Author: Ruth Walker

Fieldwork December 2025

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Friday 5 December

Before the majority of the group arrived for the weekend, recces were carried out on Friday morning. Cathy visited Snettisham beach arriving at 06:30 hrs in full moonlight. Snettisham Beach held no waders and Heacham just two Oystercatchers. The spit at the Sailing Club Bay was next to view where three Bar-tailed Godwit were resighted among a huge flock of mixed waders. Nigel then joined on video call to view the beach and assessed that, with no feathers or poo found, the Oystercatchers had not roosted there over high tide.

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Fieldwork November 2025

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Friday 7 November

An early recce on the morning tide on Friday (Cathy, Lys and Hilary) produced a group of c. 200 Curlew and some Sanderling on Heacham Beach. Cathy then had a very successful resighting session at Heacham, while Lys and Hilary recced elsewhere. Jacquie and Nigel went to recce Heacham Beach for net placement on the tide line for an attempted Curlew catch on Saturday morning. Hilary had also visited Frampton Marsh the previous day, reporting it to be very dry with almost no waders seen. Meanwhile, Cathy resighted two Bar-tailed Godwit and one headstarted Curlew at Snettisham.

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A group of Sanderling flying away after being released.

Fieldwork October 2025

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Wednesday 8 – Friday 10 October

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning saw Cathy, Carole and Bernard resighting incredible numbers of Knot at Snettisham Pits. Numbers of 30,000 individuals were reported on Thursday and, over the course of the three days, 112 colour-marked Knot were seen.

On Friday evening, a small team of only seven arrived at the base house, including Rob, Cathy, Claudia, Hilary, Tanya, Jake and Ingrid. Cathy had a dinner of baked potatoes ready and waiting, and a plan was put in place for the weekend that took into account the unusually small team and the experience level of the group. No catches were planned for Friday night or Saturday morning so a reasonable night’s sleep was in order.

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A Sanderling in the hand having its wing examined to determine its age and whether it is moulting.

Fieldwork September 2025

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Saturday 6 September

Team members began to arrive on Friday evening to recce various options for cannon-net catching and resighting on Saturday morning. The previous autumn passage week and this week were relatively limited in terms of very high tides which could push birds onto fields for catching (this week was the marginally better one of the two) or beaches in high numbers. Only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were very high tides.

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Fieldwork August 2025

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The WWRG teams for assembled at the base house for midday on Sunday 10 August. A detailed briefing was given to discuss plans for the first evening’s catch and to introduce first time attendees to the group.

Sunday 10 August

Recces were conducted on the Saturday evening prior to the trip, which included 480 Redshank, 52 Greenshank and 12 Black-tailed Godwit observed at Freiston by Robert P. 300 Sanderling, 30-40 Turnstone, small numbers of juvenile Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover with recently fledged young were observed at Heacham South Beach by Ed and several flocks of the same species were observed by Bee at Heacham North North (NN), including approximately 90 Sanderling. The unsurprisingly dry conditions observed by Richard at Gedney therefore resulted in Heacham NN being identified as the target site for the first evening’s cannon-netting attempt.  

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