For Shorebirds is a working program with a particular shape. It is not the answer to shorebird decline at Moreton Bay. It is one piece of work in a much larger system, contributing what a piece of work of this kind can contribute — and not what it can’t. This page describes where it sits.
It is written for the visitor who wants to understand the program before committing time, money or attention to it. The Steward Course is a real commitment — twelve months, A$95, structured learning, mentored field practice. Whether it suits your life is a decision you should make with clear information about what the program is and isn’t. This page tries to provide that.
The shape of the work
What For Shorebirds is
- A twelve-month structured Steward Course at A$95, delivered digitally and in the field at Moreton Bay
- Mentored learning with Gazza, an AI mentor trained on the Steward Course materials and current shorebird science
- Hands-on field practice using ShorelineWatch and the Roost Management Decision Tool
- Three on-the-ground delivery partners — Jacobs Well EEC, REF Environmental, BIEPA — for site-based training and community connection
- Records that feed AWSG and QWSG count datasets and contribute to flyway-scale monitoring
- A community of trained Stewards working at named sites around the bay over multiple seasons
What For Shorebirds is not
- The answer for migratory shorebird decline at Moreton Bay or anywhere else
- A substitute for the international, governmental and scientific architecture that addresses the larger drivers
- An AI program. Gazza is a learning aid; the work is done by humans on the bay
- A general environmental volunteering program. It is specifically about migratory shorebirds and the sites that support them
- A casual or short-term commitment. The Course assumes twelve months of engagement and ongoing field practice afterward
- The only honourable way to contribute. Lighter alternatives exist and are listed below
The program operates at one specific scale: local, grounded, persistent. A trained Steward at Toorbul or Kakadu Beach contributes long-term observational record, considered interpretation of disturbance events, conversations with site visitors that change individual minds, and data that joins a national and flyway-scale monitoring system. That is real and it matters. It is also bounded.
What this program cannot address — and who does
The most important drivers of shorebird outcomes operate at scales no single program of this shape can reach. A program with a realistic sense of its scale names them rather than pretending its work is the whole answer. What follows is the cannot-list, with attribution to the institutions that DO operate at those scales.
| For Shorebirds cannot | Who does address this |
|---|---|
| Halt or reverse Yellow Sea reclamation, the single largest driver of EAAF shorebird decline | The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), the South Korean and Chinese national governments, the UNESCO World Heritage process (the 2021 Getbol inscription), and bilateral conservation diplomacy. |
| Slow climate change, sea-level rise, or ocean warming — the long-horizon drivers of habitat loss across the flyway | National and international climate science and policy bodies. The IPCC. The UNFCCC process. The CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology in Australia. None of these are within the program’s reach. |
| Set or enforce Australian migratory species law (the EPBC Act, JAMBA, CAMBA, ROKAMBA bilateral agreements) | The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), the Threatened Species Scientific Committee, and the Federal Court when challenged. |
| Generate the population data and trend analysis the program teaches | The Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG) and Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG), who have been counting Moreton Bay shorebirds for over thirty years. BirdLife Australia’s State of Australia’s Birds reports. The Wetlands International CSR (Conservation Status Review) process. |
| Speak for, on behalf of, or about Quandamooka traditional knowledge or Country | The Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC). Full stop. The program operates on Quandamooka Country with respect for that authority but does not substitute for it. |
| Replace direct field experience with AI conversation | The trained Steward, standing on the mudflat at high tide, watching what actually happens. Gazza is a study aid; he has never been on Toorbul beach. The work is what humans do in the bay, not what an AI mentor knows about the bay. |
None of this diminishes the work. It locates it. Stewards contribute specifically what humans-on-the-ground can contribute — persistent local presence, careful records, considered interpretation, the conversations that move one person’s position. That contribution is real. It is also one node in a network where other bodies handle what this node cannot.
If the Steward Course doesn’t fit your life
Twelve months of structured learning at A$95 is a real commitment. It excludes a lot of people who would still contribute if there were a lighter way in. There are. None of them is lesser. Each contributes to the same dataset, the same picture, the same bay.
The Queensland Wader Study Group runs structured wader counts at Moreton Bay sites several times a year. Anyone with reasonable shorebird ID skills and a willingness to be on a mudflat at the right tide can join. No course required. Records become part of the long-term Moreton Bay dataset that has been running for over three decades.
waders.org.au →The Cornell Lab’s global bird observation database. Any sighting at a Moreton Bay site, logged through the eBird app or website, becomes part of the global dataset that informs flyway-wide population assessments. ShorebirdViz visualises eBird records back to contributors. Free to use, no enrolment.
ebird.org →The ShorelineWatch app can be used by anyone who wants to log a disturbance event, a roost observation, or a count. The app and underlying methodology will be opened up further as the Contributor tier (next release). For now, casual records can be filed by anyone who reaches out via the contact form — the data still feeds the same backbone.
About ShorelineWatch →A planned lighter tier hosted on CitSci.org — the open-source citizen-science platform run by Colorado State University since 2007. Designed for people who want to contribute single sightings without enrolling in the full Course. Same dataset, lower barrier. Architecture being built; will be announced when the project goes live.
citsci.org →For people who want to become more deeply involved in Australian bird conservation generally, BirdLife Australia’s Shorebirds 2020 program and Birds Queensland’s field activities offer well-established pathways. These are not substitutes for FSB; they are parallel and connected entry points.
birdlife.org.au → birdsqueensland.org.au →The shape of an undertaking like this
For Shorebirds is a personal initiative built and sustained by one retired environmental educator, working from Moreton Bay on Quandamooka Country. The Conversations With Birds initiative that produced it is the same.
That has the strengths of any personal initiative — coherence of voice, conviction, the ability to move quickly without committee approval. It has the limits of any personal initiative too. It depends on energy that is not infinite. It depends on attention that is not endlessly available. It depends on one person’s continuing capacity to do the work. A program of this kind can flourish while it is actively tended; what happens after that is a question any founder willing to look at the program clearly has to acknowledge rather than wave away.
The replication offer
For Shorebirds is offered not as “the answer for Moreton Bay” but as a working example others can lift, adapt, and re-deploy along their own flyway segments. The architecture is freely available. The method is documented. The pedagogical materials, the AI mentor design, the field-tools approach, the partnership model with on-the-ground delivery organisations — all of it can be taken up by anyone who wants to build something analogous in their part of the flyway.
A high school in Cairns adapting the model for a Trinity Inlet wetlands monitoring project on CitSci is For Shorebirds succeeding. A community group at Roebuck Bay, Corner Inlet, Pūkorokoro Miranda, the Mai Po marshes, or any node along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway doing their own version is For Shorebirds doing what it was always for. The program’s value increases the more places it is replicated.
This is not a franchise model. There is nothing to license, no central control, no fee for adaptation. The architecture is offered. What anyone builds with it is theirs.
This stance has practical consequences for the program’s identity. It means For Shorebirds is not bidding to be the long-term institutional home of shorebird stewardship at Moreton Bay — that responsibility properly sits with the established bodies (AWSG, QWSG, BirdLife Australia, the EAAFP) and with the Quandamooka relationship to Country that long predates and will long outlast any program of this kind. For Shorebirds is contributing one working pattern of community-and-AI-supported field stewardship that those bodies can choose to draw on, partner with, or simply note as a working example.
This framing dignifies the limits of any single founder’s capacity. By stating clearly what one person can and cannot sustain, the program becomes less dependent on inexhaustibility — and more useful to anyone who would like to build something similar on their own coast.
The wider work — institutions and partners
For Shorebirds connects with a much larger body of flyway science, monitoring, and advocacy. Stewards benefit from knowing who else is working on the flyway, what tools and data they produce, and where their field records fit into the wider monitoring system. What follows is a working map of the institutions that do the work this program draws on.
EAAF Partnership
The East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership — the intergovernmental body coordinating shorebird conservation across 22 countries from Russia and Alaska to Australia and New Zealand. Maintains the network of internationally significant Flyway Network Sites.
eaaflyway.net →Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG)
The primary shorebird monitoring and banding body in Australia and New Zealand. Source of population estimates, species accounts, and long-term count data used throughout the Steward Program. Annual wader counts at Moreton Bay are AWSG-coordinated.
awsg.org.au →Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG)
QWSG conducts field counts, banding and monitoring at Moreton Bay and across Queensland. A key source of local population data and the organisation through which Stewards can contribute count records to the broader dataset.
waders.org.au →Global Flyways Network
Coordinates satellite tracking of individual shorebirds across multiple flyways, including the EAAF. The B6 tag record — 13,391 km Alaska to Tasmania in 11 days — is a Global Flyways data point. Provides publicly accessible tracking data via the Movebank platform.
globalflyways.net →BirdLife Australia
National bird conservation body. Produces the State of Australia’s Birds report, the primary source of population trend data for Australian species. Runs the Shorebirds 2020 monitoring program and advocates for habitat protection across the country.
birdlife.org.au →Getbol (Korean Tidal Flats) UNESCO WHS
The 2021 inscription of Korean tidal flats as a UNESCO World Heritage Site brought international recognition to the Yellow Sea staging habitat on which baueri Bar-tailed Godwits depend. Understanding this decision is part of the Field Practice course context.
UNESCO listing →Birds Queensland
The primary birding and bird conservation society for Queensland. Members participate in shorebird counts, habitat monitoring and citizen science programs. A key referral point for Stewards seeking community connection to broader ornithological networks.
birdsqueensland.org.au →eBird (Cornell Lab)
The global bird recording database. Moreton Bay shorebird counts contributed to eBird become part of the global dataset informing flyway population assessments. Stewards are encouraged to contribute their field records to eBird as a complement to the program’s field tools.
ebird.org →CitSci.org
Open-source citizen-science platform run by Colorado State University since 2007. Hosts more than 1,000 active projects spanning hyperlocal to global scales. Free to use; explicit support for indigenous knowledge sensitivities and project-level governance choices. Under consideration as the host for the planned FSB Contributor tier.
citsci.org →Wetland Link International (WWT)
Global education resource aggregator hosted by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Includes the Shorebird Sister Schools 600-page educator’s guide, World Migratory Bird Day materials, and EAAFP CEPA resources. Useful starting point for educators and youth-cohort entry.
wli.wwt.org.uk →Jacobs Well Environmental Education Centre
Queensland’s first purpose-built environmental field study centre, established in the mid-1970s. Operates the EDUCAT, a 12-metre research catamaran capable of landing on sand and mud study sites across the Bay. More than 1,500 students a year aboard. Research partnerships with University of Queensland, Griffith Marine and University of the Sunshine Coast.
jacobswelleec.eq.edu.au →REF Environmental
The Redcliffe Environmental Forum operates The HUB at 7 Joseph Crescent, Deception Bay — a purpose-built environmental facility on a deck overlooking the tidal flats. Strong shorebird credentials including bird surveys at adjacent Hays Inlet and a World Migratory Bird Day event tracking newly-arrived Bar-tailed Godwits.
redenviroforum.org →BIEPA
The Bribie Island Environmental Protection Association brings its Shorebird Working Group to the program as a structured community interface. Monitors shorebird activity at Kakadu Beach (one of the bay’s most significant constructed roosts, drawing up to 2,500 Bar-tailed Godwits at peak), advocates for site protection, and works alongside the City of Moreton Bay.
biepa.online →Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC)
The cultural authority for Quandamooka Country, which includes the Moreton Bay sites where the program operates. The program defers to QYAC on all matters concerning Quandamooka traditional knowledge, cultural protocols, and Country. Stewards are directed to QYAC for guidance on these matters; the program does not substitute for that authority.
qyac.net.au →One node in a network
For Shorebirds is a working pattern, described in public, freely offered for adaptation. It does what a program of this shape can do, and it acknowledges what it cannot. It contributes one piece to a much larger picture. The bay does not need a single answer; it needs many smaller answers, persistently maintained, by enough people across enough years to add up to something the birds can rely on.
If that is the kind of work you can imagine doing — whether through this program, through one of the alternatives above, through one of the partner organisations, or by building something analogous in your own part of the flyway — then you are already part of the answer.