Wash Wader Ringing Group

Friday 30th July

Recces done on the evening tide:-

Most of team had assembled by 19:00. Arrival at the saltmarsh to set four small mesh nets in the same place as last month coincided with a heavy downpour (as it had last month too!). Setting finished in darkness but time was found to do a team briefing before bed.

Saturday 31st July

Up 03:45 to allow time to finish the set. SGD and MS in the hide and soon odd Curlew in the catching area. This built to about 20 which were joined by 50 Dunlin. Twinkling brought 150 to the catching area but many of these were covering the net. Attempts to jiggle cleared a neat narrow line through the flock but failed to clear the birds sufficiently to fire. In desperation JAC, at the base camp near the nets, was asked to get up slowly to lift the birds but had only got as far as her knees when they all departed. The birds then circled and landed safely in the centre of the catching area. All four (of the half size, small mesh nets set) were fired but in practice the birds were only in two of them.

Recces done:-

Teams departed 14:00 to set in two places on the Terrington saltmarsh whilst PLI and LM went to inspect the bund for possible catching sites. Salad meal at 16:45 at the white barn before catching teams in position.

Dunlin set. This team had to start by spending half an hour getting rid of the cattle and were then disturbed by microlights flying over. A marsh harrier catching a dunlin and then harrying a godwit also did not help proceedings. 10 Dunlin landed in the area and this gradually increased to 35. Nothing else happened until told to fire by the other team.

Curlew set. These nets set well east of the white barn on high saltmarsh where Curlew had been seen roosting. Also affected by microlights flying over but a few Curlew in catching area soon after manning. Rest of flock went to Lynn side of nets and twinkling by MS got birds either side or seawards of nets but only a maximum of 10 in the area. Regretted not having Oystercatcher decoys as 60+ were flying about. When the other set was debating whether it was worth firing on 35 Dunlin got them to do so in the hope it would push Curlew between the two set; it didn't.

Catch for evening was therefore:-

Sunday 1st August

Up 04:45. Team to Snettisham and 3 narrow full nets set by 06:30. MS, DW and LW in hide on the beach, rest of team over sea wall behind nets. The flock of 500 Sanderling which had been further north during setting was twinkled by CK. This divided with about 150 going in front of one nets. To avoid getting too many on a rising tide catch, twinkling was stopped and the net fired.

Further recces had been done revealing :-

Evening tide similar to previous evening with nets set in two places on Terrington saltmarsh and a salad meal eaten at the white barn before manning both sets.

Curlew set. Nets set in same place as yesterday but slightly seawards. The first few Curlew and a Black tailed Godwit landed with the decoys. Otherwise birds landed on the saltmarsh both to the east and west. Twinkling by both KS and PLI failed to improve the situation with the flock staying seaward despite a Marsh Harrier there.

Redshank set. Just two small mesh nets set where the 382 catch was made the previous day but with the nets set differently to cover a pool made by the higher tide and thought likely to attract Redshank. NAC manned a hide very close to the nets. Numbers in catching area slowly built to 25 (Greenshank, Redshank and Curlew) followed by a flock of 50 Redshank with a further 100 landing. There was no opportunity to fire before these left. For the rest of the tide numbers repeatedly built to 25 but spooked as soon as larger numbers thought of landing, possibly reacting to the proximity of the hide. After tide a small flock of Redshank landed so the opportunity was taken to fire.

Monday 2nd August

Up 04:00. Good sized team made carrying equipment out to the inner bund relatively easy and the work done the previous afternoon to prepare catching sites with boulders removed, walls to put nets on, and stone hides built meant nets were set in good time. NAC manned a hide toward the Boston end of the bund and PLI the hide at the back of the bund. The rest of the team was divided with a small party being very close to the nets and the others at the King's Lynn end.

The first birds to land did so by NAC's net and, of the flock of 1000 birds, half were in front of, but well out of range at this stage, his net. This included 100 Redshank and 50 Turnstone. These were all spooked, probably because a larger flock of Dunlin appeared round the corner. The Dunlin then landed just beyond PLI's net and round the corner towards base camp. Movement within the flock and further arrivals gradually brought birds in front of PLI's net and by the time the tide was close enough there were approximately 2-300 but all dunlin. The Turnstone and Redshank were still on the other end of the bund, beyond NAC's nets and out of sight to him. As we already had had a substantial dunlin catch, LW went to twinkle. This succeeded in pushing some Redshank and Turnstone round and also gained further dunlin. Since PLI was worried that further twinkling would just push so many dunlin round that there would be too many to fire, he decided to fire at this point.

Because of the nature of the site, with many undulations, many birds were not caught in the netting and escaped during the lifting process. However a respectable catch was made:-

The evening tide saw a similar arrangement to the previous two evenings with nets set on the saltmarsh at Terrington and a salad meal (the hot dry weather meaning all were happy with this!)

Redshank set. This was the same as the previous day except the hide was further away. There were very few birds coming up onto the marsh and only odd curlew and redshank landed with the decoys for short periods. Eventually, when a flock of 75 dunlin landed, the nets were fired but one cannon failed to fire so the catch was only 25. Subsequently found the cartridge was OK and the conclusion was that there was a short in the dropper - all will be checked before the next trip.

Pool set. With the lack of success the previous two evenings and higher tides having flooded the site, the net set at the eastern end of the marsh was set to cover part of a likely pool. Initially a small number of birds did react to the decoys but as greater numbers appeared they preferred other parts of this pool and the nearby pool normally used for mist netting. At one stage a catch of 50 Dunlin would have been possible but with Redshank and a flock of 30 Grey Plover about it was decided to see if we could get samples of these rather than more dunlin. SD tried to twinkle a mixed Redshank / Dunlin flock from the adjacent pool but unfortunately the first birds to lift were those in the catching area. From then on, nothing looked interested in the catching area until after it had been decided to give up. The team walking to the net to pick it up noticed a small flock in the area. Having checked safety they fired the net catching 10.

After the nets from both sets had been lifted it was almost dark so rather than sort out lights at the white barn the catch was transported back to base to ring and process, PLI and JG subsequently returning to release the birds.

Interestingly nearly all these were Alpina whereas the Dunlin in the morning catch had been predominantly Schinzii.

Tuesday 3rd August

Up 04:00. Rather to our surprise it had poured with rain during the night and was still doing so. Continued with the plan to go to Heacham although the poor weather dampened enthusiasm so became about 15 minutes behind schedule. Three, rather than the intended four, nets set on Heacham and by the time the very efficient set was finished, although there was still a 100 yards or so of mudflat, most of the waders (mainly Oystercatchers) were close to the beach and just south of where they were required. Twinklers quickly despatched but failed to get round the birds whilst they were still on the mudflats. Predictably attempts to move them after they had reached the shingle failed.

With the nets set well down the beach since a rising tide catch had been intended it was decided to man until they had to be moved. 10 Oystercatchers joined the decoys and attempts were made to move a flock of about 30 Sanderling to join them. When this failed the three nets were moved to what was expected to be above the high tide line. By now these were several hundred Sanderling in a number of flocks on the beach. Twinkling managed to get birds in front of all three nets but with most in front of net 3 which was fired. After extracting the birds there were still lots of Sanderling present on the beach but leaving the unfired nets was not an option as it was obvious the tide would reach them. A channel prevented resetting just above high tide so the nets were just moved back.

All the birds taken behind the sea wall and ringed and processed whilst the tide turned, being returned to a keeping cage to avoid catching the same birds again. Once the tide had receded sufficiently a team went to reset the two unfired nets leaving a processing team to finish dealing with the birds.

With tide quickly falling off twinkling got a flock in front of the net. As soon as a twinkle on another flock had them moving the other way, it was decided to take what we had.

As no more catching attempts were to be made the birds from the first catch were released. This was done by lifting the keeping cage so they left as a flock, with an army of people with cameras recording it (who focussed on the wrong cage?)

Note the very low retrap rate, indicating with passage birds rather than Sanderling from the Wash winter population when a much higher retrap rate would be expected.

Return to base to sort, clean and dry equipment before departure mid afternoon and the next band of rain.