Category: Research

Delaware 2024: 19-25 May

Posted on by

Sunday 19 May

Our second week in Delaware began warm and sunny and everyone made a great effort to survey the beaches over the morning. Two Mispillion surveys were completed as usual and, after the afternoon boat trip, Nigel, Richard, Guy and Ema returned very happy with lots of flag resightings. Poor Graham, however, did not have such joy on Osprey. Nigel and Richard had found there to be a decent number of Sanderling still on Back North and so began planning a catch.

Many more rings were opened throughout the day in anticipation of a big forthcoming catch. Ryan and Flo baked veggie lentil lasagna, using layered potatoes instead of pasta (which surprisingly worked very well!) and a couple of batches of flapjack – this really didn’t last long, 24hrs at most!

Nigel led a thorough evening team talk to go over plans for a Back North catch the next day.

Continue Reading →

Delaware 2024: 11-18 May

Posted on by

Saturday 11 May

After an early start and two relatively smooth flights, eight of the WWRG team members made it to Philadelphia airport. There we met Katharine and Ema and began our drive down to Delaware. All buzzing to be back, except Chantal, who was even more excited as it was her first time on the project! This year we are on Slaughter Beach again, based in one large house with a smaller one nearby for extra sleeping space. Once everyone had paid a long-awaited visit to Mispillion Harbour, Kirsty, Jacquie and Flo made tomato pasta with salad for the jet-lagged, hungry team. Dave joined us for dinner and there was much laughter into the evening. This was definitely a happy birthday for Ema (10th May) and Flo (11th).

Continue Reading →
A groups of Curlew feeding in shallow water. Three of the birds have white, uniquely marked flags on their legs, enabling researchers to identify them.

Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit feeding locations on The Wash: do you like your worms with or without salt?

Posted on by

If you have taken part in WWRG winter fieldwork over the past twelve years, you know that one tide of each fieldwork weekend is dedicated to resighting colour-marked birds. We have been applying leg flags to Bar-tailed Godwit since 2010, and Curlew since 2012, with over 200 people reporting one or more flag sightings. We use individual leg flags to both add to the survival data generated from metal rings (see Cook et al. 2021) and to look at how individual birds use the Wash and the surrounding area. Our first paper analysing how birds move around within the Wash has just been published in the journal Wader Study (Pell et al. 2023).

Continue Reading →
Photo of a man crouching down. He has a Redshank in his hand that he is in the process of releasing.

Fieldwork November 2023

Posted on by

Friday 10 November

Report on recce at Heacham Dam by Hilary & Cathy

We arrived at Heacham Dam at 13:10, when it was sunny with a rather gusty stiff breeze. A pre-roost flock of 350 Oystercatcher had formed just south of Heacham Dam. They were on mud close to the tideline and mixed with <10 each of Curlew, Knot, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Sanderling and Turnstone.

Small flocks of Oystercatcher flew in from the north, but larger flocks flew off to the south as the tide approached. At 13:50 the tide reached the edge of the sand/shingle but by then all the birds had flown south, despite there being no disturbance by humans or dogs. At 14:10 we noticed a flock of 25 Oystercatcher on the sand/shingle c. 100 m north of Heacham Dam. These were quickly disturbed by dog walkers and flew off south. It was concluded that there was no realistic catching opportunity.

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

Fieldwork October 2023

Posted on by

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.

Continue Reading →