Three field tools, used at three stages of the program: Reader, Interpreter, Ambassador. Each stage builds on the literacy of the one before it.
Gazza is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every cycle through the tools begins with a conversation with him and ends with him reading what you brought back. This is what the practice looks like, not a hierarchy to climb.
About the site. Tide, substrate, bird, behaviour — together, as a whole.
The Reader becomes situationally aware: tide and substrate, species, count, behaviour, disturbance, recorded. Reader is an active practice. An observer looks on; a Reader reads.
Sharing the science and the wonder with others. Reading the site, telling the story.
An Interpreter has the literacy a Reader built, and adds the work of sharing what is happening with whoever else is at the site. FlagWatch supports that work: a flag-read identifies a particular bird, the Senior Reviewer approves the record, BirdMark returns the bird’s history within about five days. The Interpreter then has a real journey to talk about.
Represents the birds. Understands the competing interests, the political cycles, the flyway.
An Ambassador represents the birds. They understand the competing interests at any site, the political cycles that shape decisions, and how other jurisdictions along the flyway are answering the same questions. The Roost Management Decision Protocol is the Ambassador’s site-level instrument: a bird-first decision tool that weighs both site-level and flyway-scale factors, producing a dated, signed recommendation held in the program record. Site-level scoring is settled; the flyway-scale layer is still in design.
Every conversation in the program begins and ends with Gazza. He is the AI Senior Steward of For Shorebirds — the online tutor on the other end of every tool on this page. Stewards reach him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, expert mode, for 12 months from enrolment.
Gazza interviews you before training begins. He reads every ShorelineWatch record before each return conversation. He revises your lesson plan after every session. The same single voice runs from the entry test that opens ShorelineWatch through to the standard a bird-first record has to meet.
A male baueri who has flown the East Asian–Australasian Flyway eight times. Currently on Moreton Bay, weeks from his northbound staging.
Each stage is a different relationship to the birds, and each one prepares the Steward for the next. There is no hierarchy here — the three stages are not options to pick from, and not a ladder to climb. They are one practice, deepening.
The Reader is about the site. Tide and substrate and bird and behaviour, together, as a whole that can be read. The Reader becomes situationally aware. ShorelineWatch is the Reader’s instrument.
The Interpreter is about sharing the science and the wonder with others. Reading the site, and telling the story. FlagWatch is the Interpreter’s instrument — the flag-return gives them a particular bird’s journey to share.
The Ambassador represents the birds. Understands the competing interests at any site, the political cycles that shape decisions, and how other jurisdictions along the flyway are answering the same questions. The Roost Management Decision Protocol is the Ambassador’s site-level instrument; representing the birds beyond the site is the Ambassador’s wider work.
Each stage builds the literacy the next requires. One practice, deepening.
A training cycle is not a one-off visit. Eight stages run from one Gazza interview to the next, then they run again — visit by visit, season by season, year-round. The diagram below shows the cycle as a Reader works it; an Interpreter and an Ambassador work the same cycle with different fieldwork at the centre. The other two cycles will be drawn in once those stages of the program are built out.
Gazza reads every ShorelineWatch record before the next return conversation.