2025 Wave the Waders Goodbye event at the Cairns Esplanade Foreshore

Hidetoshi (Mikey) Kudo
1 day ago
2 min read

Hidetoshi Kudo (Mikey) | Cairns Area Coordinator

Wave the Waders Goodbye is one of our longest-running annual north Queensland events for local and visiting birders, and it has been a great educational and social event over many years.

In December 1997 it was casually referred to as farewell the waders (see the Provisionary Program for 1998 below). Our archives indicate that it was a joint event by Birds Australia North Queensland Group (BANQG) and the Cairns Branch of the Bird Observers Club of Australia (BOCA). This event was attended by a massive 70 people!

Provisionary Program for 1998 extracted from “Contact Call”: December 1997 “Issue: Radjah Shelduck” published by Birds Australia North Queensland Group. Note the last entry.

Extract from “The Frogmouth”, Issue 29, March 1998, published by the Cairns Branch of BOCA. Thanks to Brian Lee for searching for and providing this copy.

Extract from Contact Call: June 1998 “Issue: Cotton Pygmy-goose” [sic] published by BANQG. — Extract from Contact Call: June 1998 “Issue: Cotton Pygmy-goose” [*sic*] published by BANQG.

It’s believed that the name “Wave the Waders Goodbye” for this annual event may have been settled on when the two groups, BOCA and by then Birds Australia, were merged together in 2011 to become BirdLife Australia. The name “Wave the Waders Goodbye” continues…

Thus, on 23 March 2025, the annual Wave the Waders Goodbye event was held, commencing in Cairns City Library with guest presentations. We had invited two guest speakers: Paul Fisk, on Beach Stone-curlew, covering their breeding activities and behaviours mainly in and adjacent to Cairns Airport; and Scott Ritchie, on Shorebird Photography. Scott entertained us with lots of photos that captured breath-taking moments of waders.

Paul Fisk gives his presentation on Beach Stone-curlew at Cairns Library. Photo by Hidetoshi Kudo (Mikey).

Both presentations were well attended by more than 30 people. Many thanks to both Paul and Scott, as well as those who attended the indoor event.

The indoor session was followed by viewing the waders at the platform opposite RSL Cairns.

The tide was perfect and pushing the birds in. Photo by Hidetoshi Kudo (Mikey).

Despite the weather conditions, including scattered showers, we saw a good variety of waders at the 1.6 m tide line, including: Great Knot, Greater Sandplover, Curlew Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler, Bar-tailed Godwit, Terek Sandpiper, and our famous Nordmann’s Greenshank (locally known as “Nordy”). We all hoped for their safe migration to their respective destinations.