So the season is coming to an end, but we had plans to catch Knot on Back Beach to check if they had reached departure weights. We got the net set quickly near the camera and were able to view it from a boat to check safety and further up the beach to check numbers. We counted the Knot in and when we had a sample (50 birds), made a dry catch with samples of Knot (47), Turnstone (93) and Semis (43). As we thought, the birds were heavy (the Sanderling are almost spherical and waddling now), with some Knot well over 200 g, so we extracted and processed quickly before spending the evening watching migration from the Dupont Nature Center (DNC) – it’s certainly underway.
So now back to surveys to check which birds were still around and where they are – including doing some resighting from the DNC webcam focussed on Back Beach in Mispillion Harbor – a taste of the future? With nightly trips out to the Harbor to view migration – amazing to hear the noise in the flock build up, then see the birds take off and fly north, going higher and higher. There was also some excitement at the house when we had an amazing thunderstorm and the rain managed to get in through a window that is sheltered under the eaves and can only let in horizontal water – which it did and the rain made it down through the open area on the bedroom floor and into the lounge below. With fewer birds around, we tried to catch up with data inputting and checking (a scary pile now) as well as getting feathers washed for the isotope studies (feathers grown on the wintering grounds have a signal from there, so we can tell where ‘our’ birds wintered).
By the Sunday morning, there were few birds left and the last of the WWRG team were heading out just as the season finished. Another great season, with a great, hard-working and fun team – thanks everyone. Over 2,000 birds caught and well over 20,000 resightings – now back to work for a rest…