Tag: bird ringing

Oystercatchers on the beach with one wearing a colour mark engraved with A3N standing at the front, by Cathy Ryden

The Norwegian Connection: a tale of two journeys

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One of the most visible birds on The Wash beaches must be the Oystercatcher. With its distinctive black and white plumage, orange bill and strident ‘kleep’ call, it’s certainly hard to miss! But where do ‘our’ Oystercatchers go when they leave The Wash? The map summarises the international movements of ‘our’ Oystercatchers – the red triangles are birds ringed abroad and found on The Wash, the blue dots are birds we ringed that were found abroad. It is clear that there is a really strong connection between The Wash and Norway – which is where most of the Oystercatchers wintering on The Wash go to breed. Most of these reports are of metal-ringed birds but, in recent years, we and other groups have used colour marks and tags to track movements in greater detail, and these sometimes produce very rapid feedback.

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Yellow dumper truck moving along a sandy beach with a bright blue sky behind. Photo by Lizzie Grayshon

Fieldwork February 2022

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Thursday 17 February

In anticipation of the coming Storm Eunice, Kirsty arrived at the base late afternoon, opened up and replaced the dripping tap glands. Lizzie and Ryan arrived later in the evening after collecting keys from Cathy. Plans were made for recces in the morning, provided it did not look too windy.

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Flagged Curlew in flight

Ten years of colour-marking Curlew on the Wash – what have we learnt?

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Curlew use the Wash both as a passage site to moult during autumn and as a wintering location. On a global scale, they are ‘Near Threatened’ i.e. vulnerable to extinction and they are present in Internationally important numbers on the Wash. Declines in the UK breeding population have placed Curlew in the highest category of UK bird conservation concern; therefore, the species is a priority for the group in terms of long-term conservation monitoring. We started to mark a proportion of the population on the eastern shore of the Wash with unique leg flags in 2012. This allows us to accurately determine their survival and assess wintering habitat use.

Since then, a total of 478 birds have been marked and we have had over 5,000 re-encounters recorded by over 200 WWRG volunteers and members of the public. We regularly dedicate fieldwork hours to ensure we have sufficient resightings to determine survival and winter distribution. This steady stream of data has started to be used in scientific publications to describe the east Wash Curlew population. This blog is a summary of what we have learnt so far.

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Clive, Daphne, Mike and Steve, by Cathy Ryden

Remembering Mike Watson

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The members of the Wash Wader RG were very sorry to hear that one of our longest-standing members, Mike Watson, has died. Mike started coming to the Wash over 60 years ago while at university, where he and Daphne met and got together while catching Swifts at Cambridge Sewage Farm – ringers are nothing if not romantic. Although never officially a ringer, Mike has been a WWRG stalwart ever since, known for his awesome cooking skills, expert recceing and reliable scribing. Mike hasn’t been able to join us since before Covid, and we were already missing him and Daphne. Our thoughts are with Daphne and the family – all of whom have been out catching waders at some point in their lives. There will be an obituary in our next biennial report.

We miss you Mike!

Photo above: Mike scribing for a ‘vintage’ team on the occasion of Clive Minton’s last visit to the Wash – Heacham, September 2018. From left: Clive, Mike, Steve Dodd and Daphne Watson. Photo by Cathy Ryden.