Australasian Wader Studies Group

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The Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG), established in 1981, is a special interest group of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia. It publishes a journal, The Stilt, usually twice a year, with occasional extra issues. Its mission statement is "to ensure the future of waders (shorebirds) and their habitats in Australia through research and conservation programs and to encourage and assist similar programmes in the rest of the East Asian - Australasian Flyway".

The AWSG organises the nearly annual series of North-West Australia Wader Expeditions, which use experienced international cannon netting teams to catch and study the very large numbers of migratory waders that visit the beaches of Roebuck Bay near Broome, Eighty Mile Beach and Port Hedland in north-west Western Australia.

[edit] AWSG Objectives

To monitor wader populations through a programme of counting and banding in order to collect data on changes on a local, national and international basis.
To study the migrations of waders through a program of counting, banding, colour-flagging and collection of biometric data.
To instigate and encourage other scientific studies of waders such as feeding and breeding studies.
To communicate the results of these studies to a wide audience through the Stilt, the Tattler, other journals, the internet, the media, conferences and lectures.
To formulate and promote policies for the conservation of waders and their habitat, and to make available information to local and national governmental conservation bodies and other organisations to encourage and assist them in pursuing this objective.
To encourage and promote the involvement of a large band of amateurs, as well as professionals, to achieve these objectives.