Headstarting is a collaborative effort between WWT, BirdsRussia and the RSPB, and occurs as part of the International Arctic Expedition mounted each year by BirdsRussia under the leadership of Dr. Evgeny Syroechkovskiy.

Nicola Hiscock

Nicky is responsible for the day to day care of the spoon-billed sandpipers at WWT Slimbridge. She started as a volunteer with the Slimbridge reserve team before being recruited as a support aviculturist on the Great Crane Project. The team discovered she had feathery fingers (the avicultural equivalent of green fingers) and now she’s a permanent member of WWT’s Conservation Breeding Unit. Nicky played a key role in successfully rearing 17 spoon-billed sandpipers at Slimbridge in 2012 and in 2013 she joined Roland on the expedition to Chukotka.