Category: Fieldwork reports

Photo of a Sparrowhawk in a prey item, a juvenile Turnstone, on a shingle beach.

Fieldwork October 2023

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Friday 13 / Saturday 14 October

A small team gathered on Friday evening. As there was no setting, we enjoyed a social, relaxed evening after Cathy’s delicious and sizable baked potatoes and fruit salad. Saturday morning were recces and resighting across all east shore beaches (Snettisham, both Heachams, and Hunstanton), but no fields. There was a strong onshore wind, but clear conditions, and we found out afterwards the tide made by 0.5 m. For all resighters, the strong wind hampered steady resighting. Various parties left to look at all of the beaches, arriving between 06:30 and 07:00 depending on the beach.

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Photo of misty fields.

Fieldwork August-September 2023

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Wednesday 30 August

Recces

Ryan arrived at the Horseshoe Lagoon at 05:30 with high tide at 06:26 and immediately recorded seven Oystercatchers, 12 Bar-tailed Godwit, five Dunlin, two Grey Plover and 150 mixed gulls. At 05:48, the Barwits, Dunlin and Grey Plover left heading north and at 06:07, 70 more gulls joined the roost. Elsewhere on the pool there were 30 Redshank, two Grey Plover, 11 Little Egret and six Greenshank. It was clear that the pool needed more water as Black-headed Gulls could stand almost all the way across from normal catch site to the island.

Richard observed a small number of plovers at the Gedney pool when they arrived. It filled about 25 minutes before tide.

At Heacham North North, Cathy recorded 10 Turnstone and 10 Sanderling at high tide.

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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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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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