Saturday 24 May
Our final week on the shores of Delaware Bay began slowly with a relaxed morning of resighting on Slaughter Beach before a 10:00 hrs team went to set a net on Point North. How very leisurely! A Skiff team got into position offshore, ready for action. It was Memorial Day, and so there was a crowd of visitors watching from the Nature Centre deck. Ryan and Cathy chatted to them about the Project and explained what was going on as the catch unfolded. Unfortunately, cable connection problems and then too many birds in the catching area caused a bit of a delay. Once the net was tested successfully, Chantal was sent to shuffle down the rock wall, pushing many of the Semipalmated Sandpiper out of the catching area. With a safe number of birds catchable, the net was fired and the Skiff team raced to shore to join the firing team to cover the catch and begin extraction. The total catch was 397 birds, consisting of two Red Knot, 18 Ruddy Turnstone, 152 Short-billed Dowitcher, 141 Semipalmated Sandpiper and 84 Dunlin. After ferrying the birds to Swains Beach, we processed under shade, and with extra help from several Project volunteers we were finished in good time to fit in some more resighting in the Harbor during the afternoon. We have made an incredible effort on flagging Dowitcher this season, just the start to a new project that we needed. In the afternoon, Lys made a great tagine for dinner.
The evening light over Slaughter Beach gently melted from dusty blue to a peachy blend of amber and pink. Dolphins breached just offshore while Semis skuttled along the water’s softly hushing edge. An unbelievable total of 73 Black Skimmer were counted drifting north on their long dark wings as the sky slowly dimmed.
Sunday 25 May
Walk-in trapping at the Osprey marshes began first thing, and by the end of the hot, buggy morning a total of 81 Semipalmated Sandpiper, one Least Sandpiper, one Dunlin and one Spotted Sandpiper were caught. After the final resighting trip in Mispillion, Rob Rob, Chantal and Katharine had to leave to head back to the UK, and sad goodbyes were shared all round.
A late afternoon visit to the Nature Centre deck produced some breath-taking views of a few small shorebird flocks, mainly Dunlin, lifting out of the Harbour and beginning their last leg of migration to their northern breeding grounds! On the way back to base, Green Heron and Yellow-crowned Night Heron sightings produced much excitement. Flo and Ryan cooked a Shakshuka, and it was Michèle’s birthday. In traditional Delaware style, Kat decorated a cake with dinosaurs (birds, but not the easiest to ice)!
Monday 26 May
Plans were formed for a morning catch, however after finding a flock of 30–40 Red Knot, Nigel reshuffled said plans and with 10 minutes notice, the Skiff was scrambled and out in the Harbour an hour early. The net was set on Back East, and after some careful twinkling by Flo and Ryan, we fired; however, the net went out a bit skew-whiff. Despite this, we managed to get a good sample of Sanderling, Turnstone and Semipalmated Sandpiper, and so the catch was still a success. The total catch was 188, including one Red Knot, 52 Ruddy Turnstone, 92 Semipalmated Sandpiper, 28 Sanderling and 15 Dunlin. Four GPS tags were deployed on Turnstone by Kat, Nigel and Jim. After processing was complete, a team stayed back to resight the Harbour, gaining a decent number of flag reads and sighting the newly-tagged birds foraging among the flocks.
Hen Bellman, former Project lead, had joined the team for a few days of surveys and catching and this evening gave an open invite to a relaxed live music night at a brewery in Wilmington. A small group joined Hen and her partner Shane and enjoyed a fun evening of pizza and dancing. Meanwhile, back at Slaughter Beach, Victoria and Cathy cooked curry for the rest of the team.
Tuesday 27 May
Today we undertook the second aerial survey of the season and all went perfectly, the plane arriving pretty much bang on time. With all beaches surveyed, the afternoon was filled with data checking and much planning for further cannon netting. A few boat trips around the Harbor and some productive resighting sessions were completed. Guy cooked a chilli and his classic brownies, much welcomed by the ever-hungry, hard-working team!
The weather predictions for the morning were uncertain to say the least… “I’ve looked at four different weather forecasts”, said Nigel, “…and got four different weather forecasts!”. Whether we’d be able to go for a catch would have to wait until the morning.
Wednesday 28 May
The storms did indeed blow through the Bay and the catch was called off. However, making the most of a bad situation as we Brits seem to be notoriously good at, not a moment was wasted, and it was a great day for getting data done. A few brave souls went out on beach surveys and a fun trip to Rehoboth for ice cream (of course, in the wind and rain, what other weather?) was undertaken, as well as a trip to the Columbia outlet (more appropriate given the weather!).
Kat led the evening briefing, explaining the new plans for a second attempt at one last catch. She and Ryan had spent a long time planning out the complex, but coordinated, logistics of this catch. We were determined to make it work. Lys made granola in the evening for the team to use for breakfasts, and the warm, cinnamon-y scent wafted through the house. Was this the smell of hope?
Thursday 29 May
Success! After an hour or so resighting and waiting for the tide to rise and give us an idea of where the birds were focussing their foraging efforts, we made an early catch on Back North. A handful of Red Knot were seen at the far edge of the catching area, but unfortunately, they beat the net out. This season in Delaware has not been very productive for catching Knot, but not for lack of trying – the birds simply haven’t been around! This is down to a combination of factors, one being the increasing preference of the Knot to have their stop-off on the New Jersey side of the Bay where there is better roosting habitat; another being a low Horseshoe Crab spawning season this year with the colder water reducing egg numbers.
The catch total was 260 birds, including 160 Semipalmated Sandpiper, five Dunlin, 35 Sanderling and 60 Ruddy Turnstone. All the shorebirds were processed as normal, but in addition to this, Flo took some extra measurements from the Semis and Turnstone, measuring their maximum width. The purpose of this is to begin collecting size data to create some walk-in traps in the future which have mesh small enough to keep Turnstone and Dowitchers (two of our main target species) in, and large enough to allow the Semis to filter out. A cunning plan masterminded by Nigel and Guy.
After completing a few more beach surveys in the afternoon, the whole team headed to JP’s on the Warf for a well-earned team meal. It was a wonderful evening, full of chatter and laughter and a small celebration to thank Kat and Jessie for all their hard work and fantastic team wrangling throughout the season. We certainly owe them a lot. Sam, Shawn, Dave and Marg joined us too. What a great evening with many of our Delaware friends, one of the main reasons why we keep coming back year after year – it wouldn’t be the same without these people.
Friday 30 May
A massive effort was put into resighting in Mispillion on this morning. There were still 2–4,000 Turnstone present on the shores, a rather high number for the end of the season. We certainly made the most of it, scooping up pages upon pages of flag reads, including a decent number of Sanderling flags too! It is really important to gain this end of season-data, and will certainly provide some interesting results, showing us which birds are lagging behind to stay in the Bay a little longer than usual. With the final day in the Bay just around the corner, we spent the afternoon sorting, cleaning and drying catching equipment and racing through data entry and checking at a rate of knots.
To commemorate our last evening, we were invited to Sam and Shawn’s house for an evening of home-made quiche and a tour of their ever-growing flower and vegetable garden. The songbirds warbled late into the night in the trees all around and we talked and laughed until long after dark.
Saturday 31 May
The usual feeling of despair on the last day of the season was as present as ever as we visited the Harbour one last time and spent the day putting a momentous effort into tidying and cleaning the house. Just as we were getting to the stage of shifting our boxes of equipment and assorted bits and bobs into the trailer, a whistling storm decided to billow through! The rain pelted down in true dramatic fashion, and we dashed in and out, dodging the raindrops and hearty gusts that swept through the trees to hastily get the boxes loaded.
Packed up at last, we said our thank yous and sad goodbyes to the Americans, never an easy task, and shared hopes for another successful season in Delaware next year!
Trip catch totals
| Species | Total caught |
| Dunlin | 269 |
| Least Sandpiper | 8 |
| Red Knot | 7 |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 516 |
| Sanderling | 82 |
| Semipalmated Sandpiper | 997 |
| Short-billed Dowitcher | 731 |
| Spotted Sandpiper | 20 |
| Willet | 2 |
| Total | 2,632 |
Thanks to Flo Turner for writing this report. Cover image by Flo Turner.