Tag: fieldwork

The team sitting amongst the grasses at base camp, with the sea beyond, by Sam Franks

Fieldwork August 2022

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Avian Influenza (AI) precautions: With the spread of AI to wild birds (mainly colony nesters), we followed BTO guidelines and also introduced extra safety precautions to minimise risk – see here. There were also some sites we did not have access to for catching.

Friday 12 August

Recces were carried out early on Friday morning:

Norfolk: Cathy found Heacham Beach, north of the Ringed Plover fencing, was gull city with no waders present. Heacham North North at high tide had 33 Turnstone and 26 Ringed Plover.

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Photo of a sunset over the Marsh at Terrington in Norfolk.

Fieldwork July 2022

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Friday 15 July

Evening recces were carried out at:

Gedney (Nigel) – the marshes were flooded 45 mins before tide with around 100 Curlew over the marsh, around 100 Redshank on the tide edge and 200–300 Black-headed Gulls on the pool.

Beaches (Guy) – Heacham North North, no birds; Heacham South c. 2,000 Oystercatchers; Snettisham beach a few Ringed Plovers and Oystercatchers, but lots of Ringed Plover fencing all along the beach making it unusable for catching. Also noted at Snetts was a Turtle Dove calling and a Spoonbill flyover.

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Dunlin flying over water in Delaware

WWRG: back in the Bay

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So it’s three years since the WWRG team last came out to Delaware. Back then we bought our plane tickets and booked cars early as we were sure we would be coming over – then the World shut down… The only good thing was we got most of the costs of the flights and cars back. Into lockdown and virtually no fieldwork – it’s been a rough two years in many ways and we are still not out of the woods now – but we’re very grateful for vaccinations. This year we had to do supervised Covid tests and are living in a ‘bubble’ in a separate house – although we can use the basement of Penguin Manor to go and do data entry, but there is not too much of that yet.

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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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