Tag: cannon netting

An Oystercatcher standing in a flock of Knot.

Fieldwork March 2024

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Friday 8 March – The Maltings, Ely

Members of WWRG formed a large proportion of over 150 people who gathered at The Maltings, Ely, to celebrate the life of Mark Smart who died suddenly in February at the age of just 56. Mark’s family dressed the tables with mementos of Mark’s wide-ranging talents and interests and five speakers built a vivid picture of his life. Mark grew up in farming with huge enthusiasm for agricultural machinery. Decades of involvement with WWRG and a deep interest in the science of waders then gave Mark a unique combination of skills. Working for the RSPB, he demonstrated practically how big machinery can transform habitats and hence the fortunes of breeding waders. Several RSPB reserves (and other reserves) including Berney Marshes and Crook of Baldoon will form his wider legacy while we in WWRG miss his friendship and commitment as Membership Secretary and Vice-Chair of the WWRG Trustees.

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Close up image of a Sanderling sitting on a sloping surface, with greenery behind.

Fieldwork February 2024

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Friday 9 February

Cathy braved some pretty awful weather to recce on Friday morning. There was a nice flock of around 400 Oystercatcher roosting on the dam itself, whilst Heacham South was unusually quiet for people, dogs and birds. There were small numbers of birds at Heacham North, with around 50 Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Sanderling and Knot, all well distributed along the beach and not suitable for catching unfortunately.

Tim arrived to help with the afternoon recce, and along with his arrival came some nicer weather. Both Cathy and Tim were on site well before tide, finding the beach at Snettisham virtually empty; most Bar-tailed Godwit were still offshore and headed straight to the pits as the tide came in, with Oystercatcher doing a similar thing. At the dam, there were around 300 Oystercatcher loafing on the Mussel scar just offshore. As the tide came in, there were well over 1,000 Oystercatcher gathered on the mud around the dam and further north at Heacham, most of which eventually gathered on the Mussel scar. Eventually, around 200 birds came ashore south of the Tump, whilst the rest of the birds gathered on the scar were scared off by dogs and headed south to Snettisham.

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A groups of Curlew feeding in shallow water. Three of the birds have white, uniquely marked flags on their legs, enabling researchers to identify them.

Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit feeding locations on The Wash: do you like your worms with or without salt?

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If you have taken part in WWRG winter fieldwork over the past twelve years, you know that one tide of each fieldwork weekend is dedicated to resighting colour-marked birds. We have been applying leg flags to Bar-tailed Godwit since 2010, and Curlew since 2012, with over 200 people reporting one or more flag sightings. We use individual leg flags to both add to the survival data generated from metal rings (see Cook et al. 2021) and to look at how individual birds use the Wash and the surrounding area. Our first paper analysing how birds move around within the Wash has just been published in the journal Wader Study (Pell et al. 2023).

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Photo of misty fields.

Fieldwork August-September 2023

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Wednesday 30 August

Recces

Ryan arrived at the Horseshoe Lagoon at 05:30 with high tide at 06:26 and immediately recorded seven Oystercatchers, 12 Bar-tailed Godwit, five Dunlin, two Grey Plover and 150 mixed gulls. At 05:48, the Barwits, Dunlin and Grey Plover left heading north and at 06:07, 70 more gulls joined the roost. Elsewhere on the pool there were 30 Redshank, two Grey Plover, 11 Little Egret and six Greenshank. It was clear that the pool needed more water as Black-headed Gulls could stand almost all the way across from normal catch site to the island.

Richard observed a small number of plovers at the Gedney pool when they arrived. It filled about 25 minutes before tide.

At Heacham North North, Cathy recorded 10 Turnstone and 10 Sanderling at high tide.

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The ringing team sitting or standing listening to the lead ringer explaining the process.

Fieldwork August 2023

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Decoy making weekend 29–30 July

Before The Wash week began, a dedicated team got together at Nigel and Jacquie’s house to make up a batch of decoy birds to aid us with future catches. The end product is a life-like model which we can place in the catching area, during cannon-netting, to attract birds. Nigel was an excellent teacher and we all learnt so much, not only about how to make a decoy, but about the fascinating anatomy of the birds. Those on the weekend were Ryan, Molly, Kirsty, Nigel, Jacquie, Katharine, Flo, Lucy, James, David, Sam and Skye.

We also had good fun helping Jacquie and Nigel with their CES at Hinderclay Fen and caught the first Sedge Warbler and Kingfisher for the year!

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