On Friday morning, Cathy and Lys recced along the east shore between Snettisham and Heacham NN. Very little was seen on the rising tide, which came up the beach to the ledge in the sand. Over the high tide, a handful of Turnstone were in their usual place on Heacham NN with a few ringed birds amongst them. On the falling tide, around 100 Oystercatchers were seen south of the dam at Snettisham, although they were spread out. Overall, no good cannon-netting options were found for Saturday morning. This, alongside the lack of suitable weather for mist netting, made Friday evening a fairly relaxed event.
A noteworthy resighting made in Sailing Club Bay by Cathy was a Turnstone first ringed in 2011 and not seen since 2019 – a good return for a bird not seen in over five years!
Saturday 4 January
On Saturday morning, the whole team went out recceing / resighting along the east shore. At the north around Old Hunstanton / Holme, Isla and Lys had a large roost of c.1,500 Oystercatcher, alongside several hundred Knot. Additionally, a large bed of razor clams was wrecked on the shore, and was providing a good foraging opportunity for a number of Turnstone; a potential catching option for future trips. Around Hunstanton and Heacham NN, a few Turnstone were seen including some ringed birds, although numbers were lower than usual – for example, only around 20 birds were present at Hunstanton, where 80+ would be a more usual number.
Lucy and James went to Snettisham / Heacham early in the morning to try to locate any roosting birds. On arrival, a dog walker was seen to head onto the beach ahead of Lucy and James and just before first light, and, later, large numbers of Oystercatcher (c.700) were seen flying south past Snettisham Beach towards the Pits – potentially from a disturbed roost on Heacham South Beach (where the dog walker had headed). About 500 Oystercatcher were still present on Heacham South Beach when Lucy and James got to the dam, but much further north than usual (in front of the houses), however the dog walker seen earlier was at that point walking along the part of the beach just south of the Tump where they usually like to be. After walking up to Heacham, most of the 500 birds had departed with just a few Oystercatcher and some Curlew still present on the beach, however it was not possible to determine whether these birds were on the area of the beach which they had chosen to roost on or if they had been disturbed and had moved. Given the size of this beach, this wasn’t a good catching option for the next morning; a lot of guesswork would be involved in choosing where to set the nets!
Nigel and Sam were in Sailing Club Bay early, also to search for roosting birds. Here, there was more success with a large Oystercatcher roost present on the spit. This may be a good catching option for later in the winter, given permission. Hilary was also around Snettisham in the hopes of resighting some Curlew at the creek; 150 birds were present, but too distant for any ring reading.
A few teams also went out to the fields in search of Curlew over the high tide. Despite extensive searching, only two flocks were found; one of 101 on Snettisham playing field, containing 14 flagged birds and a (probably German) satellite-tagged bird; and another of 113 on Terrington playing field, containing two flagged birds. Interestingly, both of these flocks were on playing fields and not agricultural land. This could suggest a preference for these short cropped, dense grassy fields in colder weather.
Finally, Hilary, Louis, and Pedro were resighting at Heacham South on the falling tide and between them managed to resight a small number of Bar-tailed Godwit and a WWRG GPS / GSM-tagged Curlew, alongside a handful of Turnstone and a non-WWRG Herring Gull.
After a hearty breakfast/lunch and a short rest, the team went out to Terrington to set on the Outer Pool after dark, leaving around 16:30. Six nets were set in a single line. After setting, the tapes were put on and soon after the team were catching. After a couple of quieter rounds, flocks of Knot began coming in regularly and a fairly large number of birds were caught quickly. Once about 100 individuals had been captured, the tapes were turned off and the nets taken down. This was roughly 90 minutes before tide – with a larger team, a larger catch could have been made.
In total, 120 birds were caught including 81 Knot. Of these, 50 were flagged. The single retrap had been ringed in ‘the big catch’ in February 2012, and had not been recaptured since.
| Species | New | Retrap | Total |
| Redshank | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Dunlin | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| Knot | 80 | 1 | 81 |
| Turnstone | 11 | 2 | 13 |
| Grey Plover | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bar-tailed Godwit | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Oystercatcher | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Totals | 116 | 4 | 120 |
Sunday 5 January
Sunday morning’s weather was very unpleasant. Most enjoyed a late start, with last night’s crumble for breakfast (thanks Lucy, Isla, James and Skye!). Jobs were done including taking the start of year ring stock, sorting mist-net poles, and of course data sorting and checking.
Overall, the weekend was successful with a nice mist-netting session with a smaller team, and some good resightings.
Trip resighting totals
| WWRG | Non-WWRG | |||
| Species | Sightings | Individuals | Sightings | Individuals |
| Bar-tailed Godwit | 12 | 10 | ||
| Curlew | 33 | 29 | ||
| Turnstone | 33 | 23 | ||
| Herring Gull | 1 | 1 | ||
| Totals | 78 | 82 | 1 | 1 |
Thanks to Louis Driver for writing this report. Cover image by Cathy Ryden.