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 the fieldwork. It was quite impressive listening to the achievements of new collaborative teams we introduced to our group last autumn, during our workshop in Sheffield such as researchers from United Arabic Emirates, Esmat Elhassan and new shorebird colleague from China, Chenjign Huang.

While we had important and stimulating ideas discussed during the meeting it was great to see how our collaborative teams rose above issues we talked through previous workshops and meetings. Experiencing this improvement and enthusiasm underlines the importance of such gatherings.

Thank you for your participation and numerous discussions, we are delighted to continue working with you.

28-30 ÉLVONAL Shorebird Science Summer meeting programme

Snapshot by Vojtech Kubelka – group discussion during the meeting. (from the left: Prof Székely, Teo Barracho, Dr Grant McDonald, Dr William Jones , Zsófia Tóth. Online participants: Naerhulan Halimubieke, Kees Wanders, Leylya Khasyanova, Miroslav Šálek)