Friday 31 January
The trip kicked off with a number of team members arriving early, allowing for resighting and a recce on the Friday morning tides. Lys and Cathy checked Heacham North North, North and South beaches and Hilary investigated Snettisham whilst Nigel and Richard went to recce Sailing Club Bay, finding roughly 2,500 –3,000 Oystercatchers roosting. Very promising for a good catch! In the afternoon the net-setting team consisting of Nigel, Richard, Molly, Jerry, Cathy, Lys, Hilary and the Film Crew went to Sailing Club Bay, setting both a full and half large-mesh net with the camera crew preparing for the following morning. Cathy kindly led the cooking of dinner for the evening so the later arriving team could have a lovely meal before an early night.
Saturday 1 February
With the nets set the night before, the team were in position by 06:30, having had a briefing both on the catching plan and what the camera crew wanted to achieve. Katharine and Rob P were given chest-mounted ‘Go-Pros’ to film the run to the net post firing, a daunting task as the route was littered with thick vegetation and treacherous rabbit burrows, luckily no trips were caught on camera! The Oystercatchers, numbering roughly 3,000 were unsettled and flighty, but thankfully after some time a number settled in the right place, and due to it being dry, both nets were fired giving a respectable catch of 306 Oystercatchers, including a new longevity record for Britain & Ireland at 41 years and 8 months, older than over half of the team!
Thank you to Guy, Nigel and everyone else involved in the process of gaining permission to catch on this beach as the good catch number, and ample retraps will provide valuable information for on-going Oystercatcher work around The Wash. We were also joined during processing by Tony Juniper and members of the RSPB Snettisham team, giving a great opportunity to show firsthand the work we do, and share the success of the catch.
After a busy morning it was back to the base house for a lovely, well earned, breakfast (thanks to Molly, Kirsty and Cathy) before some needed downtime before heading out again.
| Species | New | Retrap | Total |
| Oystercatcher | 216 | 90 | 306 |
| Totals | 216 | 90 | 306 |
The plan for the evening was a mist-netting session, with such a large team giving the opportunity to set on two different inner pools (White Barn and E pools) as the tide was too high to use the Outer Pool. This was the first outing for a new set of nets made by Nigel, and due to them not having learnt they were mist nets yet and setting in the dark both teams took slightly longer than planned to set. Eventually ‘lures’ were put on and teams came back in turns to eat a lovely dinner at the White Barn, masterminded by Cathy. While everyone settled in for a busy evening’s mist-netting session, the marsh and birds had other plans. The marsh was mostly silent throughout the night and only one Dunlin was caught, but it was blood sampled by Ava, giving an extra species for the Darwin Tree of Life project, so still valuable!
| Species | New | Retrap | Total |
| Dunlin | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Sunday 2February
There were no catching options for the Sunday morning, and with tide being late it gave the opportunity for a pre-resighting breakfast, helpful to warm everyone before braving the cold weather. Due to the large team size, even though several people had to head off, there were still lots available to give substantial beach coverage for resighting. Hilary, Rob and Liam investigated an Ingoldisthorpe field, turning up one WWRG Curlew, before moving on to Heacham, covering the South, North and North North beaches. This supplemented Molly and Jerry, who had been resighting Turnstone on Heacham NN, Nick and Katharine, who had gone to Heacham North and Guy, Seb and Louis who went to Heacham South. Jacquie and Nigel investigated various Terrington fields, turning up a small number of Curlew, but sadly no plastic. Chantal, Jelaine, Claudia and Isla covered Snettisham South. All together this great effort turned up 77 individuals, a really great effort for a winter trip!
Colour-mark Resighting Totals (all WWRG birds, except where stated)
| Species | Total Sightings | Individuals |
| Bar-tailed Godwit | 33 | 27 |
| Curlew | 41 | 36 |
| Turnstone | 18 | 10 |
| Headstarted Curlew | 4 | 3 |
| Non-WWRG Curlew | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 98 | 77 |
A big thanks to everyone for putting in so much effort resighting this trip, especially Hilary who went out Friday, Sunday and Monday.
Trip Ringing totals
| Species | New | Retrap | Total |
| Dunlin | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oystercatcher | 216 | 90 | 306 |
| Total | 217 | 90 | 307 |
Thanks to Louis Driver for writing this report. Cover photo by Rob Robinson.