Friday 26 July
In the day, Rob P visited Frampton and Freiston and resighted 14 Black-tailed Godwit, eight Redshank and a Knot. The Knot was an interesting bird, being ringed in Norway in 2019 and not seen since that year. Later, two lines of five nets were set on Terrington outer pool. These ran parallel to each other and the sea wall, with the two lines being roughly 20 metres apart. The nets were watched by Molly while the team returned to enjoy a lovely veggie chilli made by Flo and co. The briefing followed, after which we headed back to the saltmarsh.
As the tide came up, it became apparent that few birds were being pushed off the saltmarsh. Beyond the lures (directed parallel to the sea wall) there were very few waders calling over the marsh. This resulted in a very small catch of 12 birds; two Whimbrel were enough to make the evening interesting, if not particularly busy. Setting on this height of tide was an experiment to see if the birds came off – they largely don’t!
| Species | New | Retrap | Total |
| Redshank | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Dunlin | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Whimbrel | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Turnstone | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 12 | 0 | 12 |
Saturday 27 July
The next morning, the team was up bright and early to resight on the 11:19 tide. Most groups were on their sites around 3-4 hours before tide to resight birds as they were pushed up the mudflats. The sites visited were: Heacham North North (Flo and Cathy), Snettisham (Ryan, Rob P, Richard, Cheryl, Ellie and Louis), Freiston (Nick, Michèle and Hilary), Titchwell (Molly and Lys), and Wild Ken Hill (Liam and Rob R).
At Heacham, 12 colour-ringed Turnstone were resighted from a flock of 92. The team at Wild Ken Hill found that a lagoon was holding a flock of roughly 6,000 Black-tailed Godwit as well as a hundred or so Oystercatchers – despite showing their legs well, only one godwit appeared to be colour-marked and only a partial read was managed. At Freiston, five Redshank flags were read and the team at Titchwell saw a headstarted Curlew. The larger team at Snettisham had more variety; alongside several Knot, Redshank, Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit, five Mediterranean Gulls and a Sandwich Tern were also resighted. Interestingly, the Knot were all non-WWRG birds, with a large number from northwest England. The team at Snettisham were also treated to good views of the White-rumped Sandpiper on the reserve. The attention drawn by the rare peep provided a good opportunity to engage birders with resighting, and it was encouraging to see multiple non-WWRG observers assisting with resightings.
After returning for ‘breakfast’, the rest of the day was relatively free time; a second attempt at mist-netting at Terrington was not considered worthwhile, given the lower tide compared to the previous night. In the evening, Hilary, Rob R, Ellie and Cheryl returned to Wild Ken Hill to observe the godwit flock, while Ryan, Liam, Flo and Louis attempted to catch Short-eared Owls on the edge of the saltmarsh at Terrington without success. The evening meal was a fantastic vegetarian lasagne cooked up by Molly.
Sunday 28 July
Again, the group was resighting on the morning tide. The sites/teams were; Frampton (Richard), Heacham NN (Ryan and Louis), Snettisham (Hilary, Liam, Molly and Flo), and Heacham South (Cathy and Lys). At Frampton, Richard had a Portuguese Black-tailed Godwit as well as two flagged limosa Blackwits and a yellow-ringed Cormorant (see below). The number of colour ringed Turnstone at Heacham had increased, with 17 WWRG birds plus one from another scheme. At Heacham South, a number of Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit flags were read, while at Snettisham Black-tailed Godwits were the main event.
Overall, it was a successful weekend with 160 Resightings of 112 individuals of 10 species.
| Species | Encounters | Individuals |
| Bar-tailed Godwit | 13 | 12 |
| Curlew | 2 | 2 |
| Knot | 4 | 3 |
| Redshank | 11 | 10 |
| Turnstone | 32 | 19 |
| Bar-tailed Godwit (Non-WWRG) | 1 | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit (Non-WWRG) | 77 | 46 |
| Knot (Non-WWRG) | 17 | 16 |
| Oystercatcher (Non-WWRG) | 1 | 1 |
| Redshank (Non-WWRG) | 2 | 2 |
| Total WWRG | 62 | 46 |
| Total Non-WWRG | 98 | 66 |
| Grand total | 160 | 112 |
Details of the colour-ringed Cormorant:
Ringing Scheme: London Ring Number: 5133797 Species of bird: Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
This bird was ringed by South Notts Ringing Group as age nestling, sex unknown on 16-Apr-2024 09:50:00 at *Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire, UK, OS Map reference SK5133 accuracy -, – co-ordinates 52deg 53min N -1deg -14min W accuracy -.
Colour Marks left below knee YN(CS6), Colour Marks right below knee M
It was found on 28-Jul-2024 time unknown at Frampton Marsh Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire, UK, OS Map reference TF3538 accuracy -, – co-ordinates 52deg 55min N 0deg 1min E accuracy -.
Finding condition: Sight record by non-ringer
Finding circumstances: Identified by Colour Ring(s)
Extra Information: – It was found 103 days after it was ringed, 84 km from the ringing site, direction E.
Thanks to Louis Driver for writing this report. Cover image by