Friday 17 November
This was a second weekend for the group with no opportunity for making a cannon net catch. However, there was a double opportunity for mist netting, along with the usual colour ring resighting on one tide. The mist netting sessions were initially planned for the high tides on both Saturday morning and Saturday evening but, as with all WWRG field trips, this was dependent on the weather.
Friday 6 October – Sunday 8 October
With many of the usual team members away in faraway places, poorly or with car troubles, a small team collected at the fieldwork house with plans for a weekend of colour-ring resighting and the possibility of a mist netting session on Saturday evening. The likelihood of mist nesting was always doubtful due to an unsettled weather forecast. The forecast had deteriorated by mid-morning on Saturday and a decision was made that this would not go ahead.
Friday 22 September
The weekend began, somewhat unusually, with a mist nesting session on Terrington Marsh. This required a small number of people to arrive at the fieldwork house mid-afternoon to set the nets on the marsh ready for the evening catch. Two lines of nets were set, one on the E-pool and the second on the cannon-netting pool, with Ron and Nigel leading the respective teams.
Saturday 19 August
The autumn Wash week began with the combined Norfolk and Lincolnshire teams convening at the Norfolk fieldwork house on Saturday afternoon. This followed some uncertainty as to whether the planned mist netting session would be able to go ahead based on weather predictions. A recce at Gedney had taken place earlier in the afternoon with glow light markers in place for finding the way across the marsh at night. With the go-ahead agreed, the team headed off to bed for a very early start the following morning.
Saturday 19 August
Some of the team gathered Saturday afternoon in the hope of getting the week off to a good start with some early mist-netting at Gedney on Sunday morning. There was some doubt due to concerns about the weather, but with some final checks on the wind forecast the decision was made to go ahead. A recce team went out to look at the marsh in daylight to see where to set nets and put out poles. After dinner that included an excellent Pear Upside-Down Cake from Lizzie, Lucy gave the first briefing welcoming everyone and explaining the house-keeping, rules etc (trialling the newly-written notes on how to run a Wash trip). Guy arrived with Victoria, the co-ordinator of the WWRG trips to Delaware Bay, who had just flown in from the States; everyone was pleased to welcome her to the Wash.
