Friday 14 February
The team arrived on Friday night to a welcoming, hot jacket potato dinner prepared by Cathy. The plan for the following morning was confirmed, with resighting efforts scheduled to begin at 09:00 on Saturday.
Saturday 15 February
The morning’s weather forecast indicated a 70% chance of rain, which led Nigel to cancel the planned mist-netting session at Terrington Outer Pool due to concerns about freezing rain affecting the nets and the welfare of the birds. Instead, Nigel proposed a potential cannon-netting session before or after the afternoon high tide at Heacham South, where Rob P had observed a flock of around 400 Oystercatchers and 80 Sanderling earlier in the day. This plan was left to be confirmed following the morning resighting efforts.
During the morning resighting at Snettisham, Ian, Seb, Myles, Pedro and Alex recorded six Curlew, including three headstarted birds, three Bar-tailed Godwit, a Northern Irish-ringed Black-tailed Godwit and a Turnstone. Meanwhile, Rob saw 24 flagged Curlew at Heacham South, 10 Oystercatchers at Snettisham, and 12 Curlew and a Bar-tailed Godwit at Heacham North North. Cathy and David, resighting at Heacham North and Hunstanton, saw one Curlew, 11 Turnstone, and witnessed a colour-marked Peregrine take a Sanderling. Additionally, Cathy’s totals from Friday morning at Heacham South beach included one Black-tailed and 10 Bar-tailed Godwit. Phil and Louise reported nine Curlew and one Bar-tailed Godwit at Heacham North North, plus five Curlew at Heacham South. Nick (who has now joined the ‘camera resighters’) saw 26 Curlew, including four headstarted birds, along with four Bar-tailed Godwit. Hilary observed two Turnstone and two Bar-tailed Godwit at Snettisham, including a notable resighting of Bar-tailed Godwit Green 4N, which had not been seen since it was ringed on 4 September 2023 at Terrington Marsh and fitted with a GPS/GSM tracker. With the problems with the trackers downloading, it was great to see where this bird was.
After enjoying a hot soup lunch prepared by Jacquie and Cathy, the team spent the Saturday afternoon completing various tasks. Maintenance tasks included addressing water issues in one of the en-suite toilets and tidying the garage, where keeping boxes were organized. Jacquie focused on data management, working on loading Oystercatcher data into DemOn using the (fairly) new bulk upload facility and using a bespoke script to manipulate the data into the correct format. Meanwhile, Hilary and Alex took charge of dinner preparations, scheduled for 19:00 hrs. Nigel and Tim installed shelving in the laundry room to improve storage, and a wall magnet for kitchen knives was also put up. Additionally, Myles, Phil, and Louise went Curlew resighting in the fields around the Base house to gather data on their feeding habits, informing potential tagging efforts for the following winter.
Following a pasta dinner, the team was briefed by Nigel in preparation for the rest of the evening and the planned catch on Sunday morning. After dinner, the team loaded the trailers ready to set two cannon nets at Heacham South Beach (further north than usual, near the last of the houses) for the potential capture of Oystercatchers. The team returned to base by midnight, ready for an early morning start.
Sunday 16 February
The team was divided into three groups for the morning catch. The decoy team, consisting of Nigel and Pedro in the hide and Phil and Louise on long-stopping duty, departed at 05:00 hrs to arrive by 05:45 hrs. The base camp team, including Tim, Jacquie, Myles, Alex, Ian, Seb, Nick, Cathy, Rob, and Dave, left at 05:45 hrs to set up on-site by 06:30 hrs. The rest of the team departed at 07:00 hrs, arriving at 07:45 hrs to be available for the catch.
Unexpectedly, the base camp team encountered an issue when the padlock on the gate into Wild Ken Hill from the South beach campsite malfunctioned. After multiple unsuccessful attempts by Tim, Nick, Cathy and Myles to fix the lock, it was decided that Ian would remain with the vehicles while the rest of the team continued on foot to set up base camp near the trailer left on-site the night before (very glad that they didn’t have to walk down to the tump).
Despite these setbacks, Nigel successfully resighted 11 colour-marked Curlew, including three headstarted birds, from a roosting flock of around 120, which departed before high tide. Phil attempted to twinkle a flock of Oystercatchers into the catching area, but the initial flock of 30 birds (which was already much smaller than that seen by Rob the morning prior) dwindled to 15. Eventually, Nigel fired a net over a small flock of eight birds, one of which managed to escape. The seven captured birds were moved up the shore for extraction and processing.
With a small catch, the processing team took the opportunity to train less-experienced members. Biometric data, including wing length, head and bill length, bill length, bill depth at midpoint, and bill depth and width at the tip, were recorded. Jacquie led the first processing team while Nick led a duplicate team. Some birds had retained primary feathers nine and 10 from the previous generation, possibly due to physiological stress from shortages of mussel and cockle prey on The Wash over the winter. Meanwhile, Hilary and Michèle provided hot drinks and snacks.
Whilst the team was processing birds, Nigel attempted to get the gate padlock to play ball, but to no avail. Thankfully, he was able to contact the wildfowling warden who has a key for one of the other locks on the gate – it looked like Phil and Louise (who drove Nigel to site earlier that morning) were going to be able to make it home after all!
Back at the base house, the team enjoyed a well-earned porridge and pancake breakfast prepared by Alex and Hilary. After breakfast, Jacquie and Nigel led a debrief on final tasks before departure, which included inputting the remaining resighting data, hedge trimming by Tim, and general room and communal area clean-up. Most of the team departed by mid-afternoon after another productive and rewarding weekend on The Wash.
Resighting Totals
| Species | Sightings | Individuals |
| WWRG | ||
| Curlew | 112 | 55 |
| Bar-tailed Godwit | 26 | 24 |
| Turnstone | 15 | 13 |
| Non-WWRG | ||
| Black-tailed Godwit | 3 | 2 |
| Bar-tailed Godwit | 3 | 3 |
| Headstarted Curlew | 3 | 3 |
| Other Curlew | 2 | 1 |
| Peregrine | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 165 | 102 |
Thanks to Myles Tomlinson for writing this report. Cover photo by Cathy Ryden.