FSB Background Reading Series
These documents are produced for the program — they go deeper than the course books on specific topics. Read them before or after each module, not instead of your core course materials. The series grows as the program develops. Available documents are sent by email on request.
Available now
4
Making Landfall Pathway
Start here →Who's Who on the Mudflats
Sixteen shorebird species at Moreton Bay — identification, ecology, behaviour, conservation status, and what each one needs from the site. The reference document for species identification in the Making Landfall pathway.
● Available5
Making Landfall Pathway
Start here →The Tidal Cycle
How Moreton Bay's tidal cycle drives shorebird behaviour — feeding windows, roost timing, the two-hour disturbance window, and how to read a tide chart for field planning purposes.
● Available6
Making Landfall Pathway
Citizen Science and the Shorebird Steward
The role of citizen science data in shorebird conservation research. How Steward field records connect to the broader dataset — from QWSG counts to AWSG population assessments.
● AvailableComing soon
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Field Practice Pathway
FID and Disturbance Science
The flight initiation distance literature — what drives FID, how it varies by species, disturbance type and context, and the energy cost calculations that make disturbance data meaningful.
In preparation8
Field Practice Pathway
Yellow Sea: The Staging Bottleneck
The Yellow Sea tidal flat system — what it is, how it functions, what has been lost to reclamation, and why staging habitat loss at this chokepoint is the dominant driver of EAAF shorebird decline.
In preparation9
Field Practice Pathway
Writing a Site Report
Structure, evidence standards, and language for a formal site management report. How to present disturbance data from the Shoreline Assessment and Roost Assessment findings in a document that can be cited in formal submissions or management plans.
In preparation
Documents are delivered digitally. Available documents will be sent to enrolled Stewards on request. If you have enrolled and have not received Doc 4, 5, or 6, register your interest and note which document you need — Borys will be in touch.
External Literature
Beyond the Course — Further Reading by Pathway
These are the papers, field guides, reports, and databases that underpin the science the program teaches. They are not required reading — but they are where the arguments come from. Stewards who read in this literature understand why the field work matters, not just what to do. Organised by course level and country where a comparative lens is the point.
Making Landfall
Making Landfall — Recognition, Story, Wonder
Start here. Field guides, local accounts, and the data from the site you are on.
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BirdLife Australia — Shorebirds: Identification, Ecology and Conservation
The standard Australian field reference. Species accounts, ecology, identification features, and conservation status for all species you will encounter at Moreton Bay.
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Fuller, Milton, Coleman et al. (2019) — Migratory Shorebirds of Moreton Bay
The local account for the site you are working. Moreton Bay species composition, site importance, seasonal patterns, and conservation context. Required reading for any Steward based at the bay.
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Miranda Naturalists' Trust — Miranda: The Journal
The best example of what narrative shorebird conservation writing looks like. NZ perspective on the same species — godwits, knots, curlews — at the same end of the flyway. Readable, accurate, and written by people who go to the mudflats.
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For Shorebirds — forshorebirds.org — Site Data
The data your field visits contribute to. The Great Gamble draws on published population data; the Shoreline Assessment and Roost Tool feed live records into the shared dataset. This is what citizen science in practice looks like.
Field Practice
Field Practice — Ecology, System, Data Practice
The peer-reviewed science behind the field tools and the numbers the course teaches.
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Rogers, Piersma & Hassell (2006) — Roost availability may constrain shorebird distribution: exploring the energetic costs of roosting and disturbance around a tropical bay
The energetic cost of disturbance, quantified. This is the paper behind the FID numbers in the course. If a bird is flushed, the energy cost is real and calculable. Rogers et al. did the calculation. Essential reading before using the Roost Tool seriously.
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Jackson et al. (2021) — Widespread use of artificial habitats by shorebirds in Australia
The evidence base for constructed roost platforms — what they are, how shorebirds use them, and why building them matters. Directly relevant to the RMTools's three site types.
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Coleman & Milton (2012) — Shorebird site fidelity at Moreton Bay, Queensland
Site fidelity data for the bay you are monitoring. Birds return to the same sites year after year — which is why roost management decisions have long-term consequences, and why losing a site is not recoverable in the short term.
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Jackson et al. (2024) — Habitat selection and step rate as a proxy for foraging behaviour in migratory shorebirds
How shorebirds select habitat at the fine scale — relevant to understanding what makes a roost site work, and what site condition features matter most in an AUDIT assessment.
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Clemens, Rogers et al. (2016) — Continental declines in Australian shorebird species
The national picture. 12 of 19 migratory species declining across Australia over 15 years. The data show the trend is driven by factors outside Australia — Yellow Sea habitat loss — not by conditions at non-breeding sites. Context for why Moreton Bay monitoring matters but also what its limits are.
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Battley et al. — Bar-tailed Godwit tracking and flight physiology (Massey University)
The science behind the nine-day Pacific crossing. Phil Battley's group at Massey produced the foundational work on godwit non-stop physiology — organ reduction, fat deposition, departure weight requirements. The numbers in the Field Practice materials came from here.
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BirdLife Australia — National Shorebird Monitoring Program
The national monitoring framework. Annual reports, site data, population trend analyses. How citizen science data at the national scale is collected, validated, and published.
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Queensland Wader Study Group — waders.org.au
The longest-running shorebird count dataset for Moreton Bay. QWSG counts go back decades and provide the baseline against which any change at bay sites is measured. Know this data — your field records are part of the same picture.
Field Practice
Field Practice — Complexity, Legislation, Outcomes
The policy and legislative landscape across four jurisdictions. What works, what doesn't, and why the gap matters.
🇦🇺 Australia
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EPBC Act 1999 — SPRAT database entry for Limosa lapponica baueri
The legal text behind the Critically Endangered listing for baueri. What the listing requires. What the recovery plan commits to. What enforcement looks like in practice. Stewards working at the Field Practice level need to know what the law says — and what it doesn't do.
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Studds, Murray, Rogers et al. (2017) — Rapid population decline in migratory shorebirds relying on Yellow Sea tidal mudflats
The key peer-reviewed study linking Yellow Sea habitat loss directly to population declines in multiple EAAF shorebird species. The evidence base for the argument that Australian conservation outcomes depend on international action. High-impact, widely cited, freely available.
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Jackson et al. (2020) — Navigating coasts of concrete: artificial habitats support migratory shorebirds but not threatened species
The flyway-wide analysis of artificial habitat use. Policy implications: constructed roosts can buffer habitat loss, but not for the most threatened species. The argument for managed roost construction — and its limits.
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Lilleyman, Coleman, Bush et al. (2024) — Shorebird habitat use and coastal planning
The intersection of shorebird ecology and planning law in Australia. How coastal development decisions affect roost networks, and how the evidence base built by monitoring programs like this one feeds into that process.
🇳🇿 New Zealand
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Battley et al. — Bar-tailed Godwit tracking papers
New Zealand hosts the same baueri population over the same non-breeding season. NZ tracking work provides the comparative dataset — same birds, different coastline, different legislative framework. What NZ does well and why the two programs need to talk to each other.
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DOC — Shorebird Recovery Plans
NZ's formal recovery planning under the NZ Threatened Species framework. Comparable to Australia's EPBC recovery plans. The legislative comparison — NZ Threatened Species classification vs. EPBC listing — is in the frameworks themselves. A useful Field Practice exercise: find the same species in both and compare what each system commits to.
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Miranda Naturalists' Trust — Technical Reports on Firth of Thames Counts
The longest shorebird count dataset in the Southern Hemisphere. How a community-based monitoring program at a single site produces data that feeds into global population assessments. Directly comparable to what the FSB program is building at Moreton Bay.
🇰🇷 Korea — The Bottleneck
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Moores et al. (2016) — Reclamation of tidal flats and shorebird declines in Saemangeum and elsewhere in the Republic of Korea
The definitive account of what Saemangeum cost. Shorebird declines of 95–97% at the reclaimed site. The birds did not relocate — they disappeared. Essential reading for understanding why the Yellow Sea is the key pressure point on every bird you see at Moreton Bay.
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Choi et al. (2023) — International importance of tidal flats in the Republic of Korea as shorebird stopover sites
18 internationally important stopover sites in Korea — only 7 legally protected. The gap between ecological importance and legal protection is the central problem. 20% of the EAAF populations of Far Eastern Curlew and Eurasian Curlew use Korean tidal flats. The legislative gap is the Field Practice argument.
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Getbol — Korean Tidal Flats UNESCO World Heritage Inscription (2021)
The inscriptions at Seocheon Getbol, Gochang Getbol, Shinan Getbol, and Boseong-Suncheon Getbol represent the first binding international protection for Korean staging habitat. The recovery from 116,000 godwits in 2013 to 126,000 by 2025 is partly credited to this outcome. The Great Gamble models this event. Compare the inscription criteria with the Australian Ramsar listings — same obligation, very different enforcement.
🇩🇰 Denmark / Wadden Sea — The Comparative Standard
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Common Wadden Sea Secretariat — Wadden Sea Quality Status Reports
The monitoring record for the Wadden Sea — the closest functional equivalent to the Yellow Sea, and the example of what effective flyway management looks like when it is backed by binding law. Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands produce these jointly under the Wadden Sea Plan. What Australia and Korea are working toward; what the Wadden Sea already has.
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Wadden Sea Plan 2010 — Trilateral Management Framework
The management instrument that Australian coastal law does not have an equivalent for. Binding across three jurisdictions. Mandatory buffers. Enforceable standards for disturbance, development, and habitat condition. Compare with Australia's EPBC Act bilateral agreements (JAMBA/CAMBA/ROKAMBA) — same species, same flyway, very different enforcement capacity.
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EU Birds Directive — The Legislative Instrument
The legal framework that Danish coastal management operates within. The Birds Directive requires member states to designate Special Protection Areas and maintain them in favourable condition. Australia has no equivalent binding obligation at the species level. This is the legislative gap that Field Practice Stewards need to be able to articulate.
The Field Practice policy argument in one sentence: The Wadden Sea has binding trilateral management, mandatory buffers, and UNESCO World Heritage status. Australia has the EPBC, bilateral agreements (JAMBA/CAMBA/ROKAMBA), and Ramsar listing — all of which create obligations without enforcement mechanisms equivalent to the Wadden Sea framework. That gap is what a trained Shorebird Steward can speak to, with data, in conversations with local authorities.