Category: Uncategorized

Photo of some ringers setting mist nets on a wet marsh at sunset. Photo by Molly Brown.

Fieldwork March 2023 (part 2)

Posted on by

Friday 24 March

Noble pioneers, Guy, Kirsty and Ryan joined the sunrise to recce a number of sites ahead of the main party. Ryan’s recce yielded more ducks and geese than waders at Gedney and Kirsty’s exploration of the beach at Snettisham was even more disappointing, with a dearth of birds. Thankfully, Guy, found flock of 230 Oystercatchers at Heacham South, 150 m south of the tump and another flock of 60 further south. However, Heacham South was busy with walkers and dogs and the Oystercatchers were very mobile as a result. The same could not be said of a flock of 500 Sanderling and 30 Turnstone at Heacham North North which demonstrated remarkable tolerance of disturbance and settled on a ridge on the beach for at least 40 minutes from 08:00 hrs, unwittingly identifying themselves as the best possible target for the following morning.

Continue Reading →
Photo of a team of bird ringers sat on a beach under a shade cover processing birds. Photo by Cathy Ryden

Delaware 2023: 25 May–4 June

Posted on by

Thursday 25 May

After two full weeks at Slaughter Beach, we were all well into the swing of the Project and another cannon-net catch was planned for midday at Osprey Beach. It was a gusty, chilly morning, but began to warm up and settle down around 09:00, by which point those who joined Shawn for mist-netting in the Ted Harvey woods had been up for many hours! Other activities of the morning included the construction of more exclosures around Piping Plover nests at Fowler Beach.

Continue Reading →
A photo of a small flock of birds flying over water at sunset, with an orange sky above the shoreline. Photo by Cathy Ryden.

Delaware 2023: 18-24 May

Posted on by

Thursday 18 May

Week two of shorebird fieldwork for the WWRG team in Delaware Bay began with the team’s third cannon-net catch… At a very relaxed 09:10, a setting team set off in the Jon boat into Mispillion Harbour and made for Back Beach. Meanwhile another group readied the Skiff with the rest of the equipment by making the most impressive chain to shift everything from the pickup truck into the boat. It was a shame this wasn’t caught on video! This swift method is now used at every opportunity, with great enthusiasm and to great effect.

Continue Reading →
A group of shorebirds standing on a beach. Most are Semipalmated Sandpipers, but one is larger and is a Sanderling. All are white underneath - the sandpipers have grey backs and heads while the Sanderling also has reddish brown feathers. Photo by Cathy Ryden.

Delaware 2023: 10 – 17 May

Posted on by

Wednesday 10 May

The first team of Brits made it safely across the sea and by the evening were looking over Mispillion Harbour in Delaware Bay, a long way from the UK. The sun dipped lower in the sky and the calls of Laughing Gulls filled the air as shorebirds foraged on the shores. For those who had come many times before, there was definitely a sense of returning to a familiar home. Jet-lag fatigue setting in, it wasn’t long after we arrived at this year’s WWRG base, on Slaughter Beach, that we all went to bed.

Continue Reading →
Newly ringed Curlew about to be released, by Cathy Ryden

Why The Wash is so important for Curlew: selected stories from over 60 years of Wader Study

Posted on by

Curlew are declining so alarmingly that they are now ‘Red-Listed’ as birds of conservation concern. The Wash is one of the two main UK sites for both passage and wintering Eurasian Curlew (the other being Morecambe Bay – WeBS data). Autumn passage birds use the intertidal mudflats to feed on polychaete worms, shellfish and Green Crabs. Some birds will move on to smaller sites around the Norfolk coast, the southwest of England, and northwest France. Here they will spend the winter before returning to their breeding grounds. The majority of Curlew using the Wash breed in Finland and Sweden, a migratory journey of over 1,000 miles. There is more background information on our Curlew page.

Continue Reading →