For the last three years, Purple Sandpipers – Calidris maritime - have been colour-ringed at two different locations on Spitsbergen, an Arctic Ocean island north of Norway lying at a latitude of 78°N. The team is very interested in hearing from birders in the UK and other countries in Western Europe who might be lucky enough to come across one of the colour-ringed birds. The aim of this project is to try to find out where the Purple Sandpipers breeding on Spitsbergen spend their winters.

They have all been ringed with one metal ring, one colour-ring above the metal ring, and a plastic flag with a three-letter combination on the opposite leg.