Wash Wader Ringing Group

Wednesday 6th September

MS & JS having arrived the night before did a recce on the morning tide; Only a few birds on the Greenshank borrow pit, everything else stuck to the tide edge. Gear sorted out and team to set left at 14:45. Rest of team arrived in time to get to the saltmarsh shortly after 16:00.

 In position shortly before 17:00. After about half an hour, Curlew started moving and odd ones landed with decoys. Up to 20 in the catching area but tending to land just seaward despite longer vegetation. This was put down to Redshank (ca. 200) on the edge of the nearby creek and the noise of these plus the direction of the wind was encouraging the curlew to land outside the catching area. Each time lift off and come back fewer in. Tried twinkling. Other nucleus formed. Waited for birds to leave naturally before picking up decoys.

PLI went to recce Snettisham and Heacham. About 100 Sanderling on Snettisham beach but scattered and mobile. No waders seen elsewhere. Food at base and bed before 22:00

Thursday 7th September

In position by 05:00 having set a jiggler along edge of creek and put MS under Fensman hide cover. As it started to become light, realised grey waders in catching area. At one point 20 Grey Plover and 20 Redshank but too dark for safety. These left before light enough to catch. Tide came in rapidly but not many Curlew came in our direction. Up to 10 Curlew in the catching area a couple of times. With water rapidly advancing through catching area and nets almost under water, tried to catch 10 Curlew but only caught 2

Early breakfast! Discussed plans then time off until 13:30. Set two small mesh nets on wall by pool and also the causeway net. Food at catch site before manning from 17:20, Very soon odd Knot and Dunlin into area but then went quiet. Curlew moving on outer saltmarsh in increasing numbers but few other waders seen, apart from 100+ Blackwit. As high tide approached realised tide was going to flood area. Rescued decoys and then realised it was still going so also rescued the nets from under water. Water warm fortunately!  Equipment back to base and then discussion as to what to do.

Friday 8th September

Up 5:00 and manned net on causeway. Relatively few birds about and although tide covered saltmarsh just 10 birds came to the causeway catch site. At high tide gave up and organised recceing to various places. The Lincolnshire team requested reinforcement for a catch on Wainfleet Island which involves lots of carrying so NAC and AM went to assist. Meanwhile the remaining Terrington team set four nets as a clap net pair on a field at Terrington(E). Manned from 18:00 but no birds came over, the large flock staying on the saltmarsh as the tide did not push them off. Gave up some time after JAC was accused of trying to catch Owls!

Saturday 9th September

Up 05:00. Decoys set with no wind to guide direction. Same hide teams as last night. Long time before any birds on field although flocks seen lifting. NAC, on seawall, reported saltmarsh taking its time to cover. Eventually a couple of Curlew arrived and dropped in with the decoys. Followed by a couple more which did the same. These stayed for some time before suddenly leaving. Eventually realised this was due to a decoy falling over. As they were also not set in the direction the birds landed, PLI asked to correct this. Soon after this birds started landing and very quickly got in to safety on one side. About 46 Curlew in the safe nets when a dog walker spotted at the far end of the field. Decided to deal with this from base and PLI’s car despatched. This disturbed the birds, due to location of base and the noise of the trailer. About 1/3 of birds left, but most remaining were outside area. NAC drafted in to twinkle but gradually lost birds to adjacent field. Readjusted decoys again then PLI twinkled from adjacent field. Small numbers landed on our field with some in the catching area. Potentially a catch of 80 but with ca. 5 in safety; decided to jiggle the last of these out, resulting in them all leaving. Various attempts to get birds back failed. Eventually fired on 4 and caught 4, but 2 escaped!

Recces had failed to find any small waders. Curlew and some Godwit were found on fields at Holbeach and Terrington(W). Decided to set at Holbeach and that it was not worthwhile manning this evening. Hence left to set as soon as possible and put two nets in a line on each of the fields used during mini week.  Roast lamb meal and rice pudding at base followed by a demonstration of cartridge loading by NAC.

Sunday 10th September

Up 04:45 to find thick fog. To Holbeach through patchy fog. JAC and PLI into hides but both could not see nets! Became aware of birds arriving on the field, in PLI’s case between nets and the hide and in JAC’s case, somewhere out in the field. Before it came clear enough to see properly the Curlew near PLI’s nets had lifted. About ½ hour before high tide could see catching areas. Flock of several thousand on PLI’s field but nowhere near catching area. DK sent to twinkle in the X-trail. Initial slow approach caused burning clutch smell so a slightly faster technique was used. Initially worked well with flock rolling towards the nets but just inland. Eventually Curlew got fed up and gradually left, going well east. Black-tailed Godwit flock responded well to further twinkling but only a small proportion in the catching area and some close to the safety area. Because both hides set when the nets could not be seen they proved not to be in line with the safety area of the net, JAC had managed to move hers from inside but PLI’s was still out of line. Hence with about 25 in the catching area the X-trail had to move to see the safety area. This was done without loss of birds and they confirmed PLI’s fear that it was unsafe. Jiggling moved these birds and the nets were fired.

Debate on whether to remain on these fields. Reset as clap net pair and then back to base for late breakfast. Time off before mist net setting although somewhat disturbed for some as MW with assistance from others started to sort out the blocked drain from the annex. Set 7 nets on the E pool but as three lines of 3 and nine nets out from white barn. Food at 19:30, this time curry followed by pineapple up-side down pudding. Lures out at 20:30 by which time both sets had caught ca.10 birds. Further round relatively disappointing. Nets down and back to base shortly after midnight.

Monday 11th September

Up 05:15, beautifully clear. The same two net sets were in operation as the previous day, this time with NAC in one hide and PLI in the other. After somewhat of a wait birds poured in to the field. But nowhere near either catching area. Twinkling did not have the desired effect, many Curlew choosing to go to a field further inland. GC sent to locate these whilst further twinkling concentrated on the remaining Black-tailed Godwit. When this too failed GC was asked to bring the Curlew back. Limited numbers returned to the catching field near NAC’s nets and whilst some were near the nets a catch never really looked on. For a while a flock formed near PLI’s nets and some twinkling was attempted but birds were always just beyond the catching area with a maximum of about 10 in the catching area. Well after tide NAC had four birds within his catching area so fired. The Whimbrel escaped! We did catch an adult and a juvenile curlew which gave good opportunities for discussing the ageing criteria.

All nets picked up and straight to Terrington (W) to set ready for Tuesday morning. ‘Breakfast’ was pork pie and cheese eaten at the side of the field prior to setting. Although the initial intention had been to set two clap net pairs at different parts of the large stubble field, time constraints led to the decision to just do one set well rather than rush both. The evening mist netting was at Wolferton so nets were set both on the pool and at the head of the bay. Food was brought to be eaten at the seawall. The presence of large numbers of mosquitoes led to all eating inside cars rather than in the open air. Fortunately after dark the number of these subsided. During the latter stages of setting the large number of geese flying low caused some concern and this was justified when the tape lure setting team found large numbers using the pool. The catch was shared between the net lines. Unfortunately the tape lure by the tide edge stopped working just before the birds came within range and the flock roosting on the tide edge were about 200 yards to the south so did not come into the vicinity of the nets.

Tuesday 12th September

The stubble field net was manned with the hide being erected on the sea wall, the other side of a ditch with a ladder ‘gangplank’ across the ditch. Fairly soon after the hide party in place about 38 Curlew joined the decoys. Decided not to take these in the expectation that a more worthwhile number would soon be present. However it then went quiet and the birds in the catching area eventually left. Much closer to high tide Curlew did start to leave the saltmarsh and again joined the decoys. When the number in the catching area reached 75 decided to fire. Unfortunately due to the very wet nets from the overnight rain did not quite meet missing some of the catch.

The Curlew retrap was originally ringed in August 1981. With continuing calm weather mist netting was again possible, Terrington again being used. Five full height nets and 8 single shelves were set in various close pools out from the white barn. Again the evening was very light with the moon rising before high tide as a result the single shelf nets caught best. The failure of the second tape lure possibly reduced the catch but nevertheless the catch was:-

Wednesday 13th September

During a recce on Tuesday, PLI had found Dunlin and Grey Plover using the saltmarsh pool with our “wall” for setting nets. The numbers had built to about 3000 Dunlin and several hundred Grey Plover and they had arrived sufficiently long before the top of tide to suggest they would use the pool again on Wednesday’s lower tide. Hence two small mesh nets set, one on the “wall” and another in line with this. Some members of the Lincolnshire team arrived in time to join the team hidden under the covering material near the nets. Things started promisingly with odd birds landing on the pools and then larger flocks coming to the pools. Some reacted to the decoys but most chose to land in wetter areas just out from the nets. With the anticipation of larger numbers arriving this was not a problem as they would probably spread in to the nets. In the event the number on or over the pool peaked at about 500 Dunlin and proved very mobile. Whilst on several occasions it looked like they might come in with the decoys and present a good catch, they never did. Most birds went elsewhere on the saltmarsh or stayed at the tide edge, twinklers to either side failing to find birds to send towards the catching area. Throughout this time a flock of about 100 had stayed on the pool of which 30 to 60 were catchable depending on how well the net went out. By high tide it looked like no improvement was likely, so the net was fired.

Virtually all these were juveniles.

Back to base, food, sort out equipment and departure home!