Friday 2nd July
No recce on the morning tide but both PLI and NAC arrived early enough to recce in the evening :-
| Heacham South | Arrived at 16:00. The first Oystercatchers were on the beach at 16:15, three hours before tide, despite there still being 100 metres of mudflat. Soon all 100 Oystercatchers present were ashore and spreading as far as 25 metres up the shingle beach. These birds were then joined by a substantial flock of grey waders and, after retrieving a telescope from the car, it was established these were all knot, very few showing any summer plumage. Once the tide reached the bottom of the beach all 4000 knot were ashore. Something disturbed the Oystercatchers and all these left, leaving all the knot on the beach with the flock spreading 20 metres back from the tide edge. PLI then went in search of food, returning shortly before high tide. By then no birds on the beach but this may well have been due to human disturbance. |
| Terrington | Arrived 18:20 by which time tide was already well in. Directly out from white barn and on tide edge were 70 Oystercatchers and 30 Dunlin. Towards Kings Lynn, 100 Curlew and 400 Shelduck were on the marsh. In the other direction there were two flocks (ca. 400 in total) of Curlew, either side of a previously strimmed area. 40 Redshank on the tide edge and 10 Black-wit appeared later. |
Decided to use strimmed area on saltmarsh for the Saturday morning catch. Hence as soon as most team members expected had arrived went to set. This coincided with a torrential shower so start of setting was delayed. Dark by the time the four small mesh nets had been set at the site used previously, the only strimming necessary being to clear the lines of the nets. Bed just after midnight.
Saturday 3rd July
Up 04:30. Hide set up, telephone cables laid and decoys put out. Base camp under covering material near the nets. Soon after getting in position, two Curlew landed in the catching area and then numbers quickly built to 35. Something (probably a kestrel) disturbed this flock and when they relanded only some returned to the catching area, others going to the east. Numbers increased to 25, with 15 black-headed gulls for a while, but looked unlikely to improve naturally. MS sent to twinkle, initially going to the bund side with no effect. Twinkling from the other side had more effect. When numbers built to 54 the hide party gave the command to fire. Running to the net it soon became apparent that the number anticipated had not been caught and that the reason was that two nets forming one side of the clap net pair had failed to fire. Unfortunately the bulk of the catch had been in that side.
Whilst the catch was being dealt with PLI, MS and NAC tried to find out why the nets had not fired. Although not conclusive, as certain things had been moved for safety reasons when it had been realised the nets had not fired, it seems there could have been a fault in one of the mains cables which had given some problems during setting the previous evening. Having investigated and recreated the same situation as before as nearly as possible, the nets were fired again to make sure we hadn't overlooked anything. This time they fired of course!
| Species | New | Control / Retrap | Totals |
| Curlew | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Returned to base for breakfast and to hear results of recces:-
| Holbeach | The main objective of the recce was to look at the spit towards the north of the Holbeach area. Unfortunately, SLD's arrival there was delayed by getting lost on the way, but on arrival found that on the spit there were 70 waders of a range of species, the majority being Turnstone, Lapwing and Redshank. No harvested fields were seen and although there were lots of Oystercatchers about a flock was not located. |
| Boatmere | Water levels high. The log in the hide recorded 14 Greenshank at high tide and lots of Coot present. |
With some time to spare before needing to set for the evening, LW went to check the bund for evidence of droppings (none) and NAC to strim catching areas successfully used last year.
The plan for the evening tide was to set down the beach at Heacham South in the hope that the Knot would be present. With a strong wind blowing it was decided to set four narrow full nets rather than include some of the small mesh nets which catch the wind. Setting interrupted once by a very heavy squall, including hail and lightning. As a result the nets were very wet and sand splattered by the time setting had finished. Although the tide was still a long way out at 16:00, Oystercatchers were already close and attempts to get the dropper to work on net 4 were abandoned. After another squall had passed PLI went to observe from the south and JG to long stop at the Heacham end of the beach.
Initially the Oystercatchers were well scattered and the other birds out from the nets were mainly Bar-tailed Godwit. It was not long however before some Oystercatchers were at the foot of the beach in front of the decoys and soon a few moved to join the decoys. Another group of Oystercatchers formed a nucleus just out from where PLI was observing. JG then noticed 3-4000 Knot on the tide edge further north. As the tide came in the Oystercatchers down from the net gradually increased but, worryingly, some kept peeling off and flying inland as did all the Bar-tailed Godwit. The Knot were gradually pushed south as the tide came in and as the tide just covered the mud were pushed ashore in front of and beyond the nets. The larger number of Knot were a couple of net lengths along the shore and soon those furthest from the tide edge were 15 metres up the beach. In front of the nets a second concentration of Knot was in front of the net with the Oystercatcher decoys (live Oystercatcher having now left) but none higher up the beach than the markers showing where the net would catch to. A surge up the beach brought some definitely in range but with the very wet nets and strong wind PLI was nervous as to how well the nets would go out and hence catch. An additional complication was that the slightly better weather and tide coming in had brought more people on to the beach, including a wind surfer. Whilst keeping an eye on this activity there was a further surge up the beach, started by a few birds leaving the flock. This put a good catch into the area with the tide having just reached the maximum extent markers so the net was immediately fired.
Only half a dozen were in the tide edge to be lifted, the rest of the catch being dry. With an incoming tide the net was lifted onto covering material and taken high up the beach for extraction of the birds. All were taken behind the dunes to be processed.
| Species | New | Control / Retrap | Totals |
| Knot | 483 | 4 | 487 |
Over 90% of the birds were first year birds and well in to wing moult. Of the adult birds few had much in the way of summer plumage. Managed to fully process 250 in the time available. Having finished processing the birds, the tide had just fallen off far enough to retrieve the nets which had been abandoned to the tide rather than interrupt extraction. With the nets having been washing in the tide for 3 hours nothing could be taken apart and as a result the nets were loaded on to covering material and carried up the beach by eight people each! Meanwhile LW was despatched to obtain Chinese meals to eat at back at base.
Sunday 4th July
The original plan had been to set on the Holbeach spit if the Heacham catch was successful or to return to Heacham if not. However with the success of the Heacham catch and all the tangled wet equipment to sort out any though of catching on Sunday morning was given up.
In practice it took all morning to sort everything out. Fortunately it did not rain until later so equipment could be dried before putting away. Last person left mid afternoon