text by Jude Janith Niroshan ( University of Colombo, Sri Lanka) photocredit: Avian Sciences & Conservation Research Group The “Hanuman Plover” story The Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) (Linnaeus 1758) is a common shorebird found in Eurasia and North Africa, known for its diverse breeding habitats and migratory behavior. In this study, we focused on the resident population…
text by William Jones Between the 22nd and 25th of September, the ÉLVONAL group had an excellent opportunity to meet in person before and during the International Wader Study Group Conference, held in Szeged. The 22nd was devoted to ÉLVONAL topics, with talks from a variety of ÉLVONAL collaborators on their field progress in 2022…
Read more 22 September 2022 - ÉLVONAL symposium at Szeged, Hungary
text by Oscar García Miranda and José O. Valdebenito Traversing the thick blue mist that shrouds the cliffs of the Melrakkaslétta peninsula, with the midnight sun illuminating the lonely lighthouses of the coast (Image 1), we arrived the first days of spring to Raufarhöfn, one of the northernmost town in Iceland (66°27’07.8″N, 15°56’56.8″W). About 70…
Read more Ringing at 12.5 km south from the Arctic circle - ÉLVONAL fieldwork in Iceland 2022
We had our 5th annual conference during which we targeted social behaviour and demography of shorebirds. At this online event together with our 80 guests we discussed latest achievements, new research topics, then ofcourse challenges and possible solutions of shorebird breeding ecology research and conservation biology. Who joined this two day long event enjoyed 2…
written by Dr William Jones The pandemic and global travel disruption still bites in 2021 and this affected the fieldwork in Madagascar. The teams from Bielefeld and Debrecen were unable to visit the island to collect data and samples for our various projects. However, yet again, we were saved by Dr Sama Zefania and his…
Read more 20th anniversary of the plover project in Madagascar
written by Zsófia Tóth Turov is one of the floodplain meadows of the Pripyat River in the vicinity of Turov, Gomel Region, Belarus (52°04′N, 27°44′E), which is an important stopover site for waders during seasonal migrations. A characteristic feature of the study area is the large fluctuation of water level in the Pripyat River between…
Read more Paddle across waders - ÉLVONAL fieldwork in Turov, Belarus 2021
text and photos by Mirjan Topi Albania has joined the ÉLVONAL project this year through our local partner, the Centre “Bird of Albania”. Therefore, from 6th to 10th of April we organized the first ÉLVONAL training camp in Albania. On the first day, we had an online meeting with relevant presentations from Prof. Tamas…
Read more 6-10 April 2021 – the first ÉLVONAL Training Camp in Albania
Please find the link below which will take you to the January Wader Quest newsletter: Jan-2021-newsletterV2R.pdf (waderquest.net) For those who are not familiar with this wader friendly organisation: Wader Quest has two aims: 1) To raise awareness about the challenges waders face in the modern world. 2) To raise funds to support wader conservation projects…
written by Fanni Takács To understand mating system evolution of shorebirds, our team is running a 5 year research project based in Debrecen, Hungary. To overview the progress with the project, we organised our 4th annual conference, this time it was an online event. The event had 125 registered participants, 39 pre-recorded talks from…
This year we are inviting you to join our virtual event. On our 4th annual conference we are targeting sex roles and breeding ecology of shorebirds. The conference will focus on current achievements and future plans of ÉLVONAL teams across the globe and will be enriched with invited speakers and targeted webinars at nest…
written by Fanni Takács To find the silver lining between meeting person and online only events, we decided to organise regular webinars for all of our collaborators, targeting common and relevant topics of Shorebird Science. During this first event on 30th September 2020 we were discussing “Nest fate determination and the exposure time…
written by Fanni Takács Despite the worldwide turmoil, after implementation of needed precautious measures, we could manage to organise a semi-formal and semi-virtual ÉLVONAL summer meeting of 18 participants in Debrecen. We dedicated this meeting to discuss the summer fieldwork season experiences at most sites where it was safe and feasible to execute…
Read more 28-30 August 2020 - Summer ÉLVONAL Shorebird Science meeting
text and photos by Vojtěch Kubelka Eurasian Dotterel (Eudromias morinellus) is a charismatic and in various aspects challenging shorebird species, wintering in North Africa and breeding scattered across mountain tundra of Europe and Asia. Is well known for the reversed sex roles with more colourful females leaving the care for eggs and chicks…
Read more Ghost of the mountain tundra - ÉLVONAL fieldwork with Eurasian Dotterel
text and photos by Sama Zefania Despite the pandemic, which stopped many works at office and in field at many countries of the world, we’re still motivated to continue research wherever it is safe and possible. So I’d like to share you the below motivating paragraphs as an information: The first containment (quarantine) at…
text and photos by Esmat Elfaki Mohammed Elhassan We are studying Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) in Almarmoom Desert Conservation in Dubai, UAE. The species is widespread and showed high tolerance to the ambient temperature of the desert ecosystem. Working in extreme summer with 50 degrees is a challenge for the observers but we were successfully…
We are happy to share that “Noémie Catherine Engel has just begun her researcher journey – and she has found her niche already” - read full article here
by Karola Szemán, co-organiser We had a very informative workshop on demography, “Modelling population dynamics: Estimating demographic parameters for wildlife conservation” during 13-19 January 2020, in Debrecen, Hungary. The workshop was held by Prof. Brett K. Sandercock (NINA) and organized in association with the Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology - University of Debrecen…
Read more 13-19 January 2020 – Modeling Population Dynamics Workshop
by Fanni Takács Despite of chilly wintertime we found so much joy in hosting our III. ÉLVONAL Conference in Debrecen, 10-12 January 2020. These busy days were filled with 26 exciting presentations, brainstorming group discussions whilst we inspired each other with new ideas and shared experiences in various theoretical and practical issues concerning conservation research.…
by Vojtěch Kubelka During 20–24 November 2019 a successful ÉLVONAL Shorebird Science Fieldwork Training Camp How to study breeding shorebirds? took place in Cheetham Wetlands near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Smooth running of the course was assured by great logistical support from local team: Mike Weston, Kristal Kostoglou, Laura Tan and reserve rangers. The weather was…
Great opportunity to gain field experience on breeding shorebird population:
Read more 21-24 November 2019 – III. ÉLVONAL Fieldwork Training Camp, Australia
written by Fanni Takács We had an informal meeting with a group of our collaborators at Sheffield University. We entitled this workshop to discuss our experiences about the past spring fieldwork season, 2019. As well as to introduce new collaborative teams to our current co-working fellows, such as teams from Algeria, Tobseda, Taiwan. During this…
Read more 17-19 September 2019 – II. ÉLVONAL Workshop in Sheffield, UK
News from the Pheasant-tailed jacana field project! text and photos by Dr Nolwenn Fresneau & Dr Andras Liker August 2019, Guantian, Taiwan We started the first field season on 20th June in Taiwan. The place is wonderful: we are studying a population of Pheasant-tailed jacanas Hydrophasianus chirurgus resident in the Jacana Ecological and Educational…
Read more Taiwan - New study site enriches ÉLVONAL Project repertoire
written by dr Vojtech Kubelka This camp was organised and lead by Dr Vojtech Kubelka and the scientific team of Turov ringing station, Belarus: Dr Natalia Karlionova, Evgenya Lunchik, Viacheslav Khursanov. With the participation of Triin Kaasiku (Estonia), Anastazia Kuzmiankova (Belarus), José Valdebenito (Chile), Emilien Genetier (France) the training camp was successful and very instructive…
Read more 9-16 May 2019 – II. ÉLVONAL Fieldwork Training Camp, Belarus
written by Fanni Takács As the beginning of the spring field season approached at many of our study sites worldwide, we took a break for having a test run our research plans and prepare ourselves for the next months. Prof Alejandro Perez Hurtado de Mendoza from Cadiz University was a great host of our enthusiastic…
Read more 23-28 April 2019 – I. ÉLVONAL Fieldwork Training Camp in Cadiz, Spain
written by Fanni Takács After our successful first workshop in Groningen, this spring we decided to meet our shorebird researcher friends again and discuss new ideas and the clarified ÉLVONAL fieldwork protocol. This event was organised by ÉLVONAL core team and held at University of Debrecen. With the participation of twenty one researchers and students…
Read more 27-29 March 2019 – II. ÉLVONAL Shorebird Workshop in Debrecen, Hungary
written by Fanni Takács The time arrived to hold our Project’s second annual conference, that took place in Debrecen, Hungary. During these days we had deep discussions about new directions in evolutionary research of sex roles from many perspective. Despite the harsh wintertime our invited speakers’s bright talks provided the skeleton to numerous presentations along…
written by Fanni Takács We had an informal meeting with a group of our collaborators at Groningen University. We entitled this workshop to introduce and discuss our ÉLVONAL Project’s objectives and tasks to fulfil the upcoming field season. During this fruitful event we listened to talks presenting each of our previous work and interest in…
Read more 26-28 September 2018 – I. ÉLVONAL Workshop in Groningen, Netherlands
ÉLVONAL SHOREBIRD SCIENCE 