Graham Appleton
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wadertales.bsky.social
Graham Appleton
@wadertales.bsky.social
Writer & life-long birdwatcher.
Formerly Director of Communications for BTO.
#WaderTales blogs about #waders #shorebirds #birds #ornithology
Reposted by Graham Appleton
Not everyone relies on AI ...
So far this year, over 19,000 people in 139 countries have read at least one WaderTales blog.
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
The most popular of this year's blogs is "Making full use of tracking data".
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m...
#ornithology
December 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
What lessons can we learn from the demise of the Slender-billed Curlew?
Blog published on 12 Dec 2024, based on paper by Graeme Buchanan et al in @bou.org.uk journal IBIS.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#ornithology
December 12, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
Waders/shorebirds don't necessarily breed every year.
Taking a 'gap year' may be a sensible option:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/g... 🎂5️⃣
Paper by Eveling Tavera et al.
#ornithology
December 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
What lessons can we learn from the demise of the Slender-billed Curlew?
Blog published on 12 Dec 2024, based on paper by Graeme Buchanan et al in @bou.org.uk journal IBIS.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#ornithology
December 12, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
Seasonal field staff needed for @rspbscience.bsky.social projects in 2026 - advert live, closing date 11 Jan. Lots of #seabird (& non-seabird) opportunities!

Get in touch if you’d like to know more about any of the #seabird roles 🌊🐦

app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... #seabirds #ornithology
Research Assistant and Senior Research Assistant - Seasonal Recruitment 2026 | RSPB
We are delighted to bring the details of our seasonal Research Assistants and Senior Research Assistants vacancies on a variety of projects within Great Britain in 2026.Full details of the roles curre...
app.vacancy-filler.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 11:10 AM
The annual post-breeding moult of a shorebird lasts about three months - that's as long as a successful breeding season.
Monitoring moult using digital cameras: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
#ornithology
December 11, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
Farming can be good for breeding waders.
Blog based on research by Lilja Jóhannesdóttir:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/d... 🎂7️⃣
#ornithology
December 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
The annual post-breeding moult of a shorebird lasts about three months - that's as long as a successful breeding season.
Monitoring moult using digital #photography:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
December 10, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Farming can be good for breeding waders.
Blog based on research by Lilja Jóhannesdóttir:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/d... 🎂7️⃣
#ornithology
December 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Waders/shorebirds don't necessarily breed every year.
Taking a 'gap year' may be a sensible option:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/g... 🎂5️⃣
Paper by Eveling Tavera et al.
#ornithology
December 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
At the end of every new road/track in Iceland is a new summer cottage, a tourist development, a newly planted forest or energy infrastructure.
All these developments impact breeding waders but the birds' problems start with the road.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
#ConservationScience🌍
December 5, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Blog about
* Broad-billed Sandpipers
* The latest Red List for waders/shorebirds and
* Aapa Mires
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/08/b... 🎂
#ornithology
December 8, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
December 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM
1/4
Thread about head-starting (hatching eggs and raising chicks in captivity) starts with link to new paper from WWT & RSPB:
"When and why to give shorebirds a head start"
Then return rates, inbreeding issues and Curlew 👇
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#ornithology
December 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM
At the end of every new road/track in Iceland is a new summer cottage, a tourist development, a newly planted forest or energy infrastructure.
All these developments impact breeding waders but the birds' problems start with the road.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
#ConservationScience🌍
December 5, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Not everyone relies on AI ...
So far this year, over 19,000 people in 139 countries have read at least one WaderTales blog.
wadertales.wordpress.com/about/
The most popular of this year's blogs is "Making full use of tracking data".
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m...
#ornithology
December 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
New WaderTales blog.
How do roads impact breeding waders?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
Based on new paper by Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir et al
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#ornithology
December 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Roosting.
Energy conservation - not laziness.
See 'A place to roost'
wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/a...
#ornithology
December 4, 2025 at 8:56 AM
How effectively can listening devices 'count' breeding waders?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/c...
Blog from 4 Dec 2024 based on paper by Jarrett & Willis
#ornithology
December 4, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
What impacts do roads have on Iceland's breeding waders?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
Latest paper from Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir has become WaderTales blog #153.
#ConservationEcology🌍
December 2, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Graham Appleton
Latest wadertales blog on the very low numbers of breeding whimbrel, and other waders, around roads throughout lowland Iceland: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
From our new @avianbiology.bsky.social paper nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #ornithology
December 3, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Trees or breeding waders?
THREAD 1/4
There's little point paying farmers to leave space for breeding waders if their neighbours are going to plant trees.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
New review paper by Emma Sheard et al suggests that forests create ...

#ornithology
Woodland proximity limits benefits of conservation land management for farmland breeding waders
Where grassland breeding wader assemblages may be put at risk by tree planting, buffer zones >500 m should be implemented to mitigate the negative effect on wader species, with further distances havi...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:23 AM
What impacts do roads have on Iceland's breeding waders?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
Latest paper from Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir has become WaderTales blog #153.
#ConservationEcology🌍
December 2, 2025 at 5:30 PM
New WaderTales blog.
How do roads impact breeding waders?
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/r...
Based on new paper by Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir et al
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#ornithology
December 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Birdwatchers who are under 40 will not appreciate just how many breeding waders there were in Scottish farmland back in 1990.
If your benchmark is 2015, look at what happened in the previous 25 years:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/11/30/2... 🎂8️⃣
And things have not improved since:
#ornithology
25 years of wader declines
This article summarises a Bird Study paper arising from a 25-year Scottish study of breeding Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Redshank & Curlew. The story is set against a backdrop of a changing farming…
wadertales.wordpress.com
November 30, 2025 at 7:57 PM