Ryan was the first at the Norfolk base, arriving the day before from Carlisle, and he spent the whole of Sunday doing various jobs including hedge trimming, mowing and sorting out catching kit. Thank you Ryan for all your hard work! Lys, Cathy and Lizzie arrived later on Sunday and also helped sort out the house for the start of the week. Hilary went resighting and joined in with the gardening.
Continue Reading →
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.
Continue Reading →
Friday 12 April
Some team members assembled on the Friday afternoon or evening and enjoyed a relaxed evening.
Saturday 13 April
More team members joined us on the Saturday ready to do some maintenance work and to get ready for the evening mist-netting. With the forecast suggesting the breeze would remain, after discussion we decided on a limited mist-netting session on the White Barn Inner Pool only.
Continue Reading →
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.
Continue Reading →
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.
Continue Reading →