News & Events

November 18, 2020

On the Wings of a Godwit

You are invited to musical meditation to the ends of the earth and back…

Melbourne Fringe Festival event!

Performances: 11am, 1pm, 3pm & 6pm, November 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28 29.
Suggested Price: $15, tickets available here
Duration: 20mins

‘On the Wings of a Godwit’ is a 20-minute, immersive, online guided meditation of music, birdsong and spoken word that takes the listener on a journey from the continental shores of Australasia to the tundra of Siberia. We invite you, the listener, to become a migratory bird, overwintering between your summer homes, following a flyway path that has been travelled for thousands of years. 

Stop, listen, breathe, and take flight on this journey created by renowned Australian artist Kate Gorringe-Smith, creator of the Overwintering Project, and award-winning musicians and soundscape designers the Bowerbird Collective, Simone Slattery (violin) and Anthony Albrecht (cello). Further information available at www.bowerbird.productions/godwit


Supporting the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership and BirdLife Australia.

November 18, 2020

Bird migration and colour marking webinar November 21

The Bombay Natural History Society in Mumbai is running a webinar on ‘Bird Migration and Colour Marking -Decoding Tagged Bird Sightings‘. Chris Hassell will be joining other shorebirds researchers to speak on how colour marking has been instrumental in understanding certain aspects of bird ecology and migration. You can find out more about flagging in the Central Asian Flyway and hear how to contribute to global studies on bird migration.   

Date and time: Saturday, Nov 21, 2020, 11:30 AM – 01:00 PM, IST

Register: https://forms.gle/L7AQm2b8USsSqmdJ8

November 12, 2020

EAAFSSM wrap up of VWSG talks

Between November 3 and 5, the first East Asian-Australasian Flyway Shorebird Science Meeting was held online, hosted by the National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon-gun, Republic of Korea.

The meeting had a fantastic array of speakers from different parts of the flyway, and a huge amount of new and exciting research and information was shared among participants.

A number of VWSG and AWSG members presented during this conference, about many great findings and achievements. There was also a fabulous plenary from Kate Gorringe-Smith on using art to engage, educate and inspire people about shorebirds.

Michelle Wille provided a excellent plenary speech on viruses in shorebirds. If you didn’t understand viruses before this talk, you would definitely know all about them after hearing this presentation!

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Grace Maglio talked about the results of the oriental pratincole satellite tracking.

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Amanda Lilleyman talked about the migration routes and non-breeding distribution of eastern curlew.

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Ken Gosbell shared insights from a decade of turnstone geolocator studies.

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Birgita Hansen provided new information about staging sites for Latham’s Snipe in Papua New Guinea.

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Marcel Klaassen discussed the challenges of undertaking survival analyses on 40 years of banding data.

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And Danny Rogers highlighted the importance of Melbourne’s Western Treatment Plant for shorebirds.

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October 29, 2020

Record-breaking Bar-tailed Godwit flight – 3MDR radio interview

Thursday 29th October at 18.00 hrs Melbourne time, Graham Beal will be talking to Adrian Riegen about the recent amazing record-breaking Bar-tailed Godwit flight on radio 3 mdr, 97.1fm and streaming, www.3mdr.com

October 24, 2020

Original Nicholas Day prints for sale

Penny Johns has two Nicolas Day original framed watercolours of Robins, a Pink Robin and a Red-capped Robin. She is offering them to VWSG members for sale. The asking price is $150.00 each. All proceeds will go to the VWSG.

Please contact Penny directly if you are interested.

September 15, 2020

#LegflagChallenge photo competition

The #LegflagChallenge Photo Contest aims to encourage reporting of sightings of waterbirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway that carry leg flags, tags and other types of attachments. The competition runs until November 15. Find out more at https://woobox.com/fm3vhi

Double-banded Pover near Coolart Wetlands, Somers beach, Victoria. Photo courtesty of Nick Bradsworth

September 15, 2020

#ISTC20 International Shorebird Twitter Conference

The program for the International Shorebird Twitter Conference is now online at https://www.bou.org.uk/conference/istc20/. There’s a great list of keynote speakers including our very own Amanda Lilleyman.

The VWSG twitter presention on Wednesday 7th October between 10:30 and 10:40pm AEST DST (actual scheduled time is Thursday 8th October @ 9:30am UTC time).

August 24, 2020

#ISTC20 Twitter conference 7-8 October 2020

The VWSG is continuing its foray into the world of social media by presenting at the first International Shorebird Twitter Conference. The date and time for the VWSG tweets will be confirmed soon, so keep an eye on the website for an update.

August 20, 2020

AGL development proposal in the Western Port Ramsar site

The proposal by AGL to build a floating gas platform at Crib Point, south-east of Hastings in Western Port, has long angered the community of the Mornington Peninsula. This platform is planned to be built within the Ramsar site and is seen to present an unacceptable environmental risk.  Mornington Peninsula Council has voted against this proposal. Of course, this does not mean the end of this project, however, this is an important step toward helping protect wader habitat in Western Port bay.

You can read more here: https://www.miragenews.com/agl-crib-point-gas-project-an-unacceptable-risk/

The VWSG will be making a submission in relation to the Environmental Effects Statement for the proposal.