Workshops and Side Meetings

Organizer: Lesley Howes, Bird Banding Biologist

Cost: $75

Language: English. Questions in the field can be done in English, French, and Spanish.

Date: Multi-day

• Theoretical online workshop: July 16th and 23rd 11:00 to 15:00 ET. Find registration form below

• In person workshop: Saturday, August 10 and Sunday 11

• Certification exam: Sunday, August 11 (afternoon)

• Banding trip to Petit Cap Beach: late afternoon/evening of Saturday August 10, 2024

  • Weather day: Friday, August 9- if the forecast for Saturday evening is poor, we may switch the field component to Friday

Limited registration of 25 people for banding excursion; participation is not mandatory to get certification

Application deadline to banding trip April 8, 2024

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NABC shorebird training and certification is a voluntary qualification designed to encourage standardized, stepwise progressive bander development and encourage sharing of best practices. The objectives of this training are to provide comprehensive standardized peer-to-peer training; provide a venue for discussing and sharing best practices; review regulatory, animal care, and human safety responsibilities, and offer NABC bander certification to interested individuals. A series of webinars will take place online as a prerequisite to the in-person workshop. Topics will include scientific, data, and welfare standards of working with birds in science, essentials of shorebird capture, the appropriate use of audio lures and reducing the risk of injury and capture myopathy, shorebird capture on the breeding grounds, taking standard measurements, electronic markers and attachment methods, collecting biological samples, molt, and aging shorebirds on the breeding grounds, non-breeding grounds and during migration. This workshop is open to experienced and inexperienced individuals seeking to learn about shorebird capture marking and processing. The in-person portion will consist of a workshop, and a live capture demonstration. You can apply to one or both sections, but the evening live capture demonstration has a restriction of 25 participants

If you would like to participate in the banding workshop, you need to apply first. We welcome individuals with all levels of experience.

Application for banding trip it is closed.

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The North American Banding Council (NABC) is hosting a free online shorebird banding workshop on July 16th

and 23rd from 11am to 3pm Eastern time. The workshop is open to experienced and inexperienced individuals

seeking to further their knowledge on capturing, marking, and processing shorebirds. This workshop is

designed to encourage standardization, stepwise progressive bander development and sharing of best

practices. To register for this workshop please fill in the form in French or English.

Organizer: Joaquín Aldabe, Flyways Program at Manomet

Cost: $10

Language: Spanish and English

Date: Multi day: Saturday, August 10 (full day) & Sunday, August 11 (morning)

Limited registration for 20 people

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Estimating the abundance of shorebirds at a site is key to monitoring population trends as well as to assess shorebird responses to the environment and habitat management. However, estimating abundance can be challenging due to the inability to observe all birds present in a certain area. Ecologists refer to this as imperfect detection. To estimate abundance accurately, it's essential to account for imperfect detection during surveys. This workshop will cover the basics of distance sampling and other alternative methods. We will achieve this by combining theoretical concepts with outdoor field activities and data analysis using software R.

Come and join us!

Organizers: Lucas Berrigan and Erica Geldart, Birds Canada

Cost: $10

Language: English

Date: Friday, August 16 (afternoon)

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This workshop is for researchers who are either planning on deploying Motus stations or are already operating some and want to find out how they can improve their methods.

There will be an emphasis on Latin America and Northern Canada, but folks from other regions are welcome. We will try to accommodate both newcomers to Motus as well as long-time Motus users; however, we will assume attendees will have a basic understanding of how Motus works ahead of time.

There will be two main topics, each with a 15-minute intro followed by a 1-hour breakout session:

• Station deployment and sourcing equipment

• Future of Motus - Identifying station/tag deployment gaps in the Motus network

Organizer: Richard Lanctot (USFWS)

Cost: Free, covered by US Fish and Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Management, Alaska Region

Language: English

Date: Sunday, August 11 (morning)

Note: This will be a hybrid meeting, with opportunities to participate virtually

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The Buff-breasted Sandpiper Conservation workshop will include lightening talks describing current studies on the species throughout the Western Hemisphere, with follow-up focused discussions surrounding refining the population size and trend, new information on habitat selection and projected changes due to development and climate change, and conducting on-the-ground conservation. Finally, we will discuss possible collaborative projects and fund-raising for future work over lunch or dinner.

Organizers: Dr. Ashley Dayer (Virginia tech), Sami Livingston (Virginia Tech), and Debra Reynolds (USFWS)

Cost: $10

Language: Delivery will be in English; Spanish translations can be incorporated into the slides

Date: Saturday, August 11 (afternoon)

Limited registration for 20 people

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Protecting shorebirds from human disturbance requires comprehensive approaches that leverage social science. Community-based social marketing (CBSM) is a behavior change approach that utilizes social science and marketing principles to promote sustainable and positive actions within a community. Along the Atlantic Flyway, CBSM has been used by shorebird biologists and managers to mitigate human disturbance to shorebirds by integrating social science, marketing, and communication best practices into management strategies. In this hands-on workshop, participants will be introduced to the five-step CBSM framework and its applications for behavior-change in shorebird conservation. Attendees will explore the adaptability of the CBSM framework in various contexts and gain insights into the social science foundations of behavior-change strategies. Real-world experiences will be shared to highlight lessons learned in implementing CBSM and its ability to address conservation challenges.

Attendees will engage in interactive sessions to brainstorm approaches and strategies for each step of the CBSM framework. Further, participants will leave the workshop with a draft plan and valuable resources to prepare them to implement a CBSM campaign to address human disturbance challenges at their own sites.

Organizer: Fernando Medrano, Lead Editor for South America for Birds of the World

Cost: Free - covered by Birds of the World – Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Language: Presented in English, with slides in Spanish and Portuguese. Questions can be done in any of the three languages.

Date: Friday, August 16 (afternoon)

Limited registration for 25 people

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Birds of the World is a scholarly resource that seeks to synthesize all the information for the 11,017 bird species of the world. Each species account compiles information on the natural history, biology, and conservation of the species, illustrating the information with multimedia and updated species maps, and includes undescribed information obtained through eBird and multimedia from Macaulay Library. Birds of the World can be used for multiple purposes, including learning about the natural history of our species and making our research more efficient and effective by compiling all that is known about the species. In the case of the shorebirds, the accounts in Birds of the World are updated for several species, but there are still some accounts that are outdated, especially in the case of the neotropical species.

The main objective of the workshop is to find potential authors of Birds of the World. In doing so, attendees will learn the vision and purpose of Birds of the World, and will learn to use the editorial tools for revising an account of Birds of the World.

Organizers: Matt Reiter (Point Blue Conservation Science), Catherine Hickey (Point Blue Conservation Science), Caz Taylor (Tulane University) and Stephen Brown (Manomet)

Language: To Be Determined

Date: Sundays 11 (afternoon)

Cost: Free, covered by Point Blue

Limited registration for 60 people

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Recent studies suggest that many populations of shorebirds in the Western Hemisphere are experiencing significant declines in abundance. However the causes of these declines are not well understood which limits the identification of conservation actions to mitigate drivers of declines. There are examples of research that seek to identify drivers of shorebird population changes as well as ongoing research and monitoring that could provide a foundation for more coordinated efforts to understand what factors are causing shorebird declines. We propose a workshop that will bring together shorebird experts to help define an overarching conservation science strategy to address drivers of declines in Western Hemisphere shorebird populations. The exact format of this workshop will depend on the outcomes of an initial workshop to be held in February 2024.

Organizer: Maria Castellino (WHSRN/Manomet) and Clare Cunningham (Manomet)

Cost: $15 for WHSG participants - registration open when register to WHSG meeting

Cost: $45 for general public - registration will open by mid June

ationLanguage: English and Spanish

Date: Friday, August 16 (afternoon)

Limited registration for 45 people

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** It is possible to attend this workshop without registering for the conference, for a fee of 50 CAD.**

This interactive workshop will introduce the Discover Shorebirds Curriculum created by Manomet and the WHSRN Executive Office with support from ECCC and the USFS. The curriculum is a free Spanish, English, and French resource that helps build connections to shorebirds, conservation, and the importance of local ecosystems through hands-on exploration and engaging activities. Workshop participants will become familiar with the shorebird curriculum as we move through the five lessons overviewing and previewing featured activities. Workshop attendees should be prepared to share and participate. Lessons will address the topics: What is a Shorebird?, Migration Mania, Making Tracks with Shorebirds, Shorebirds at Risk, and Understanding Why Nature Matters. This workshop is perfect for formal and outdoor educators, conservation professionals responsible for engaging diverse audiences in festivals or other activities, researchers, and anyone looking to connect their work with the next generation of shorebird advocates. Workshop attendees can use materials used throughout the workshop back in their work.