS to all the people who have helped to promote the blogs!
#waders #shorebirds

6

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 15d

10 years ago, I published the first WaderTales blog.
Based on a paper by @tomasgunnarsson.bsky.social et al, it explains "How volcanic eruptions help waders".
wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/t...
Ten years on, and there are 150 WaderTales blogs:
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
#ornithology

2 5 20