Saturday 20th March
With the most recent Wash trips not being particularly successful in catching terms, and no further trips planned until the Mini week in July, there was a significant enthusiasm from some quarters to make the most of the possible mist netting session scheduled for the evening of Saturday 20th, assuming the weather was remotely clement. Having done the usual trick of consulting as many weather websites as it took until we got a forecast that looked relatively optimistic. Anticipating the chance of a few light showers passing through, we planned to set two lines of nets and keep teams relatively close to the nets out on the marshes so that we could extract birds quickly if a shower came through.
So, the team assembled at base at 4pm to get kit together and go out to set. Whilst JC and SD stayed back at base to prepare a meal (with a fair degree of ineptitude as it turned out) to be eaten between setting and needing to get the tape lures out, the rest of the team went off to the marsh. A slight glitch with the gate key not being available delayed the team a bit, and then a heavy shower kept everyone sheltering in the cars for a while before heading out. Six nets were set directly out from the white barn and eight on the “E” Pool. Whilst MS and JS stayed to man the nets, the rest of the team went back for food. GA, KT, NC and SO dashed back out to set tape lures and send MS and JS back for food. The tape setting teams stayed with the nets, given the conditions, and were extracting a few birds almost immediately. A team briefing on marsh safety for the rest of the group was given before heading back out at 19:30. Radio contact with the marsh teams led to everyone waiting at the cars for a while before the wind got the better of us and we decided to get teams out on the marsh to take down. The curlew was ringed and processed before the rest of the birds were taken back to base where we knew it would be easier to process them in the light of the garages.
On leaving the marsh, ineptitude returned and one car needed to be pushed off the grass verge where it had become bogged as a result of the heavy rain early that evening. The excitement didn’t stop there as, before we could push the car off, we were approached by a car which turned out to be the local police. Having seen all our headlights they were suspicious that we might have been having a rave! If only we were young enough, physically capable and had that much energy to party!!
Slightly delayed, we got back to base and settled down to deal with the birds. Given the small number of birds, the good light in the garage, and the fact that for all species where there were at least two birds caught we had an adult and a juvenile, it was a great opportunity for providing lots of training. All birds were ringed and processed, and the turnstone were also colour ringed, before being taken back down to the marsh to be released.
Some of the team headed home whilst those staying settled down for a civilised drink or several before heading to bed.
| Species | New | Control / Retrap | Totals |
| Curlew | 1 | - | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 3 | - | 3 |
| Turnstone | 2 | - | 2 |
| Redshank | 1 | - | 1 |
| Knot | 2 | - | 2 |
| Dunlin | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Totals | 14 | 1 | 15 |
Sunday 21st March
Up by 07:30 for bacon butties. Sunday morning had originally been scheduled as a suitable tide for colour resightings linked to the Group’s Turnstone project with just two people involved in the resighting. However, in light of the good weather and because we were already planning to be on the Wash, a number of people had stayed overnight and three teams went out to resight. LW, SK and CB initially going to Snettisham and Heacham South beach. GA, SD and SO going to Heacham North North beach and NC, JC and LG going to Holme. The Snettisham team saw no colour ringed birds and so joined the Heacham North North team. If only we’d had a cannon net! A flock of approximately 300 sanderling, 50 to 100 turnstones and 50 oystercatchers were on Heacham North North beach and proved a challenge for the resighting team. The turnstones were reasonably obliging and 22 individuals were recorded from this flock, deemed to be all of the colour marked individuals present. The attached report from JS summarises the resighting histories of these birds.Turnstone sightings
The sanderling proved much more difficult – the rings are much smaller, and it would appear that all sanderling on the Wash only have one leg! All birds were roosting happily and preferred to hop around the beach when disturbed rather than put the other leg down and run. As it was a lovely sunny day, there were a myriad runners, walkers and exuberant hounds on the beach and eventually as the tide dropped off, the birds did seem to be more keen to run away (with a bit of gentle encouragement) and we were able to observe 16 colour ringed sanderlings, including two not seen already that morning by CK. The attached report kindly provided by CK provides histories of all these birds. Sanderling sightings
Holme was more frustrating as the birds here were less disturbed and although many people had also come to Holme to make the most of the nice weather did not have suitable footwear to cross the small stream leaving the waders in peace most of the time. There were plenty of waders (2,000 Bar tailed Godwit, 1,000 Knot, 1,000 Oystercatchers and 280 Sanderling) however ALL seemed to have one leg! In the first hour and a half they read half the combinations on 10 Sanderling, 1 Knot and 1 Bar-tailed Godwit. The Sanderling just started to feed as the stream became passable in ordinary shoes! Only 3 Sanderling had the colour rings on both legs read before people pressure resulted in them all leaving the area.
The Heacham team decided to try and get resightings from Hunstanton which has been proving valuable a couple of hours after tide, however we had not bargained on it being outdoor market day or how popular the beaches and seafronts would be in the fine weather. We quickly gave up on resighting here although SO had been turfed out of the car at the south end of the promenade and walked north, braving the hoards of people (“the conditions were worse than last night!”) and scoring a single hard-won Turnstone sighting, of a bird previously seen by the team on Heacham North North beach.
By the time all the team had reconvened it was lunchtime and we decided it’d be a sociable to round off the successful field trip with a pub lunch at the Rose & Crown in Snettisham where we were able to take advantage of the weather by sitting outside.