Team BirdEyes – Global Flyway Network

Adrian Boyle

I am a Global Flyway Network associate for the Australia chapter. I help Chris conduct research particularly on Red Knots when I am in Broome and spend two months every year in northern China during northward migration recording bands and flags on Red Knots and hope this helps in the tentative steps to getting some formal reserve status for the Luannan Coast, Bohai Bay. [caption id="attachment_1573" align="alignnone" width="633"] A Red Knot in breeding plumage. Photo: Adrian Boyle[/caption] I started watching birds from a very early age while growing up in South Eastern Australia. In 1992 I observed some Sanderlings with leg flags at one of my local beaches and this is what introduced me to the world of shorebirds and shorebird research. This then led me to Broome the ‘Shorebird capital of Australia’ where I worked alongside Chris Hassell at the Broome Bird Observatory (BBO). Bird tours took up a lot of my time there. After the BBO time, I worked as specialist guide on bird tours around Broome and cruising along the Kimberley Coast. As shown recently all this bird watching can yield very good results: I was one of team of four who rediscovered the seemingly extinct Night Parrot in the remote desert of NW Australia. "Many years of hard work and refinement of detection methods paid off". Photographs and call recordings of the Night Parrot can be found here. When I am not working for Global Flyway Network, tour guiding is what I still do. Most of my jobs are on expedition vessels in remote parts of the world such as Antarctica and Arctic. I am also a keen photographer and rarely separated from my camera.

Ana Coelho

I am a PhD student at CESAM, University of Aveiro (Portugal) and University of Groningen (The Netherlands), working on the project “Waders of the Bijagós” funded by MAVA, that aims at securing the ecological integrity of the Bijagos archipelago as a key site for waders along the East Atlantic Flyway. Researcher, Royal Netherlands Institute, 2001 – 2017 I am a PhD student at CESAM, University of Aveiro (Portugal) and University of Groningen (The Netherlands), working on the project “Waders of the Bijagós” funded by MAVA, that aims at securing the ecological integrity of the Bijagos archipelago as a key site for waders along the East Atlantic Flyway. My interest in island systems began during my master’s degree, when I had the opportunity to volunteer in the Portuguese archipelagos of Berlengas and Madeira. This interest, together with my curiosity over tropical ecosystems, led me to develop my master research on the tropical island of São Tomé (in the Gulf of Guinea), exploring how anthropogenic land use changes affect avian seed dispersal. Aiming at gaining a better understanding about conservation biology, I later attended a tropical ecology and conservation course in Tanzania where I learned about community conservation, aquatic ecology and bioacoustics. Bruce roost: the southern tip of Bubaque island is an important roosting area, unfortunately suffering from increasing human disturbance from touristic activities. Photo: Ana Coelho With these set of skills and interests I joined the ‘Waders of the Bijagos’ project, where I develop my PhD, supervised by Dr. José Alves and co-supervised by Dr. Theunis Piersma, on the effect of environmental changes on migratory shorebird populations wintering in the tropics. I am currently focusing on the diet and energetic balance of some of the most common wader species, to understand if there are enough resources in the archipelago to support the large number wintering shorebirds. I will also explore how human and shorebird populations of the archipelago interact, and finally investigate changes in population numbers and functional diversity of waders over time. After a long day of fieldwork on the extensive mudflats of Formosa island, there was still some time to help local women harvesting shellfish, a major protein source for the Bijagos people and a common prey for shorebirds. Photos: Afonso Rocha Profile photo: Joshua Nightingale

Anita Koolhaas

I work at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), where I am responsible for the database of the SIBES (Synoptic Intertidal Benthic Survey) program. This benthic sampling program has been running since 2008 where we sample each year the entire sublittoral Dutch Wadden Sea for sediment grain size and macrozoobenthos. The SIBES database also includes the benthos data starting from 1988, the year our sampling program started on the mudflats around Griend. Over the years, the sampling area has expanded to the standard SIBES program. I myself worked on benthic sampling during the very start of program on Griend and during the period in the early 1990s, when we first expanded into the Western Wadden Sea - to the tidal flats of the Hengst. Connected to this, I have studied many facets of the feeding ecology of Red Knots. This work together with Theunis Piersma resulted in the report “Shorebirds, shellfish (eries) and sediment around Griend, Western Wadden Sea, 1988-1996”.  The report caused a lot of discussion. I have a completed a college degree in Environmental Studies and a Master degrees in Biology at the University of Groningen. Besides my work in the Dutch Wadden Sea I have also studied the feeding ecology of Broad-billed Sandpipers in the Sea of Azov in the Black Sea region and of Brent Gees in the White Sea, and I have studied the circadian rhythms of the captive population of Red Knots at the NIOZ.

Anne Dekinga

Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.

Bastiaan Blaauw

I am a designer, online application developer and bird lover, living in Fryslân, the Netherlands.  In 2015 Theunis Piersma asked me to build a web application to display locations of blacktailed godwits that carry a satellite transmitter on a map. The first version of this application was released on the website of citizen's initiative King of the Meadows (https://volg.keningfanegreide.nl/).  In the following year's we further developed the techniques to show the endeavours of migratory birds of the East Atlantic Flyway. One of the mail goals of the tracking site is outreach.  And raise awareness by a broad audience and to provide context around the migration trough a blog and by the integration of Google Streetview. In 2016 we started a project called waarisamalia.nu to invigorate this goal. With the aid of tracking data and the map the goal was to predict the precise time arrival of blacktailed godwit 'Amalia' in Friesland. The one who with the best prediction won a trip to the place where Amalia was at the time of prediction. Since early 2020 globalflywaynetwork.org is released. I hope to be able to contribute to further development of the site and this unique network of scientist, researchers and other collaborators.  

Benjamin Gnep

Global Flyway Network associate. I have the privilege to regularly join the shorebird research of the Royal NIOZ as ring reader and field assistant in the Dutch Wadden Sea and at the Banc d’Arguin in Mauritania. Originally based in the German Wadden Sea and its islands, my first contact with Theunis’ team  was on the uninhabited Dutch Wadden Sea island Griend. In 2015, I spent three month on the island to read colour-ringed Sanderlings for my Master thesis under the supervision of Jeroen Reneerkens. Reading colour-ringed Sanderlings and Red Knots has become one of my greatest pleasures since. Luckily I was invited to work on Griend again, and to join NIOZ-expeditions to Mauritania. [caption id="attachment_2561" align="alignnone" width="3272"] A colour-ringed Red Knot on Griend, The Netherlands. Photo: Benjamin Gnep[/caption] Working on the mudflat has become a profession for me - at least for some time of the year. Griend is a beautiful place and the vast open mudflats only limited by the horizon, offer a fantastic scenery for ring-reading. Spending the entire day among huge numbers of Red Knots and following the foraging groups for many kilometers on the mudflat is a real treat for me and most likely the best job I will ever have. [caption id="attachment_2562" align="alignnone" width="4000"] A "Knuttschwarm", a flock of Red Knots. Photo: Benjamin Gnep[/caption] .  

Bingrun Zhu (Drew)

I am a PhD candidate at Beijing Normal University (BNU), China, and University of Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands; under the supervision of Profs. Zhang Zhengwang (BNU) and Theunis Piersma (RUG). I conduct my fieldwork in Bohai Bay, and Huolin Gol, Inner Mongolia, China, and mainly focus on the migration & breeding ecology of Black-tailed Godwits in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF). When I finished undergraduate school in 2008 in my hometown Lanzhou, Gansu Province, I moved to Beijing, and worked during three years on shorebirds and wetlands conservation at the China office of Wetlands International. I worked toward understanding the needs of birds and managing their habitats accordingly. During this period bird watching also became part of my life. All of this encouraged me to take a step further and in 2011 I entered North-east Forestry University. During my postgraduate study, my topic was ‘Habitat selection of Eurasian Spoonbill in Hei Longjiang Province, China’. I received my master degree in Wetlands & Avian Ecology in 2014. I started my PhD research at Beijing Normal University in the same year, and because I couldn’t wait until the new semester would begin, I joined my colleagues’ team as a helper, to gain field experience, meanwhile looking for a topic I was interested in. April 2014, I saw two Black-tailed Godwits with remarkably different body size foraging together, that was the moment I started to plan my PhD project on ‘Black-tailed Godwits in the EAAF’. My Phd project is funded by National Air and Water Conservation Fund (National Geography) and the Natural Science Foundation (China). In 2016, I received additional funds from the China Scholarship Council, to study at RUG as a joint-training PhD candidate.

Bob Gill

In 2015, I became a ‘pensioner’ following a 40-year-long career directing shorebird research programs in Alaska, initially through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and later the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center. It was in 1991, at a symposium in Quito, Ecuador, that I first met Theunis, and from which ensued a rich personal and professional collaborative effort into the realm of extreme endurance migration by shorebirds, particularly among the Numeniini. Field work these day is at a minimum, but writing and editing keep my hand in the game. Detailed histories of research efforts, staff, collaborators, and products can be found on the USGS website (being updated). The important discovery of the longest non-stop oceanic flight in birds, the flight of Bar-tailed Godwits from Alaska to New Zealand, was the result of my UGSG-based research together with Global Flyway Network researchers of team Piersma. The paper was published in 2009 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B; below a reproduction of the tracks. [caption id="attachment_1021" align="alignnone" width="451"] Southward flight tracks of nine Bar-tailed Godwits fitted with satellite transmitters (PTTs) during 2006 and 2007 (Gill et al. 2009, Proc B)[/caption]

Bob Loos

Fieldwork is challenging, often satisfying, but always delightful, even though this photo may suggest otherwise ... After working in financial advice for 30 years, I have since 2015 the privilege to do field work for Global Flyway Network. Birds (often) have long legs that can carry colour rings which makes a bird individually recognizable, giving away a piece of his/her life history. That is why I am fixated on the legs of shorebirds. The shorebirds or waders, both in the East-Atlantic Flyway and in the East Asian – Australasian Flyway, took me from the Dutch Wadden Sea to the Banc d'Arguin in Mauritania, and as far Bohai Bay in China. Since the establishment of Global Flyway Network, in September 2006, I am also treasurer of the foundation.

Chris Hassell

I have lived close to Roebuck Bay in Broome, north Western Australia (NWA), since 1996. When I emigrated from the UK, “25 years at the best shorebird site in the world!” is my un-biased statement on that. Initially I worked at the Broome Bird Observatory (BBO) before establishing Turnstone Nature Discovery: a bird-watching and nature tour business. Gradually the tour business was wound down and I moved in to research work and in 2006 I was contracted by Global Flyway Network to conduct their colour-banding project in NWA. A major part of this study now involves two months of field work in northern China at the Luannan coast, Bohai Bay. GFN have been working alongside Beijing Normal and Beijing Forestry Universities for 15 years with the last 12 years covering the entire 2 month northward migration period of Red Knots through the area. The number of Red Knots from NWA that pass through this site would be over 80% of the total that spend the non-breeding season in NWA. It’s an important site to say the least! The long collaboration has recently resulted in the establishment of a Wetland Park to, hopefully, conserve some mudflats, aquaculture ponds and subsequently the birds. Scanning Red Knots at Bohai Bay, china I also coordinates population monitoring programs on migratory shorebirds in NWA. When not being a shorebird nerd I'm drinking tea, listening to music and following the fortunes of Leicester City (good) and the England cricket team (fluctuating wildly). Mostly the job’s great but, not all the time.

Clarisse Kraamwinkel

PhD researcher in the field of Soil Sciences and member of the research group Sustainable Knowledge Infrastructures at Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen. I have a background in Earth Sciences and Hydrology and I am broadly interested in landscape-scale relations between vegetation, water, soil, and climate. For my PhD research under the supervision of Ruth Howison and Anne Beaulieu, I am focusing on soil health, soil degradation, and the effect of droughts and salinization on soil functionality. In the province of Friesland, I am working on evaluating how well the soil performs the main five soil functions and ecosystem services (biomass production, habitat provision, nutrient cycling, climate regulation, and water storage and purification) and how future climate change, such as an increase in droughts and soil salinity, will affect the functioning of the local soils. On a more global scale, I am working on creating awareness of the state of the soil and promoting a sense of urgency to restore and protect this fragile natural resource. My research connects to the research of the Global Flyway Network on many levels as soil quality affects the soil organisms present in the soil (food for the birds) as well as the permeability of the soil (important for soil probing birds). As Friesland is part of the breeding and foraging ground of the godwits, the current state of the Frisian soils and the potential changes in soil quality as a result of climate change is very much related to the work and interests of the researchers of the Global Flyway Network. More information on me and my work can be found here (RUG page) and here (Twitter).

Delip K. Das (Bisharga)

I am a PhD student of Prof. Theunis Piersma based at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. I am investigating wintering Black-tailed Godwits and their migration to and from Bangladesh. I will look at why some Black-tailed Godwits winter in the coastal ecosystem while others winter in the inland freshwater wetlands of the Central Asian and East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Bangabandhu Science and Technology Fellowship Trust supports my study. I was very keen to meet prof. Theunis Piersma since I came across Bijleveld et al. (2014) on benefits of foraging in small flock. Supplementary video clips of conducting experiments for that paper made me interested. I started digging, and it led me to the team Piersma. My research interest matched, and I started searching for opportunities to join the group. The journey was not easy being a citizen of a developing country where professional ornithology is almost non-existent. In 2018, I met Theunis at the Wader Study Group conference in the Netherlands, and after a prolonged persuasion, I started in April 2021. The avian world captivated me during my Bachelor study in the Department of Zoology, Jaghangirnagar University, Bangladesh. I became fascinated with the long-distance migration of shorebirds. In 2010, I volunteered for an expedition to search rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper on the southeast coast of Bangladesh. During that expedition, I waded through knee-deep mudflats, tussled with rough sea waves, camped into a remote island for the first time in my life, and got to know shorebirds intimately. The adventure of the expedition has inspired me to study deeply about shorebirds. When I started my academic career in 2013 as a Lecturer of Zoology at Jagannath University, Bangladesh, I used my enthusiasm. I directed my energy and available resources to waterbird research. I tried to build my research team. My research focus was the winter ecology and habitat use of waterbirds in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta (central coast) of Bangladesh. I travelled around Eighty Miles Beach in northwest Australia, the salinas of Spain, meadows of The Netherlands and mudflats of France and England to learn methods of studying shorebirds. I also checked the urban landscape and urban wildlife of Dhaka City, seeking a solution to minimize negative impacts of urban growth on biodiversity, integrate urban landscapes in wildlife conservation plans, and sustain a healthy urban ecosystem.

Dmitry Dorofeev

I am researcher in All-Russian Research Institute for Environmental Protection and PhD student in Moscow State University. My research is supported by the Global Flyway Network, through the Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and the University of Groningen. Several years ago I was involved in the Beluga Whale Project in Khairusova-Belogolovaya estuary in Western Kamchatka, Russia. There I became impressed by numerous flocks of waders that we observed in July and August. After the expedition I tried to find publications about the use of this area  waders but found just few of them. They were rather old and had limited information. I wanted to know more about this stopover, and therefore in 2015 we started our investigations at Khairusova-Belogolovaya estuary. I`m focused mainly on Great Knots, Black- and Bar-Tailed Godwits. Our key aim is to clarify the importance of Khairusova-Belogolovaya estuary for different wader species. Each year we involve volunteers from different countries in our fieldwork. We have five main activities during the field season.

1. Foraging behavior
2. Benthos survey
3. Catching and marking with individual leg flags (Kamchatka combination is Black flag over engraved Yellow!)
4. Observations of individually marked birds
5. Wader counts

Egbert van der Velde

University of Groningen, Conservation Ecology Group.

Eldar Rakhimberdiev

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Conservation Ecology Group, University of Groningen (Netherlands) and at the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia). I love working with Theunis for his rousing optimism, boundless thought and unique ability to mix interest, basic science and deep care about birds and environments in which they live. Being undergraduate at the Lomonosov Moscow State University I was dreaming about Arctic expeditions and managed to go there for first time even before I started my Masters project. In 2000 Mikhail Soloviev took me to Taimyr tundra. I joined the annual monitoring of breeding shorebirds, the project he was running from 1994. With my MSc thesis and later PhD work I focused on the fundamental ecological relationship between common breeding waders and their environment – availability of food resources and nest site selection at different scales. In 2007 I finalized my thesis on ‘Spatial ecological patterns of distribution of waders (Charadrii) breeding in south-east Taimyr’. While working on Taimyr I never thought of a change happening there, I was describing basic principles of a static undisturbed system. [caption id="attachment_1816" align="alignnone" width="565"] Collecting invertebrates in central Taimyr tundra[/caption] The wind of change came from the West, of course, soon after I attended the 2008 Wader Study Group conference in Poland and met Theunis and Yvonne Verkuil. Yvonne contacted me and asked whether I know what happens with Ruffs (Philomachus pugnax) in the Russian Arctic. After a look at the arcticbirds.net database, compiled by Mikhail and Pavel Tomkovich, we found that over the past years ruffs shifted from the European Arctic to Western Siberia. From here my project on Ruffs started. In 2010, with financial support from Global Flyway Network, together with Julia Karagicheva, Natalia Karlionova, Pavel Pinchuk, Alexander and Ekaterina Matsyna and Maxim Korolkov we went to Kalmykia to colour-mark Ruffs during spring migration. Birds were not there, but our trip initiated Ruff colour-marking in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. [caption id="attachment_1818" align="alignnone" width="608"] Search for Ruffs in Kalmykian step[/caption] In 2009 at the Global Flyway Network workshop organized by Theunis on Texel, the Netherlands, I met his friend and collaborator David Winkler and in 2010 joined his lab at Cornell University, USA, as a postdoc. There I focused on Tree swallows Tachycineta bicolor, small aerial feeders, which bred in nest boxes put up by Wink everywhere around Ithaca. Wink opened my eyes on demography, movement ecology, animal tracking and citizen science. I had to learn a lot there and with his support after two years obtained many skills necessary for my current work. I would have stayed longer there if Theunis would not called me back to Europe. In 2012 I joined his group at the Royal NIOZ, in the Netherlands as a postdoc on METAWAD project. There I focused first on Red Knots Calidris canutus and their survival responses to cockle dredging and then on the Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica. Having slowly realized how dynamic our environment is and how fast and flexible are birds in their adjustments to the environmental changes I looked back at my old Taimyr data. Indeed Taimyr has changed strongly over the period I have been there and godwits did too. Being impressed by the environmental changes I observe and concerned about the nearest future of migratory birds I am working now to describe the means that birds have for adaptation and to search for solutions that would keep them present in the new and warm world. You can view my publications at my profiles on ResearchGate, Google Scholar, GitHub, the Moscow State University and the NIOZ.  

Emma Penning

I am a PhD student at the University of Groningen and I am based at the Coastal Systems group of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). I have worked under the supervision of Theunis Piersma since the start of my masters. I work in the research project Conservation of the Dynamic Island of Griend. The project is funded by the Dutch NGO Natuurmonumenten and I work in close collaboration with colleagues at the University of Groningen. My study area is the island Griend and the mudflat around the island, located in the Western Dutch Wadden Sea (here). [caption id="attachment_1981" align="alignnone" width="581"] Sanderlings on Griend at high tide. Photo from the 'Griendboek' by Hanneke Dallmeijer & Jan Veen; griendboek.nl.[/caption] In spring and autumn hundreds of thousands of migrating shorebirds make use of Griend to rest but also to fatten up at the food-rich mudflat that surround it. Sanderlings are increasingly making use of Griend and are the main focus of my project. I study habitat use of Sanderlings in relation to food abundance and in relation to wintering area. [caption id="attachment_1980" align="alignnone" width="574"] Sanderlings on a tidal flat. Photo from the 'Griendboek' by Hanneke Dallmeijer & Jan Veen; griendboek.nl[/caption] In addition, I study the possible effects of the recent restoration works on Griend on the presence of Sanderlings. The restoration was required because of ongoing rapid erosion, and intends to restore processes that should make sure that the island can maintain itself in the future. The reconstruction was featured in The National Geographic. We keep a blog about the research that is done around Griend. [caption id="attachment_1979" align="alignnone" width="459"] Cockle Cerastoderma edule on  the mudflats of Griend. Photo: Emma Penning[/caption] Profile photo: Sander Zondervan

Gone but not forgotten

Lucie Schmaltz, PhD student, University of Groningen, Conservation Ecology Group, 2011 – 2018. Tanya Compton, Researcher, Royal Netherlands Institute, 2012 – 2018. Piet van den Hout, Msc and PhD student, Royal Netherlands Institute, 2001 – 2017. Matthijs van der Geest, Msc and PhD student, Royal Netherlands Institute, 2010 – 2017. Sjoerd Duijns, PhD student, Royal Netherlands Institute, 2010 – 2014. Roos Kentie, PhD student, University of Groningen, 2010-2015. Jeltje Jouta, PhD student, University of Groningen, 2012-2019. Jelle Loonstra, Msc and PhD student, University of Groningen, 2014-2020.

Hacen E.M. El-Hacen

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and a conservationist in the Parc National du Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania. Being born a few years after the most severe drought and loss of biodiversity in the history of West Africa ignited in me the passion for conservation and the desire to understand how ecosystems function. My fields of interest are intertidal ecology, trophic interactions, spatial patterns, ecosystem engineers, and ecosystem resilience. In my PhD, I am aiming to unravel the importance of the biota in the functioning of Banc d’Arguin intertidal flats and the effects of the environmental settings on the stability and resilience of the seagrass beds of the area. [caption id="attachment_3337" align="alignnone" width="624"] Hacen at work at the Banc d'Arguin. Photo: Tjeerd Bouma[/caption] In the bigger picture, we are studying how hydrodynamic affects the stability of seagrass directly though the wave forces and indirectly by setting the background sediment and nutrient conditions. On an intermediate scale, we are interested in pinpointing the main abiotic conditions and topographical settings that drive the recovery of seagrass beds after die-off events. Also we are trying to quantify the effect of feeding activities of shorebirds on sediment biogeochemistry. On the small scale, we study how flamingos and crabs jointly garden their biofilm food through the creation and maintenance of a spatial irrigation system higher in the intertidal gradient. [caption id="attachment_3336" align="alignnone" width="632"] Hacen at work at the Banc d'Arguin. Photo: Han Olff[/caption] Profile photo: Maarten Snel.

Hebo Peng

I am a PhD candidate in the Conservation Ecology Group at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and a researcher in Center for East Asian-Australasian Flyway Studies at Beijing Forestry University (China), under the supervision by Theunis Piersma (RuG), and co-supervised by Zhijun Ma (Fudan University, China) and Guangchun Lei (BFU). My study focuses on understanding the relationship between shorebirds and macrobenthos in the intertidal area along Chinese coast, in order to study the influences of shellfish aquaculture on shorebirds and to explore the rational management of aquaculture to better protect shorebirds in East Asian - Australasian Flyway. From 2015, I started my field work in the coast of China, from few sites visited at the beginning, to now covered 32 sites in 2021, I aim to conduct a long-term systematic monitoring of all important stopover sites of shorebirds along the Chinese coast. At each site, we sampled macrobenthos to assess the biodiversity and also monitored how shellfish aquaculture affects the change of biodiversity. We also monitored the habitat utilization of shorebirds at each site, by filming their behavior, collecting droppings… Combining the bird research and macrobenthos study, we monitored how shorebirds adapt the intertidal habitats in China where was occupied by human activities. Please find more information about my research at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/He-Bo-Peng

Jan van der Winden

Although my research focus is not on waders, Theunis Piersma has always encouraged me in my applied conservation studies on terns, herons and other endangered marsh and coastal birds. Especially as soon as my scientific studies started to involve the migration ecology of Black Tern, Arctic Tern, Purple Heron, Eurasian Bittern and currently also Great Reed Warbler, Theunis kindly invited me to join his enthusiastic team as Guest Researcher at the Global Flyway Ecology Group. This enabled me to profit from the vast network and knowledge on migration ecology in birds and I hope to add to this scientific studies with my work on birds that use the same flyways as waders. Behaviours and habitats differ from most waders: terns are born to fly and make the longest migratory journeys ever recorded (Artic Tern) and the Great Reed Warblers are bound to inland wetlands. I work as freelancer in the fields of wetland bird research and nature conservation. I work on projects on marsh habitat restoration and wetland management but in the slipstream have started up biologging projects to reveal migration routes of marsh birds in order to detect important wintering- and stopover sites. I also like to understand the migration ecology of birds living in dynamic landscapes,  which means that presence of breeding habitats is unpredictable  in successive years. I think communication with society is important to be sure nature conservation is taken seriously. For publications see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Van_Der_Winden Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janvdwinden/ [caption id="attachment_1686" align="alignnone" width="631"] Jan van der Winden with a satellite-tagged Eurasian Bittern[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1685" align="alignnone" width="629"] A Black Tern with a geolocator[/caption]

Jeroen Onrust

I am a postdoctoral researcher studying how detritivorous earthworms could be used in a more nature friendly farming system. During my PhD project (2012–2017), I studied the interactions between earthworms, meadow birds and dairy farming in Friesland (The Netherlands). During my PhD I focused on how management of grasslands used for dairy production influences different earthworm species and how this could influence the foraging ecology of waders using dairy farmland to feed on earthworms (e.g. Black-tailed Godwits, Lapwings, Ruffs, Golden Plovers etc.). The main result I found was that there are two main groups of earthworms, species that surface (detritivorous species) and species that don’t surface (geophagous species). Especially the surfacing species are important because by coming to the surface they are then also available for visual hunting birds such as Lapwings. A probing Black-tailed Godwit could feed on both groups. However, intensive land use is detrimental for surfacing species. This will not only affect visual hunting predators, but also the whole food web as this group of earthworms play a crucial role in soil formation and nutrient cycling. [caption id="attachment_2013" align="alignnone" width="648"] Ruffs and Golden Plovers feeding on earthworms. Photo: Jeroen Onrust[/caption] To measure earthworm availability for visual hunting earthworm predators, I developed a cart that can be pushed slowly with the legs along a transect and then all the earthworms could be counted form close distance without creating too much disturbance (see picture). It is night work as earthworms only surface then. [caption id="attachment_2015" align="alignnone" width="648"] Jeroen counting earthworms by pushing himself slowly along a transect using a self-developed cart. Photo: Lars Soerink[/caption] Furthermore, I studied nocturnal movements of Golden Plovers wintering in dairy farmland to investigate whether they use earthworm-rich patches for foraging. For two years, we applied TOA transmitters on 50 birds and measured number of surfacing earthworms in the patches an individual used at night and compared it with nearby unused patches. By performing indoor feeding experiments, we revealed how Ruff catch earthworms. Also during my study biology at the University of Groningen I worked with waders (Oystercatchers and Redshanks at the saltmarsh and Red Knots in Banc d’Arguin). Profile photo: Lars Soerink

Jesse Conklin

I am a guest researcher, through Global Flyway Network (GFN), in the Conservation Ecology Group at the University of Groningen (RUG). Inspired by the epic migratory journeys of many shorebirds, my research initially focused on how individuals manage to fit these migrations into their busy annual routines. More recently, my work has expanded to explore the impacts of extreme long-distance migration on the demography and evolution of populations. Since 2001, these pursuits have involved fieldwork all over the globe, including northern California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, New Zealand, China, South Korea, Australia, Greenland, and The Netherlands, proving that shorebirds rank among the world’s best travel agents. [caption id="attachment_911" align="alignnone" width="355"] With a male Bar-tailed Godwit near Nome, Alaska. Photo: Murray Potter[/caption] From 2012 to 2018, my primary research (funded by an NWO Open Programme Grant) explored the global population structure and evolutionary history of three of Team Piersma’s main focal species: Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, and Red Knot. Using genome-wide molecular markers and a combination of population genetic and phylogeographic methods, this work aimed to: (1) challenge our current perceptions and test new hypotheses regarding subspecies distinctions within each species, (2) discover which geographic and ecological factors (if any) represent barriers to gene flow, and (3) reconstruct the evolutionary history of present-day migratory flyways.   Before moving to The Netherlands in 2012, I spent five years in New Zealand, studying the baueri subspecies of Bar-tailed Godwits with Phil Battley (another alumnus of Team Piersma) at Massey University. This work, which constituted my PhD and continues today as a serious long-term ‘hobby’, uses an intimately monitored population of marked individuals, combined with geolocator and satellite tracking, to understand the flexibility and annual-cycle consequences of this population’s extreme migratory routine (including three non-stop flights of 6,000–12,000 km each, connecting locations in Alaska, Australasia, and the Yellow Sea). Currently, I am focused on discovering how young godwits manage their first migrations and how they eventually settle on their adult routines. [caption id="attachment_950" align="alignnone" width="674"] Bar-tailed Godwits (including two color-banded males, on left) departing New Zealand on migration, but note the young male (still in wing molt, lower right) who doesn't seem to realize what he has signed up for! Photo: Jesse Conklin[/caption] Before defecting to the East Asian–Australasian Flyway in 2007, I studied breeding and migratory ecology of shorebirds using the Pacific American Flyway, as a master’s student in the lab of Mark Colwell at Humboldt University, California, and a seasonal employee of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey. In (nearly all of) my ‘spare’ time, I am co-Editor-in-Chief and graphic designer for Wader Study, the scientific journal of the International Wader Study Group. You can view my publications at my profiles on ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and the University of Groningen.

Job ten Horn

Since 2009 I’m working as a technician at the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in the Coastal Systems department. I live in the beautiful town of Oosterend on the island of Texel, close to mudflats of the Wadden Sea. I coordinate the colour- ringing of Bar-tailed Godwits and Red knots in the Wadden Sea and on the Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania. I’m therefore involved in catching shorebirds, and I spent a lot of time on the mudflats for ring reading and sampling. Besides the work on shorebird movements and demography, I’m working on their prey, the intertidal macro zoo benthos, as one of the team members in the SIBES project. During each summer since 2008 we sample the entirety of the intertidal mudflats of the Dutch Wadden Sea and process all these samples in our lab facility at the NIOZ. I’m also one of the experts in species identification and taxonomy of benthic species. For Dutch readers, see also Basismonitoring Wadden. In the months of the year that Red Knots and Bar-tailed Godwits are present in the Wadden Sea, we’re catching with mistnets, on the island of Griend or the sandbank Richel which is our main research area nearby the NIOZ institute on Texel. Our fieldwork is facilitated by the NIOZ Research Vessel Navicula and the mobile bird observatory, the Wadden Potoon “De Richel” which makes our fieldwork efficient and flexible.

Jos Hooijmeijer

In 2004 Theunis and I started two long-term research programs on inland, fresh-water, wader species:  Black-tailed Godwit and Ruff. Although I am appointed at the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen, you can find me most of the time in SW Friesland, The Netherlands, where the majority of the fieldwork takes place. The Ruff project is almost finished now since Ruffs no longer pass through our study area in massive numbers. But the demographic study on Black-tailed Godwits is still booming and nowadays we follow a population of about 1000 breeding pairs in a 10.000 ha study area, including many colour ringed individuals. [caption id="attachment_1962" align="alignnone" width="582"] The next generation of Black-tailed Godwits, with code flags. Photo: University of Groningen[/caption] My role is to manage the daily running of the program: including preparing and conducting fieldwork,  directing a team of up to 10 field assistants, equipment logistics, database management, public outreach, organizing expeditions to Iberia and Africa, assist in fundraising, contributing to publications. Black-tailed Godwits and other meadow-bird species have been decimated in the past 40 years, mainly due to habitat loss as a result of agricultural intensification. Our study has lead to many new insights on what is necessary to prevent this national bird of The Netherlands from getting extinct. I am convinced that by creating public awareness, informing policy makers and discussing with landowners our  wader science will eventually contribute to a revolution in agricultural practices and the restoration of farmland biodiversity. [caption id="attachment_1960" align="alignnone" width="551"] Black-tailed Godwits wintering in Guinea Bissau. Photo: University of Groningen[/caption]

Julia Karagicheva

Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. Postdoctoral researcher. Profile ‘under construction’.

Katherine Leung

My first introduction to Team Piersma’s works in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway was in Broome, North-west Australia shorebird banding with Chris Hassell in November 2008 during a 3-week expedition. That’s where I start connected with migratory shorebirds and the people working to conserve them. I help with GFN’s field work at Bohai Bay to record colour bands and flags on Red Knot and other shorebirds during spring migration. In the past years I have only been an occasional visiting volunteer spending a week or so with the team. I wouldn’t have thought that I am now playing the role in leading the field work with teammates from China during the pandemic. Leading the field work in 2020 and 2021 seasons just came in time perfectly with the site new designation as a protected area to become a Provincial Wetland Park. I attend the Park’s stakeholder workshop organised in June 2021. GFN’s years of knowledge on how shorebirds use the site was brought to the stakeholders at the meeting, and will be influential to the Park’s future management (see more from Bohai Report 2021). Happy team on Nanpu seawall, Bohai Bay, China after a morning scanning session. © Mr. Liu, May 2018 Originally from Hong Kong, I used to work at Mai Po Nature Reserve, part of the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site which habitats are actively managed for the conservation of waterbirds and biodiversity. I gained much knowledge on waterbird monitoring and wetland management in my twelve-year of work there. Nowadays, I am self-employed and spend most of my time working along coastal China. I am involved with waterbird survey work in Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve and several important shorebird sites in Jiangsu (Lianyungang, Dongtai, Rudong). Many of these sites are great for colour-bands and flags scanning so I do that whenever the opportunity arises after surveys. Great fun scanning for colour-bands and flags at Xingzhuang Estuary, Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China © Katherine Leung, Aug 2021 Owing to my past work experience in wetland habitat management, I also write management plan and give habitat management advice to wetland protected area. I believe this is how scientific knowledge gain from research and monitoring can really become conservation impact. As a volunteer, I am part of the China field work team with “Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Project”, carrying out survey for population estimate, banding and satellite tagging. I also help to collect colour-bands and flags sighting records from birders in China and convey them to the corresponding ringing teams in the EAAF. I couldn’t be more happy with my busy work-life with shorebirds!

Marie Stessens

Since 2021, I am a member of Team Piersma, focussing on the demography of the black-tailed godwit in the Netherlands. And what an absolute pleasure that is! Observing godwits while they reunite with their partners at the start of the breeding season, how they carefully construct their nest, the little marital fights they pick, how the newly hatched chicks clumsily discover the world… it is amazing to get an insight into their way of life. During my PhD at the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen, we aim to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the demography of these waders. More specifically, we study the way the environment and current agricultural practices shape demographic processes in the Frisian population of black-tailed godwits. By creating an integrated population model, we can finally connect all life stages to more thoroughly understand the determinants of the godwit’s population decline. Moreover, I mainly focus on the process of recruitment: the journey a godwit needs to make from the egg phase until it enters the breeding population. Newly hatched godwit chicks in Fryslân, The Netherlands. Photo by Marie

Matt Slaymaker

I was initially introduced to the work of the Global Flyway Network in 2009 when I took up a position of assistant warden at Broome Bird Observatory, Western Australia. After a year spent sharing the amazing birds of the region with guests and visitors and assisting Chris Hassell and Adrian Boyle wherever possible with shorebird research I was offered the opportunity to join them in China. I went on to visit the Luannan Coast in China, on behalf of GFN, each spring for five years to survey, watch, count, record and enjoy the shorebirds stopping off at this unique staging site. I hope that the thousands of band and flag re-sightings we collected over the years, and the story they help to tell for each bird, will continue to contribute to fascinating research and go some way to help protect the area in the future. [caption id="attachment_2003" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Matt Slaymaker scanning for colour bands and flags in China. Photo: Adrian Boyle[/caption] As a life-long birder I have been fortunate to travel extensively and work or volunteer with a wide range of non-profit organisations. This includes running banding stations in North America, joining a 3-month expedition to survey previously un-surveyed sites in the Colombian Andes, working at bird observatories in Sweden and Denmark, re-sighting colour-ringed Ruff in the Netherlands, surveying Bitterns in the UK, assisting a Corncrake re-introduction project in the UK and more. Recently I have been experimenting with a ‘proper’ job and currently work as a Senior Ornithological Consultant in the UK. However, I hope to be back on the mudflats on the Luannan Coast soon, watch this space…

Michella Ligtelijn

I am a PhD-student at the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. During my masters at the VU (Amsterdam) I worked on the effect of neonicotinoids (first internship) and nitrogen deposition caused by dairy farms (second internship) on soil mesofauna communities. I started my PhD in September 2021 and during this time I will extent my knowledge on insect communities. This all will be in relation to godwits, since the chicks use insects as there food source. The insect populations will be monitored with both modern (cameras) and traditional monitoring methods (malaise traps, sticky traps, pitfall traps, emergence traps). This all will be done on several farm, which differ in their management in terms of intensity and ground water levels.

Misha Zhemchuzhnikov

I am a PhD student at Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research under the supervision of Jan van Gils and Theunis Piersma. My research is focused on trophic interactions between birds and their arthropod prey. Are red knots mismatched with their food source due to shifting synchrony and if they are, what would be the fitness consequences of such mismatch for their offspring? To answer this question we have to follow the birds up to a Northern Taimyr, the most northern continental part of Eurasia.

Profile photo: Job ten Horn

Mohamed Camara

Banc d’Arguin National Park & Global Flyway Network|Mauritania. Profile under construction.

Mohamed Henriques

Absolutely passionate by birds and the Bijagós. I am a Guinea-Bissau PhD student in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) since 2017, and a guest PhD student at the Royal University of Groningen (RUG).

Presently I work with shorebirds and my research project is part of a larger interdisciplinary one dedicated to the study of the intertidal ecosystem of the Bijagós Biosphere Reserve, from the perspective of migratory shorebirds (waders). My supervisors are Prof. Dr. José Pedro Granadeiro and Drª Teresa Catry from FCUL, and Prof. Dr. Theunis Piersma from RUG/NIOZ.

My interest in birds and in science in general grew significantly after I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, and started an internship with the Guinea-Bissau National Institute for Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IBAP), in Guinea-Bissau.

After 4 years I started a MSc programme in the University of Lisbon, during which I ended up working with vulture conservation in Guinea-Bissau as my thesis project supervised by Prof. Dr. Paulo Catry. Find out more about what we’ve done here.

Presently I am dedicated to investigating the role of migratory shorebirds in mangrove-influenced tropical intertidal ecosystems. I am specifically looking at the biotic and abiotic variables that are influencing the distribution of foraging shorebirds on Bijagós intertidal systems using counts and satellite imagery to model their distribution. I am also studying the impact that shorebird predation has on intertidal food-webs and their role in maintaining the resilience of this very important East Atlantic intertidal wintering area dominated by (but not necessarily depending entirely on) mangrove forests. Find more about this project here: https://birdecology.wixsite.com/tidalwings/waders-of-the-bijagos

Photo credits. Vultures: Ana Coelho (left), Mohamed Henriques (right). Slideshow: Hellio & Van Ingen - IBAP (shorebirds), Theunis Piersma (people).

Patricia González

Global Flyway Network associate|Argentina. Profile ‘under construction’.

Petra de Goeij

Since 2011 I work as a technician for the Spoonbill project of METAWAD, based at the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen, and the Royal NIOZ on Texel. I was trained as a biologist at the University of Amsterdam where I did my Masters on the feeding ecology of Spoonbills. After that I worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Nature Conservation on a recovery plan for Spoonbills. Via my PhD research on Red Knots and their main prey Macoma balthica, and Ruff- and Black-tailed Godwit research in South-west Fryslân, I am back to my old ‘’love’’. The Spoonbill project is a co-operation between the University of Groningen and the Dutch Spoonbill Working Group: Werkgroep Lepelaar.  The demography of Spoonbills is followed through an international colour-marking program (example of the schemes we use can be found here). Every year, on all Dutch Wadden Sea islands, Spoonbills are colour-ringed, measured and a blood sample is taken for sex determination and isotopes analyses. Isotopes help us to find out what the diet of Spoonbills is. Also in additional colonies on the Dutch mainland, Spoonbills are colour-ringed. Re-sightings by hundreds of volunteers all along the flyway show their migration routes and wintering sites. Since 2012, we have issued UVA-bits GPS-loggers to adult and juvenile Spoonbills to follow their whereabouts while breeding, feeding and migrating. [caption id="attachment_263" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A foraging Spoonbills in the Wadden Sea. Photo: © Jan van de Kam[/caption]

Raf Vervoort

In a previous life I worked as a molecular biologist, now I devote my time to fieldwork on Ruff. Since 2011 I have visited the RUG study area in Friesland, to investigate the spring migration of Ruff, with support of Theunis Piersma. In spring 2014 and 2015 I joined Team Piersma as a field assistant for the Ruff project. Discussions with Theunis and members of his team have been inspiring and stimulating to develop my long-term study of the Ruff. I am especially interested in behavior of Ruff during the lekking season. Studying the birds staging in Friesland, on their way to the breeding grounds in the sub-arctic, may help understand their unique mating system. The open Frisian landscape, the large flocks of geese, and the sound of displaying black-tailed godwits and lapwings are nice bonuses. When I first visited Friesland, several ten thousands of staging Ruff were already a thing of the past, but a single flock of two-three thousand birds could still be seen each spring. The last few years, numbers of staging Ruff have declined dramatically again. I hope to help understand if, and how, local conditions have contributed to this worrying decline. Observation of this male Ruff in Sweden was my first introduction to the Ruff project of Team Piersma. Drawing by R. Vervoort

Renée Veenstra

I am a PhD student working with Theunis Piersma in the Conservation Ecology Group at the University of Groningen. My PhD is part of the ‘Godwit-Landscape Project’, where I’m studying the main food resource of the black-tailed godwit: earthworms. Growing up in Groningen and Fryslân, I’ve always loved hearing the sound of godwits or lapwings around me whenever I would cycle out of town. This affection only increased when I started studying ecology at the University of Groningen, where gaining knowledge and enthusiasm about birds is almost inevitable. After finishing my master’s degree, I gained some work experience in Switzerland. Here, I first worked at a research institute studying biodiversity effects of macrofauna (such as earthworms) on ecosystem functioning. Following this, I joined a governmental project on lapwing protection. Returning home, I can now combine my two main fields of interest – macrofauna and meadow birds – to study black-tailed godwits in South-West Fryslân. During my PhD, I will focus on the interaction between godwits, their food resources, and the landscape. Hopefully, we will gain a better understanding of the foraging ecology of black-tailed godwits during their breeding season and learn how to improve the availability of food resources.

Rienk Fokkema

I am a postdoctoral researcher in Team Piersma, based at the Conservation Ecology Group at the University of Groningen. During the spring of 2020, I had the pleasure of joining the team as a field-assistant and learning more about the Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa limosa) breeding in Southwest-Friesland, the Netherlands. I really liked working with the godwits, and the conservationists and volunteers involved and I was very happy that I was offered a postdoc position in the new Godwit Landscapes Project in December 2020. Together with Dr. Eldar Rakhimberdiev & Marie Stessens I am part of the demography team. One of our main goals is understanding how land management affects population parameters and getting a handle on what types of conservation work and which do not. A special focus of my demographic research is on quantifying the predator landscape of the godwits and the consequences for their breeding success. To this end we employ predator counts and also use of a large network of camera traps in our study area both in a random grid as well as at the nests of breeding godwits. I have a background in ecology & evolution and specifically in life-history theory. My PhD at the University of Groningen was focussed on quantifying the trade-off between current and future reproduction and whether such costs may be mediated through the competitive environment. Specifically, using a range of field experiments in a nestbox population of Great tits (Parus major), I quantified if reproductive effort negatively affected parental competitive ability for vital resources in later life. After my PhD, I did a postdoc at the University of Bielefeld, Germany where I focussed on further understanding how individuals can actively influence their own environment by their characteristics and decisions and thereby the selective pressures they experience. For an overview of my publications, see my researchgate page

Roeland Bom

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. My office is at the NIOZ, Texel, The Netherlands, but my prime area of interest are the intertidal mudflats of the Wadden Sea, West Africa and the Middle East. During my doctoral research I have led various research expeditions to Barr Al Hikman in the Sultanate of Oman. We started visiting this relatively pristine mudflat area since 2008, and returned every year up to 2018. First as a group of adventurous volunteers, but since 2011 under the umbrella of the NIOZ. The Barr Al Hikman work started with a general description of the area, mainly focusing on shorebirds and the benthos. In my PhD work I studied the enigmatic Crab Plover. In my recent work I focus on the migratory routine of Bar-tailed Godwits wintering in West Africa and Oman. We successfully tracked Bar-tailed Godwits to their breeding grounds and back. For more information and a live stream to the migration of the Bar-tailed Godwits, keep an eye on this site.

Rudi Drent Chair in Flyway Ecology

Theunis Piersma holds the Rudi Drent Chair in Flyway Ecology at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (Faculty of Science and Engineering, UG), and he is Senior Research Scientist Research Department of Coastal System at the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea. This chair is supported by World Wildlife Fund The Netherlands (WNF), BirdLife Netherlands (VBN), Gieskes-Strijbis Fund and others.

Why the Rudi Drent Chair in Flyway Ecology?

Further reading

Ruth Howison

I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. My key interests lie in understanding the dynamic spatial ecology of habitat and habitat choice of the migratory continental Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) along the East Atlantic Flyway. My background is in spatial and vegetation ecology. Global remote sensing data products are increasingly becoming available at higher spatial and temporal resolution. In the agricultural grasslands of north-west Europe, 80% of the breeding population of the iconic Black-tailed Godwit can be found during spring and early summer. We used the newly released radar based remote sensing products (Sentinel C-SAR) to analyse real time impacts of anthropogenic land use on declining biodiversity. Linking our radar based proxy for land use intensity to field based data on plant community and the spatial distribution of early establishing Black-tailed Godwits, we found that land use intensity was a strong predictor for habitat quality and thereby gaining insight into the consequences of habitat choice on prospective breeding potential for Black-tailed Godwits. Anthropogenic alteration of natural wetlands is having a major impact worldwide with consequences (both negative and positive) for migratory species such as Black-tailed Godwits. On their migratory route Black-tailed Godwits integrally connect geographically separated wetlands as they pass through France to spend the overwintering period in Spain and Portugal. Many make the Saharan crossing to overwintering sites in West Africa, namely; the Senegal River valley and delta, the coastal region of Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and central Mali. [caption id="attachment_2033" align="alignnone" width="623"] Ruth Howison in shallow lakes in the Djouj area, Senegal. Photo: Jos Hooijmeijer[/caption] Equipped with our novel and developing spatial tools, linked to satellite bird tracking and ground data to we are able to interpret the spatio-temporal dynamics within wetlands, the magnitude of anthropogenic changes and extent of potential habitat available to shorebirds throughout the East Atlantic Flyway. For an overview of my publications and more details about my research, see my ResearchGate profile. Profile photo: Han Olff.

Shoudong Zhang

I am a PhD candidate at Fudan University (FDU), China, and University of Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands. Under the supervision of Profs. Ma Zhijun (FDU) and Theunis Piersma (RUG), I conduct my fieldwork in the Yalujiang coastal wetland, China. I mainly focus on the stopover ecology of Bar-tailed Godwits and Great Knots in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF). When I finished undergraduate school at Shandong University (SDU) in 2012, and I entered Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in the same year. During my postgraduate study, my topic was ‘Study on the characteristics of the Food choice and Food utilization of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi)’. I received my Master degree in 2015. I started my PhD research at Fudan University in the same year, this is my first time for shorebirds research. Since I had limited knowledge of shorebirds at that time, I participated in expedition of AWSG in Broome, NW Australlia, in the spring of 2016 as a volunteer. [caption id="attachment_3494" align="alignnone" width="527"] In Roebuck Bay, Broome. Photo: Qingquan Bai[/caption] The Yalujiang coastal wetland is one of the most important staging sites along the EAAF, the food condition of shorebirds (especially Bar-tailed Godwits and Great Knots) have dramatically declined from 2013. I try to investigate how Bar-tailed Godwits and Great Knots response to the food decline by sampling benthic prey, observing the behavior of shorebirds, and studying the size of the gizzard, and how benthos and shorebirds affect each other in this area through benthic mapping and bird mapping. My PhD project is funded by the Natural Science Foundation (China). In 2017, I received additional funds from the China Scholarship Council, to study at NIOZ as a joint-training PhD candidate. [caption id="attachment_3492" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shoudong with David Melville in Yalujiang, China. Photo: Yueyu Liang[/caption] Profile photo: Qingquan Bai  

Sidi Cheikh' Mohamed Ahmed

Sidi Cheikh loves learning, nature and birds, somehow combining a career in public service, the GIS & Mapping industry with his pursuit of a PhD at the University of Groningen on seagrass dynamics! A meteorologist by training, he started his career in conservation when he joined Banc d’Arguin National Park in 2007 to work on a GIS project. Sidi’s research is helping to put numbers on Banc d’Arguin’s total economic value. Knowing the carbon sequestration potential of its seagrass beds will open opportunities for ‘blue carbon’ investment and will support conservation. Uncovering the hidden treasure of Banc d'Arguin, has long motivated Sidi, whatever the challenges. [gallery ids="3334,3335" type="rectangular"] Profile photo: Antonio Araujo, MAVA Foundation

Sjoerd van Hasselt

I am a PhD student in the Chronobiology and Conservation Ecology group at the University of Groningen. My research focuses on avian sleep. One of the main questions I am trying to answer if birds have sleep homeostasis like mammals, i.e. if sleep is recovered by sleeping either deeper or longer after a period of sleep loss. Moreover, is the need for sleep during different ecological demanding periods (e.g. migration/breeding season) constant or variable? The first studies of avian sleep have been done under controlled conditions, where we can clearly see what the effect of a certain period of sleep deprivation is. My aim is to extrapolate that knowledge to the field. Especially how certain ecological wake-promoting activities, such as migration, affect sleep. With small dataloggers, we can easily measure the brain activity of birds while they can freely move and interact with their conspecifics. With these techniques, we are able to understand how barnacle geese sleep under semi-natural conditions at the animal facility and how they respond to sleep deprivation of different durations across different seasons. The ultimate goal is to see how barnacle geese sleep during the fall migration from Russia to the Netherlands. One of the main hypothesis is that birds, especially waterfowl, can cope with these wake-demanding periods by sleeping with one hemisphere, while the other remains more vigilant. [caption id="attachment_4450" align="alignnone" width="4000"] Sjoerd with a newly tagged Barnacle Goose in Tobseda, Russia, August 2018. Photo: Götz Eichhorn[/caption]

Taylor Craft

I am a PhD candidate in the Conservation Ecology Group at the University of Groningen. My work involves assessing the sustainability of agroecosystems of the East Atlantic Flyway by evaluating spatio-temporal connections between the migratory Black-tailed Godwit, agricultural practices, and land-use change.   To achieve this, we are taking advantage of a long-term godwit demography dataset, an expanding “fleet” of satellite-tagged birds delivering location data, and a number of remote sensing tools that allow us to detect changes across landscapes with increasing spatial and temporal resolution. Black-tailed godwit being fitted with a satellite tag   I have a BSc in Natural Resource Management/Watershed Sciences from Auburn University (USA) and a MSc in Earth Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. It is very exciting to be a part of a talented, multidisciplinary team and to work together using cutting edge approaches to wildlife conservation.

Thomas Leerink

From 2013-2016, I was research assistant in the METAWAD project at the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. Chiefly I worked in the lab preparing blood samples for stable isotope analysis of Red Knots (thousands of birds caught at the Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania) in cooperation with Dr Jan van Gils in the Department of Coastal Systems (formerly Marine Ecology). Furthermore I was science reporter for the METAWAD project and posting newsletters and news-items on the METAWAD website. At 31th March 2016, I published my first children’s book about red knots titled: Uitblinkerz! [caption id="attachment_1508" align="alignnone" width="658"] Read more about Uitblinkerz! on the Science and Art page[/caption] As of July 2016, I am guest researcher at the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in the Department of Coastal Systems. I still progress preparing blood samples for stable isotope analysis of red knots caught and colour-ringed in Polen and Banc d’Arguin from 2015 onwards.  

Ysbrand Galama

University of Groningen, Conservation Ecology Group.

Yvonne Verkuil

Since 2014, I lead a DNA lab for ecologists at the University of Groningen where I work as an ecologist and research assistant. Wader researcher by heart and molecular ecologist by profession, I support a number of research programs of Groningen biologists, mostly in coastal and marine habitats. During my PhD I worked in the research team of Prof. Dr Theunis Piersma on Ruffs and I received my molecular training in the lab of Prof. Dr Allan Baker at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada. My current activities:

• Diet DNA metabarcoding – with Christiaan Both and his research group, I have developed DNA metabarcoding techniques to quantitatively describe the arthropod diet of insectivorous birds.
• Flyway evolution – together with Jesse Conklin and Theunis, I study the evolution of flyways in shorebirds.
• Ruffs – anything about Ruffs; currently I collaborate with Theunis, Raf Vervoort, Clemens Kuepper and Bart Kempenaers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.
• Any else with shorebirds – in my free time I volunteer in monitoring- and research projects along the Groninger coast and on the Marker Wadden.