The ringing team sitting or standing listening to the lead ringer explaining the process.

Fieldwork August 2023

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Decoy making weekend 29–30 July

Before The Wash week began, a dedicated team got together at Nigel and Jacquie’s house to make up a batch of decoy birds to aid us with future catches. The end product is a life-like model which we can place in the catching area, during cannon-netting, to attract birds. Nigel was an excellent teacher and we all learnt so much, not only about how to make a decoy, but about the fascinating anatomy of the birds. Those on the weekend were Ryan, Molly, Kirsty, Nigel, Jacquie, Katharine, Flo, Lucy, James, David, Sam and Skye.

We also had good fun helping Jacquie and Nigel with their CES at Hinderclay Fen and caught the first Sedge Warbler and Kingfisher for the year!

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A photograph of a Curlew being held in two hands. The bird has been fitted with a satellite tag to track its movements.

Curlew and windfarms

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Curlew, a Near Threatened species, are a major feature of The Wash where they occur in nationally important numbers. They are declining throughout their range and, in the UK: the 25-year (to winter 2019–20) population trend for Curlew is -33% and the 10 year -18%. We see them feeding on both the tidal mudflats and on the inland fields, where they eat earthworms.

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Panoramic photograph of someone standing on a mudflat, using a telescope to look at a small flock of wading birds. There is land with a red-roofed building behind them, in front of a blue sky with puffy white clouds. Photo by Bernard Siddle.

Looking for Knot – Iceland May 2023

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Whilst several group members were undertaking fieldwork on Knot ssp rufa staging on migration in Delaware Bay (USA) along the Atlantic Flyway, two group members were part of an international team in Iceland surveying Knot ssp islandica staging on migrationalong the East Atlantic Flyway. The Iceland team comprised Knot enthusiasts from Norway, The Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, and England, representing several of the countries where Knot have been colour-marked over the last few years.

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Photo of the team sitting at picnic tables outside, having lunch. Photo by Florence Turner

Maintenance weekend, June 2023

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Friday 16 June

Mark did a morning recce at Heacham where he saw 300 Oystercatchers. He returned to the base and started on some of the jobs. Nigel and Jacquie were the next to arrive in the afternoon, followed by Cathy and Flo who set to work cooking up some jacket potatoes, soon to be helped by Max and Sophie when they arrived. Others arrived throughout the evening, and we ate outside before coming in for a team meeting. We discussed plans for morning recces to look for possible catch options of any summering flocks and read through the ever-growing list of maintenance jobs written on the whiteboard. Mark had already been busy starting them off earlier on, mowing the lawn, cutting and raking the hay meadow (car park) and watering the recently planted hedge (which is doing well).

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A white board with a lit of jobs that needed doing over the weekend written in red, green and blue ink. Many of the jobs have been crossed off as work progresses.

Maintenance and AGM weekend, 9-11 April 2023

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An active and remarkable weekend in April made more progress on the jobs big and small than has been seen in recent years with Covid restrictions. Participants started arriving early on the Friday and more came on Saturday so that a total of 15 were able to help tackle the seemingly mammoth list that appeared on the planning boards. The weekend was planned around the first AGM of the charity (ably chaired by Katharine and introduced by Phil now one of our Honorary Presidents and who also enjoyed the weekend catching up and assisting) on Saturday afternoon with some resighting on Saturday morning.  

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