Sunday 17 May
We started off the day with the majority of the team heading to Slaughter Beach for an early morning catch, aiming to target Turnstone for tagging. After a long and extremely noseeum-infested wait, we made a dry catch. We even managed to sneak some public engagement in. At least four of our Turnstones were of a suitably high weight to be tagged, and thus the last four ARGOS tags were deployed by Katharine and Jessie. It was a stiflingly hot day (30° C), but we powered on with lots of data checking, kit maintenance and site surveys. Isla and Rob Rob even managed to go grab some Philly cheesesteaks on the way to our survey. Ema made us all a fantastic Argentinian meal; fried beef and tofu with all the trimmings, followed by (healthy) tiramisu.
| Species | Number |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 44 |
| Sanderling | 2 |
| Semi-palmated Sandpiper | 11 |
| Total | 57 |
Monday 18 May
After a busy Sunday, we continued on with surveying. Richard and Guy recce’d at Back Beach, and decided that we should aim to catch there the next day. Ema, Philipp and a few others made a trip over to Indian River Bay to attempt to catch some American Oystercatcher with Shawn from DNREC. They were able to catch two adults. Unfortunately for us – and the shorebirds – temperatures hit a near-record high of 35° C, and even more unfortunately for us the aircon appeared to be malfunctioning. Nevertheless, we were joined in the evening by a team of raptor monitors, bringing the total of the crew to 26. Isla cooked a moderate portion of lasagna-less lasagna followed by a tremendous amount of dessert to close the day.
Tuesday 19 May
In an attempt to target the Knot at Back Beach from yesterday, we braced ourselves for a 04:30 hrs start – unusually early for Delaware. We set on Back and spent a couple of hours twiddling our thumbs until the birds arrived. At one point, we could’ve caught a Willet, a Black-bellied Plover (or Grey Plover for us Brits) and a pair of Stilts! We fired, but a gust of wind caught the edge of the net and lifted it up, so the catch was smaller than we had hoped. Not to be deterred, Nigel immediately went to try and walk-in trap Dowitchers on Lighthouse Road, but due to heavy traffic only managed to catch and flag two birds. It was a staggering 37° C today and everyone was very sleepy with our broken aircon. Graham did perk us up by finishing the night with a feast of pakoras!
| Species | Number |
| Red Knot | 20 |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 28 |
| Short-billed Dowitcher | 14 |
| Semi-palmated Sandpiper | 3 |
| Dunlin | 24 |
| Total | 89 |
Wednesday 20 May
Today was the ‘Day of Knot’. We finally had high numbers of Knot, with all three boat resighting trips having significant flag resightings. As such, we made plans for the ‘Great Red Knot Plane Survey Day’ for tomorrow. Kat made an incredible mastermind plan on the board, reminiscent of ‘Mission Impossible’ or ‘It’s Always Sunny – S4:E10’. An afternoon Walmart trip left us to scratch our heads at the excessive request for ‘seven cucumbers’. We made do with six. This was apparently too few. Rose Erin still cooked us up a fabulous dhal meal, and we played some online quizzes including the NHL entrance IQ test, which included questions like “What is the ninth month of the year”.
Thursday 21 May
Today was the day! ‘The Great Red Knot Plane Survey Day’ begins. We had a leisurely 07:00 hrs start, and sat around on the beach waiting for the catch. Despite the previously high numbers of Knot, there were plenty of Dunlin and Semi-palmated Sandpiper around. We made a good catch and processed on Swains Beach with a huge team, including many new volunteers. It was a slightly smaller catch than anticipated but nonetheless was appreciated. The standout of the catch was a Black-bellied Plover, which was the first caught in several years!
| Species | Number |
| Red Knot | 35 |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 31 |
| Short-billed Dowitcher | 28 |
| Semi-palmated Sandpiper | 69 |
| Dunlin | 51 |
| Black-bellied Plover | 1 |
| Total | 215 |
We promptly scrambled back to the Big House to have lunch and headed out for the plane survey. Somehow, despite our delayed catching time, we were all in place for the survey flyover, and those of us in Mispillion even managed to stay for a few hours to resight. But by far, the highlight of the day was Katharine’s birthday! We celebrated with cake and cards and ended the night with another bout of quizzes.
Friday 22 May
After the past few days of sweltering heat, we were hit by a storm. It rained constantly all day. Two boats full of brave souls made it out to the survey, preceded by some incredible ginger spiced hot chocolate courtesy of Rob Rob. The rest of us powered through data entry and checking for several hours, which caused Isla and Philipp to go a little stir-crazy as they decided to replace the phonetic alphabet codes of ‘November’ and ‘Juliet’ with ‘Nigel’ and ‘Jacquie’. 10N (10 Nigels) and NJN (Nigel Jacquie Nigel) were apparently pretty amusing to us after six hours of data checking. Isla continued to attempt to entertain the masses with a video of Richard apparently going to sleep under the covering material during yesterday’s catch to ‘Brahms’ Lullaby’.
In the evening, Dave and Marg held their annual BBQ in the rain (but under a shelter). We were provided with racks of ribs and a shrimp broil, and we made it all the way till 23:00 hrs powered by homemade mead. After a little singsong, we headed home. We employed various techniques to stay awake in the car, including multiple quizzes.
Friday 23 May
Today, birds and humans alike huddled down in the harbour fighting off the weather. Despite the ongoing rain, the team continued with flag resighting and ended up with some amazing numbers! A small group of us made good use of the weather and headed down to the zero-tax outlet stores and spent lots of money on new field clothes. We were slightly delayed on the way home, so Isla and Ema raced to make a tapas meal, complete with gazpacho, tortilla de patatas, patatas bravas, espinacas con garbanzos, pimento padrón and bruschetta!
Saturday 24 May
Today was a long day. A very long day.
We woke up at 06:00 hrs to leave before 07:00 hrs. However, this plan promptly fell apart as the weather did not co-operate. It seems we have sent all our good weather to the UK, which has had temperatures soaring into the 30s. We delayed twice, then a small team of us headed out at midday to set on Beach Beach, hoping to target the hordes of Red Knot that were there the day prior. Unfortunately, the tide began to creep up the beach, so we quickly reset the net. Around an hour later, we realised the issue was about to repeat itself, and thus we reset again. By this point, the tide was coming all the way up the beach and pushing us into the tick-infested reeds with no sight of a catch (apart from Semi’s and Dunlin, which we are not study species). Begrudgingly, we moved the net for a fourth time into the high tide line and waited till the tide began to retreat at 18:00 hrs to attempt to fire. By this point, we were all going slightly bonkers and began retreating to boats to hide from the noseeums. We entertained ourselves by watching a flock of Semis float away into the harbour on a raft of seaweed. Finally, we called the catch and packed everything up, but not before a Dolphin crested nearby.
Thanks to Isla Botting for writing this report. Cover image by Rob Robinson.