“Clive”

Dr Clive Minton trained as a metallurgist but is best known for his work with waders. Clive Minton has been described as a father figure in global wader studies. His early wader studies were in England with the Wash Wader Ringing Group (founded in 1959). Early catches of waders used rocket nets, but soon the group developed the cannon net – their first catch being in 1967. Clive moved to Australia in 1978 where he introduced cannon netting and played key roles in the Victorian Wader Study Group and the Australasian Wader Studies Groups (formed 1981), as well as the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union.

Clive has been one of the great movers and shakers of shorebird research and colour flagging in the East Asian – Australasian Flyway and in other flyways over the last many decades. Clive was the key initiator of the North-west Australia Shorebird Expeditions. This field work dramatically increased knowledge of the importance of Roebuck Bay and Eighty Mile Beach as key non-breeding habitat of many species of migratory shorebirds. This work has continued annually or biannually for over 35 years and involved many people from Asia and Europe. It provided inspiration to young shorebird conservationists in Australasia and from across the EAAF. It has led to the development of the largest morphometric and movement data set for migratory shorebirds in the Flyway. This work also led to the establishment of Broome Bird Observatory and this continues to be a legacy to the passion Clive had for migratory shorebirds. Sadly, we lost Clive in 2019. To see him in action, doing what he did best, click here.