This year’s International Wader Study Group Conference took place between 15-18 September 2017, at the beautiful campus of the University of Life Sciences in Prague. Dr Magdalena Remisiewicz and Aleksandra Niemc represented the Bird Migration Research Station and prepared a presentation entitled ‘Sex differences in pre-breeding body moult of Little Stints – new application of Underhill-Zucchini moult model’ in cooperation with Prof. Les Underhill. The results presented by Aleksandra are the part of her PhD thesis. Waders (or shorebirds, Charadrii) are experiencing progressive habitat loss, increased predation pressure, and other threats connected with climate change and agricultural intensification, and their abundance has declined rapidly in recent decades. Most wader species in the Palearctic are also long-distance migrants, which increases their vulnerability. To develop strategies to help waders, participants could take part in two conservation workshops, on Northern Lapwing and on Eurasian Curlew. A third workshop – “Solar Geolocation data analysis” – provided useful training in the statistical tools for analysing geolocator data (individual bird migration tracks). During the conference there were many interesting talks, including plenary talks given by the most renowned ‘waderologists’ – Tamás Székely, Martin Bulla, Bart Kempenaers, Theunis Piersma and Eldar Rakhimberdiev. Each year this conference is a huge inspiration and an opportunity to connect with wader ornithologists from near and far. The friendly atmosphere encourages delegates to share experiences and search together for efficient ways to make the world a better place for shorebirds.
