In 2005, the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat sponsored an international expedition to Beringia. Although most scientists associated with the expedition worked from a large research vessel in the Bering and Chukchi seas, the expedition's shorebird biologists focused their research on migrant shorebirds using the mudflats and wetlands of western Alaska.  Over two dozen researchers from 11 countries collaborated with the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center and Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge on migration studies of bar-tailed godwits, rock sandpipers, dunlins, and sharp-tailed sandpipers.  Led by Dr. Ake Lindstrom (Lund University Sweden), this international cohort included participants from Australia, Canada, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S.A.

Several major storms precipitated evacuation of one field camp at least three times.  Despites these setbacks, the expedition produced a vast amount of data on shorebirds.  Data analysis is underway and we predict a plethora of peer-reviewed and popular publications shedding even more light on the ecology of migrant shorebirds in Western Alaska.