Wash Wader Ringing Group

Mini Week - Norfolk Team

Saturday 30th July

The team gathered Saturday afternoon/evening  for preparation of equipment and recess.  NC took a group to look at the birds on the marsh at Terrington (E). On driving on the track behind the sea wall the car got stuck in the mix of mud and cow poo as the water butt, we discovered, had a leak.   That might explain why we had seen some mallard, wild and domestic hybrids, next to the trough.  After scouring the farm yard, but failing to find a spade we used various pieces of wood, hand digging and perseverance to get us out.  Two flocks of curlew were seen on the marsh but none catchable.

  PLIs recce at Heacham and Ken Hill found 10,000 birds in two flocks – a mix of godwit and knot on the mudflat, which departed south well before reaching the beach.  In the morning CK  had seen 150 sanderling and some ringed plover. At Ken Hill there were two suitable fields but only 4 curlew seen.

  RR took a group to the Nene mouth and found 70 turnstone, 100 godwit, 20 common sandpiper and a Montagu’s harrier.

Sunday 31st July

Up 4:15. HW 07:30 We went down to Terrington (E).  There was a further problem with the mud as this time RR’s new car got stuck.  Two nets were set on the marsh between where the two flocks of curlew had been seen.  As the tide was to be higher than the previous evening the hope was that this would mean that birds would come and roost on the saltmarsh.  When we arrived there were already cattle in the area in which we wanted to set so the team drove them away from the catching area, eventually leaving two people to keep the cows at bay while the net was set.  The tide did not make enough, partly because of the recent high pressure, and the birds stayed on the tide edge.  Little bird movement seen from the hide- only a few curlew and some flocks of gulls.  RW & JW went twinkling, but were unable to move any birds to the right area.  There were a few greenshank on the pool and a redshank displaying as if it had young.

NC’s recce.  Having removed a large amount of mud as this was impeding the tracking and slowing down the car, NC went to Snettisham/Heacham. Approaching from the south end there were 100 oyks on the beach (not a priority).  At Heacham south there were 700 oyks. and  50 - 100 sanderling 2h hours before tide.  At just over an hour before tide 1,500 sanderling landed just south of the tump at Snettisham South.  There was some disturbance before high water and 100 went inland to a previous catching site.  There were 200 Curlew in a field of short grass at Ken Hill.  At the back of the car park for the Snettisham pits there were a few hundred greylag in a wheat field!

As the Lincolnshire team were going out to Wainfleet Island to catch knot they needed some assistance so 7 people from the Terrington team went to help.  Others went to set nets for a sanderling catch in the morning.

Monday 1st August

Hide and long stops up 0400, rest of team 0445. Arrived on the beach, and got in position with two long stops, LM and JC. Oystercatchers flew into the beach close to the nets. Later Sanderling began to gather close to the oystercatchers and the net side of them. The sanderling were spooked by a peregrine early on. However with some twinkling of the birds that were spread in small groups along the shoreline mostly on the Heacham side we got several hundred into the catching area.

The Sanderling included one with a Dutch ring, possibly from Mauritania and a Belgian-ringed bird., This was a wet catch with a small mesh net. We took the opportunity straight after the catch to run through the lifting procedure for a small mesh net again, demonstrating how to reach forward and lift the netting while keeping all the edges of the net on the ground so the birds can run/fly up the beach.

Back at base we had a very quick turn around as the best option for the evening catch was to go for curlew at Ken Hill. As curlew come off the marsh early on we needed to be in position three hours before at 17:40. We set four nets as a sort of clap net pair, but knowing that where we set the (dictated by the lie of the land) two would not meet and the other two would just meet. A few birds came in on our decoys. Twinkling by HW and SD sent us 17 and then a few more, so that there about 25 birds spread between the two nets. One was in safety for a while and then left. We debated whether we should wait for any more birds. Decided in the end to go for a small catch and come back in the morning to have another go.  

At base camp the highlight was a group of 6 kestrels sitting on the ground in a freshly cut hay field, presumably looking for small mammals disturbed by the harvest.

Tuesday 2nd August

Hide party up at 04:30 and base camp 05:00.  A harrier spooked the birds early on so JS was sent to twinkle them from another field.  Three landed in the catching area and the rest went into the next door field.  JL joined the twinkling team and together with a hare, a stoat, deer and a harrier there was some ping pong of the birds.  JL had a close (too close!) encounter with a fence and a ditch.  However the twinkling paid off and after 1 bird left safety we fired 1 pair of nets and caught

It was a really smooth catch and went very well. The small mesh nets were used so the curlew were very straightforward to extract. This catch brought the total for curlew to just over 80 for the trip – almost the yearly target for this species.

Back at base, after another delicious breakfast designed and cooked by BW, we considered the options for the following morning. Based on recces. these were:-
oystercatchers at Heacham – too much disturbance on the beach on a relatively late tide.
Sanderling at Snettisham North – we had already made a catch of sanderling.
On the rocks at the back of the bund – a recce of droppings by SD had shown that it had been used.

The latter was deemed the most suitable and so most of the team walked out to the bund on the afternoon to sort out the logistics for setting the nets the following morning. We then returned to base to load equipment. This included telephone receivers and connecting leads, much to the amusement of some of the team who hadn’t seen them used before. These are the most reliable form of communication between the hide and base camp on the bund where radio communication is difficult at a short distance but through a big pile of rock! (Phones are also very useful between hides, but we don’t often use them since the advent of reliable (usually) radios with the back up of mobile phones . Various maintenance jobs were also done during the afternoon and some data were cross-checked and processing sheets finished. We had an evening off and an early night with a curfew of 21:30 in preparation for the morning.

Wednesday 3rd August

Up 05:00. PLI went round to the Lincolnshire side to help out there. We set one net, confusing a lot of the team who had never seen canons put under the net before, and got in position. It was a beautiful morning with no wind, however this resulted in no wave action. Added to this the recent high pressure meant that the tide did not make as much as expected and left a large area of salt-marsh uncovered. Instead of the redshank we expected there were only 30 oyks, 30 turnstone, 2 dunlin, 1 redshank and 1 whimbrel on the back of the bund. JAC went to try to twinkle but the birds only perched on some big boulders and there was no chance of a catch. We decided to do a test firing to demonstrate how this catching technique worked and we all walked through a practice lift over the rocks. Following a team photo and extending the wall we left the bund and returned to base for breakfast and tidying.