Wash Wader Ringing Group

Friday 22nd October

Morning Recces:

Snettisham North	500 oystercatchers were on the base of the dam until 06:30 when they were pushed off by tide and went to join the birds on the beach.  In total c2000 oystercatchers and 2000 grey waders.  Very settled, remained on beach from before first light until at least an hour and a half after tide
Heacham South	small flock (c100) of oystercatchers out from the tump.  Excellent visible migration of passerines, mostly thrushes and starlings.

Afternoon recces:

Snettisham North	200 oystercatchers pre-roosted off the mussel scar whilst 200 grey waders mostly knot, barwit and turnstones foraged on the scar.  Huge (10,000+) pre-roost of grey waders out from the beach which pushed in with tide and eventually hopped onto the beach and stayed there for at least 45 minutes.
Heacham South	significant flocks of waders forming out from the beach.  500+ oystercatchers forming just offshore but did not hop onto beach until last minute due to presence of people on the beach, however this was not enough to force them to find alternative roost areas.  All the grey waders flew to the mudflats out from Snettisham beach as tide pushed them off.

After morning recces headed back to base where early arrivals did a range of house and garden chores before the afternoon recces. Team assembled from late afternoon onwards and headed out after tide to set nets for the morning’s catching attempt. An efficient set was spoilt slightly by some problems with connections which was eventually resolved by replacing a dropper and then we were able to head home for a full briefing and bed.

Saturday 23rd October

Up at 05:00.  Team arrived on site in time to see the first dog walker of the morning appear from the beach.  Given how much it was raining, we decided to allow the basecamp team to stay warm and dry in cars for a while.  However, on getting into the firing position, even in the dark it was clear that at least some waders remained on the beach.  Just before 07:00 although still too dark to see markers etc a flock of c500+ oystercatchers were clearly visible out from the nets so basecamp were asked to get into position.  Once we had decent amounts of light, and we could see the markers, we realised that tide had clearly cut and we were high and dry.  So we gave up and headed back to the cars to sit out the height of tide and allow the birds to move off naturally before we picked up nets.  At about 9am, whilst checking where tide and the birds were, someone asked “have we missed anything?”  At this point we realised that when folk had headed out to basecamp, they’d managed to leave 3 people asleep in one of the cars.  We worked out that tide appeared to have cut by about 18” which equates to about 12 yards horizontal distance confirming just how high and dry we were.  Picked up nets and headed back for breakfast and to try and dry out.  Those who’d slept through the morning’s entertainment seemed to feel the need to do penance and were first at the kitchen sink to do the washing up!

MS & JS had recced Heacham South and Heacham Far North but had found nothing worth attempting to catch for the rest of the trip.  Before retreating to the cars, BL went from the firing position to see whether there were any waders on Heacham South and found approximately 150 oystercatchers near the tump. 

With the weather forecast ruling out mist netting on the Saturday evening tide, we decided to go back to Snettisham and try for the grey waders on the rising tide.  Basecamp set up by the trailers where everyone was able to see the spectacle and fortunately by now it had stopped raining and was pleasant enough to enjoy.  As observed the previous evening, grey waders formed off shore but certainly not in the numbers seen on the recce. About 700 knots did come up onto the base of the beach but were south of the nets so a twinkler ran down quickly to move these towards the nets.  The birds moved to the decoys perfectly giving about 400 in the catching area but some were too close to the nets and would not move. Unfortunately, we’d set to catch out to a yard onto the mudflats which proved too low as we didn’t have enough time to make things work. As the tide reached the decoys and with no birds in front of the nets, we decided to give up and get the kit up before we had a second set of soaking wet cannon net gear.

As we had planned to catch on the rising tide, and then stay to set after tide for the following morning, we had arranged for MW & DW's mobile soup kitchen to feed us all that evening which they did in some style. Once tide had fallen sufficiently, we set rapidly, this time opting to set two nets in the same position as we had that morning and two lower down the beach and towards the dam.

Sunday 24th October

Given the concerns that a dog walker might pass through well before first light and disturb the birds, the firing position was in place by 05:15.  Shortly after setting up in the car at the dam, all the oystercatchers took off and left the beach. Unfortunately it was far too dark still to establish whether any grey waders had stayed behind and it was a long frustrating wait to see if getting up that early had been worth it. Basecamp arrived around 06:30 and it then took a while to finally establish communication channels (the firing position having to confess their stupidity in forgetting to take any radios, the three basecamp phones tried all being switched off and the first radio to make it to the firing position with BL being one that wouldn’t turn on at all).

With increasing light, there was a concern that the two lower nets might get washed out but fortunately the bulk of the birds (still unidentified as they hunkered down behind the tide wrack) were in front of the two higher nets. The birds were still very settled although there was a reasonable number, mostly sanderling, south of the catching area so Tim was sent to twinkle which certainly gained some sanderling in front of the nets but mostly beyond the 8 yard markers. The flock was thought to be at least 2-300 with a good number of knot.

At this point with concerns about catching into the swell, we decided to wait until the tide turned before attempting to catch. Once tide was definitely on the way out and the wave wash was no longer reaching beyond about 10 yards, the flock being still very settled and a reasonable catch possible, no further twinkling was attempted and the command to fire both nets was given. The team got to the nets and managed an efficient lift but the wind hampered attempts to cover. All birds were extracted and kit lifted with nets spread out to dry on the dune grass. Ringing and processing took place in warm sunshine, underneath impressive visible migration with huge flocks of thrushes and our Hungarian friends helping everyone get to grips with the amazing flocks of waxwings coming in.

During the lift the firing position’s poor species identification had become apparent, with the “large cluster of knot” having turned into grey plover! This catch is thought to be the biggest catch of wintering grey plover for at least a decade and the value of this catch will hopefully be seen for many years to come as all the grey plovers and barwit were flagged with individually coded leg flags as part of the Group’s project to colour mark these species given how hard we have been finding it recently to reliably catch them.

Catch: