Tag: mist netting

Fieldwork early March 2026

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Friday 6 March

Cathy arrived on Thursday ready to go out resighting on Friday morning and got 23 resightings from a flock of 70 Turnstone at Hunstanton. We had planned to mist-net at Wolferton, but called it off as the team was too small to work the site. However, Steve suggested that we could work the Horseshoe. Rapid messages around the team to see who could come to set, everyone bar Rob P and Claudia were to get to the base in time to go out to set. And most of the talk on WhatsApp was about where was best to get fish and chips.

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Fieldwork early February 2026

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6 February 2026

The team assembled on Friday evening. There was no option for cannon netting this weekend, but a suitable Saturday night tide for mist netting. The tides suitable for cannon netting in the second half of winter are not as conducive to mist netting, so running an extra couple of sessions at this time of year was deemed worthwhile to improve the sampling of waders via mist netting. Additional valuable winter sightings of colour-marked waders were also sought after this weekend.

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Fieldwork January 2026

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Friday 23 January

Nigel and Cathy did the morning’s recce at Sailing Club Bay and were met by large numbers of birds (inc. Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit and Knot). The tide, however, didn’t prove high enough to cover the mud and move the birds into a catchable position, and since no other opportunities were identified, the decision was taken to dedicate Saturday morning’s high tide to resighting and recceing with the full team. Following everyone’s arrival in the evening (Claudia having been delayed by a flamingo), a jacket potato dinner was served, and plans were made for the morning.

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Fieldwork November 2025

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Friday 7 November

An early recce on the morning tide on Friday (Cathy, Lys and Hilary) produced a group of c. 200 Curlew and some Sanderling on Heacham Beach. Cathy then had a very successful resighting session at Heacham, while Lys and Hilary recced elsewhere. Jacquie and Nigel went to recce Heacham Beach for net placement on the tide line for an attempted Curlew catch on Saturday morning. Hilary had also visited Frampton Marsh the previous day, reporting it to be very dry with almost no waders seen. Meanwhile, Cathy resighted two Bar-tailed Godwit and one headstarted Curlew at Snettisham.

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A Sanderling in the hand having its wing examined to determine its age and whether it is moulting.

Fieldwork September 2025

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Saturday 6 September

Team members began to arrive on Friday evening to recce various options for cannon-net catching and resighting on Saturday morning. The previous autumn passage week and this week were relatively limited in terms of very high tides which could push birds onto fields for catching (this week was the marginally better one of the two) or beaches in high numbers. Only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were very high tides.

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