Fieldwork November 2022

Friday 25 November

Recces:

Lucy Y. and Mark went out to recce in the morning. Around 07:00 at the Heacham Dam, Snettisham North, Lucy saw no birds, but by 07:15, groups of 30–200 Sanderling began to gather; Lucy also looked at Heacham South where 1,500–2,000 Oystercatchers were already present at 07:00, and stayed until 10:00, settled even with dog walkers going past the flocks on the beach. There were also a few hundred Oystercatchers roosting on the concrete slope of the Heacham Dam. Mark saw 10 Sanderling and six Turnstone at Heacham North, and 10 Oystercatchers at Heacham North North.

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Fieldwork October 2022

Tim, Selena and Dave arrived at the Norfolk base earlier in the week to work on house and garden maintenance. In particular they removed a large amount of the excess vegetation that had grown up in the garden and Dave in particular helped wire up the potential decoy store. Cathy joined them for some of the time and Mark also helped out but wasn’t able to stay on for the weekend. This team put in a significant amount of effort over these few days and so deserve a big thank you from the group!

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Fieldwork September 2022

Friday 9 September

The first members of the trip arrived at the Norfolk base on Friday.

Tim went out to recce on the evening tide at the White Barn. On a new pool out from the traditional White Barn catching pool there were 300 Redshank and 250 Dunlin.

Saturday 10 September

Norfolk:

Nigel and Tim went out in the afternoon to check out the new pool that Tim had found on Friday. They decided to set a single net there with a team of seven in a hide and a second team hiding out on the marsh. Bamboo poles were used to support the hide as they were lighter to carry further out onto the marsh to the new pool. The second team couldn’t see from where they were hiding in the long grass but they did enjoy a lovely sunset. The hide team was able to get to the net very quickly, the second team made a good effort to run the longer distance to the net.

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Fieldwork August 2022

Avian Influenza (AI) precautions: With the spread of AI to wild birds (mainly colony nesters), we followed BTO guidelines and also introduced extra safety precautions to minimise risk – see here. There were also some sites we did not have access to for catching.

Friday 12 August

Recces were carried out early on Friday morning:

Norfolk: Cathy found Heacham Beach, north of the Ringed Plover fencing, was gull city with no waders present. Heacham North North at high tide had 33 Turnstone and 26 Ringed Plover.

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Fieldwork July 2022

Friday 15 July

Evening recces were carried out at:

Gedney (Nigel) – the marshes were flooded 45 mins before tide with around 100 Curlew over the marsh, around 100 Redshank on the tide edge and 200–300 Black-headed Gulls on the pool.

Beaches (Guy) – Heacham North North, no birds; Heacham South c. 2,000 Oystercatchers; Snettisham beach a few Ringed Plovers and Oystercatchers, but lots of Ringed Plover fencing all along the beach making it unusable for catching. Also noted at Snetts was a Turtle Dove calling and a Spoonbill flyover.

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