The Interpreter’s tool
Each year, researchers up and down the East Asian–Australasian Flyway catch a small number of shorebirds and fit them with coloured leg flags and codes. When one of those birds turns up at a City of Moreton Bay roost, a Steward with a scope and the right training can read the flag and find out which bird it is, and where it has been.
Every sighting you save in StewardWatch becomes two records. They flow from the same form but go to different places and answer different questions.
The bird’s story, and the site’s evidence
StewardWatch contributes to two scientific records at once. Both matter, both are partial without the other, and both rest on the same act of reading a flag well.
The bird’s story
Each approved flag read goes to BirdMark, the resighting database run by the Australasian Wader Studies Group with the Victorian Wader Study Group and Deakin University. BirdMark holds the full history of every flagged bird in the flyway: where it was banded, how old it was at catching, every other place anyone has seen it since. BirdMark usually writes back within five days. From there you have a particular individual’s flyway story.
This stream is decades old, internationally coordinated, and well funded. It is about the bird as an individual.
The site’s evidence
Each sighting also captures five per-sighting variables that don’t fit in BirdMark: body condition, what was disturbing the bird (human, natural or spontaneous), whether it was roosting or feeding, what the site manager was doing, and the size of the flock around it. These rows go to the For Shorebirds evidence sheet alongside ShorelineWatch records and any disturbance events from the same visit.
Ng et al. (2026), reviewing EAAF disturbance interventions in Journal of Applied Ecology, found 96% of published interventions are education programs and the field evidence on what actually changes bird outcomes is partial. The five fields above are the per-event variables most often missing. This stream is about the site.
One sighting, two records. The flag read goes to the resighting database; the per-sighting evidence fields go to the evidence sheet. Both flow from a single save in the StewardWatch form.
Telling the story at the site
A Reader watches the roost and writes down what's there: counts, behaviour, disturbance, the state of the site. That work matters in its own right, but it stays inside what the Steward saw.
An Interpreter does more than that. They share what they've seen with the people around them: foreshore walkers, dog walkers, school groups, anyone who stops to ask what they're looking at.
That's where StewardWatch comes in. It hands you a specific bird with a known story: banded as a juvenile in the Yellow Sea, on its third trip south, here on this roost in front of you.
The Interpreter’s workflow
Each visit to a roost goes through the same five steps.
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Set the stop
Note the site, the time, the tide, the conditions. The same things a Reader notes, because a flag sighting without that context isn't much use later.
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Find the bird
Scan the roost carefully. Don't flush it. Pick out birds with leg flags, and wait until the bird is settled enough that you can read the flag clearly.
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Read the flag
Record the flag colours, the code if there is one, which leg the flag is on, and which way it's facing. Take a photo if you can. If someone else is with you, ask them to read the flag too and check you agree.
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Lodge the sighting
Save the sighting in StewardWatch. The flag read goes into a Senior Reviewer queue first — that's how we catch mistakes before anything reaches BirdMark. The per-sighting evidence fields (body condition, disturbance, habitat use, site-manager presence, flock size) post straight to the evidence sheet at the same time.
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Receive the journey
Once the Reviewer approves it, StewardWatch sends the sighting on to BirdMark. BirdMark usually writes back within five days with what it knows about that bird. From there, it's yours to tell.
Where StewardWatch fits
StewardWatch sits in the middle of the Steward's work. What it asks of you is built up while you're working as a Reader.
The Reader’s literacy
You can't read flags well without the situational awareness a Reader builds first. If you flush the flock, you lose the read. If you misjudge the tide or the light, you've got a record without context. ShorelineWatch is where that groundwork happens.
Becoming an Interpreter
StewardWatch isn't open to everyone. You need to be enrolled in the Steward Course, and the training is part of that course. Gazza is around as your guide while you're learning ShorelineWatch and once you move on to StewardWatch.
If you're already enrolled, StewardWatch is one click away. If you're not, the place to start is as a Reader.