Fieldwork late March 2026

Friday 20 March

The day began with Cathy up bright and early for a trip to the Heacham beaches recceing for potential catching options. Multiple groups of birds were present, with roughly 300 Oystercatcher and 70 Sanderling present at Heacham South, as well as 50 Sanderling at Heacham North North (a deal less than the 400 Molly had found the night before).

For the evening high tide, Kate recce’d Heacham North North in an attempt to find Molly’s Sanderling from the night before. Over 100 Sanderling and a handful of Ringed Plover were present in a similar area to the large flock the night before. At the same time Liam went to recce the Horseshoe, looking for a potential Knot catch for Saturday evening. ~800 Oystercatcher, ~100 Curlew and a handful of Redshank were present, but not a Knot in sight. Notably the water level within the lagoon was incredibly low, rising over the tide, suggesting the inlet pipe is still not working properly.

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Fieldwork early March 2026

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

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

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 December 2025

Friday 5 December

Before the majority of the group arrived for the weekend, recces were carried out on Friday morning. Cathy visited Snettisham beach arriving at 06:30 hrs in full moonlight. Snettisham Beach held no waders and Heacham just two Oystercatchers. The spit at the Sailing Club Bay was next to view where three Bar-tailed Godwit were resighted among a huge flock of mixed waders. Nigel then joined on video call to view the beach and assessed that, with no feathers or poo found, the Oystercatchers had not roosted there over high tide.

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