Tuesday, October 10, 2017
ADRIAN Riegen is a champion ornithologist. Photo supplied
Sven Carlsson
GODWIT guru Adrian Riegen is coming to the eastern Bay as part of the 2017 BirdsaPlenty Festival.
He will be a guest speaker with his talk “Amazing Life of Godwits” on Saturday, October 14 at Reap House, Pyne Street, Whakatane.
Mr Riegen has had a passion for shorebirds since he was a small boy in England in 1969, when he spotted a buff-breasted sandpiper, a rare vagrant to Europe.
He moved to New Zealand in 1983 and has become one of the most experienced people in the Wader Studies and the Miranda Shorebird Centre.
Mr Riegen has travelled to many of the international sites in Korea, China and Alaska to contribute to knowledge of migrant shorebirds, especially godwits.
He has identified the stop over and breeding spots over their migration in the Arctic tundra.
In addition, he has played a pivotal role at international and diplomatic level with Korea and China to protect the stop-over sites along the East Asian to Australian Flyway in South East Asia.
Admission is $5 at the door. Keith Woodley’s book Godwits-Long Haul Champions, second edition, will also be available for $50, cash only.