The Humber Wader Ringing Group was formally established in 2003 having made some trial catches during the winter of 2002/03. Under the leadership of David Turner HWRG had discussions with the Environment Agency, English Nature, RSPB and IECS to develop a strategic approach to wader ringing on the estuary with the aim of improving our understanding of how and why waders are using the Humber estuary.

Subsequently HWRG has continued to ring a wide range of wader species at a number of sites on both the north and south banks of the Humber.

In addition to mist netting, HWRG developed a safer version of the traditional black powder cannon net that works using compressed air. Part funded by a donation from www.waderquest.org this netting technique has become known as a 'phut net'. Unfortunately due to changes in the availability of suitable sites phut netting has had to be discontinued.

Information and data provided by the Group contributes to the overall monitoring of the estuary particularly with relevance to key environmental and industrial/ commercial developments. This will mean that decisions relating to the Humber in the future can be taken with the aid of this factual information.