Friday 19th March
Recces done by PLI (Snettisham / Heacham) and NAC (Terrington). Strong wind and rain started just as recce started :-
| Snettisham North | Two flocks of Oystercatchers present. 150 near the road on to the sea wall and 500+ spread along about 100 metres of beach towards the public hide |
| Heacham South | Maximum of 100 Oystercatchers and these may have been those disturbed from the concrete sea defence at the junction of the two beaches. |
| Heacham Far North | About 6 birds |
| Terrington | Observation difficult in the conditions and with low tide waders kept very much to tide edge |
NAC and PLI met at Tesco's for breakfast and food shopping then returned to base. After constructing shelves in the study for electrical items walked out on to Terrington saltmarsh to see if there were suitable catching sites. The whale had been moved in the very high tide on the Sunday after our last visit, the skull now being completely separate and vertebrae scattered over the saltmarsh.
Equipment for setting loaded in to trailers before another visit to Terrington saltmarsh to watch what happened to waders at high tide. About 10,000 present, largely Dunlin but with a flock of Oystercatchers and some Knot, all on the saltmarsh edge.
The team started arriving late afternoon and by 19:00 most who were expected that evening were present. Left to set 19:30. Moderate wind but dry. Four nets to be set on Snettisham North towards the public hide. Inspection of beach found lots of tide wrack where nets to be set so after difficult furling of the first net the rest were laid behind, furled and then lifted in to place. Even with these complications, setting was complete by 22:00 and the team back at base and in bed by 23:30.
Saturday 20th March
Up 04:00. Some rain overnight but now dry. Wind moderate. In position by 05:30. NAC found that the best place to observe was from the public hide. As light improved it could be seen that lots of birds were present and mainly in front of nets. The vast majority were Oystercatchers but with 100 or so Knot and Dunlin scattered amongst them. The latter soon left and the Oystercatchers gradually walked closer to the nets. It became obvious that the tide would not come as high as we had predicted on setting. Most birds were further than nine yards from the nets and the water only just past the maximum extent markers. Decided to wait until high tide to get the birds as close as possible. At high tide NAC gave the command for two nets to be fired. Just the leading edge had to be lifted and a small wall was constructed to prevent the occasional higher wave reaching the nets.
| Species | New | Control / Retrap | Totals |
| Knot | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Turnstone | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Oystercatcher | 0 | 44 | 44 |
| Ringed Plover | 326 | 1 | 327 |
| Totals | 337 | 46 | 383 |
Approximately a third of the birds present on the beach at the time of firing had been caught . All birds were taken to keeping cages behind the sea wall where the catch was ringed and processed in increasing wind. By the time the equipment left on the beach was picked up a strong wind was blowing along the beach.
The weather forecast for the afternoon was for very strong wind and initially lots of rain had also been expected. Additionally, even if the weather had been suitable there no obvious catching options; we had caught the birds seen on the recce and no suitable catching site on Terrington Marsh had been found. Consequently it was decided not to make any further catching attempt and to get various maintenance jobs done with a good evening meal about 19:30.
True to the forecast, the wind became increasingly strong and some jobs were curtailed about 14:30 when the power failed. As this turned out to be prolonged power fail it had implications for the evening meal so the group's generator was linked to the electric control circuit for the gas cooker and later provided light as well.
As the evening high tide approached JS and MS went to look for Turnstone using both the Port Sutton Bridge dock and the Kings Lynn ports but none were seen. Additionally a group of people went to look what happened on Terrington saltmarsh on the evening tide. This was much the same as the previous day but with the tide cutting and the wind buffeting the car it was difficult to observe in any detail.
Despite the difficulties in preparing the evening meal, the team sat down to a roast chicken (or roast vege) and blackberry and apple pie meal at 20:00. Power returned at the same time but most lights were promptly turned off and the meal continued by candle light.
Sunday 21st March
Following a good night's sleep, people got up when they felt like, apart from MS and JS who went observing Turnstone at high tide. Three birds were observed at Sutton Bridge (1 colour ringed) but a flock of 200 were present at the ABP port at Fisher Fleet in Kings Lynn. Unfortunately due to access problems colour rings on these could not be observed.
Wind still strong. The group's AGM was held at 10:30, followed by lunch (chicken or leek and potato soup). Most left early afternoon although it was 17:00 by the time the last people left.