Much of the research in the BirdEyes community centers around shorebirds, making the Annual Conference of the International Wader Study Group something like an annual pilgrimage for many in our community. This year’s IWSG conference took place from 20-24 September in Montpellier, and was expertly co-organised by the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB) and the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO, BirdLife France).

Numerous team members and close colleagues of BirdEyes were able to give an oral or poster presentation at the conference, which showcased the amazing breadth of work conducted in our community, from applied work on a multitude of conservation issues to cutting-edge research on fundamental questions, and involving a similarly diverse set of study species in different flyways and parts of the globe. 

We were especially proud to see BirdEyes affiliates winning all three prizes awarded during the conference. The Shorebird Tracking Prize was awarded to Thomas Lameris for his proposal to study migration ecology of Black-bellied Plovers staging in Mongolia. NIOZ-researcher Roeland Bom won the Poster Prize with his research on the use of non-traditional stop-over sites by Bar-tailed Godwits and Whimbrels. Last but not least, Koen Stork won the Student Talk Prize for his work on the importance of mud shrimp for Bar-tailed Godwits refueling in the Wadden Sea. 

We couldn’t be more proud to have so many prize-winning researchers among our colleagues and partners. But we also congratulate all runners-up and others that presented their work at Montpellier. The IWSG is an extraordinarily amicable and welcoming community. Its annual conference is one of the events we most look forward to each year, and that appeal is due in large part to the commitment and participation of a broad, diverse and international community! 

BirdEyes is currently investigating whether we can get the logistic and financial support in place in time to co-organise the IWSG 2025 in the Netherlands. We are not quite there yet, but expect to give more clarity on this before the end of the year.