Tag: ringing

A group of people sitting on chairs on a beach, processing shorebirds.

Delaware 2024: 26 May – 1 June

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Sunday 26 May

On the first day of week three in Delaware, Rob Rob, Chantal, Katharine and Kirsty left for Philadelphia to begin their journey home to the UK. They made the most of their last morning however, squeezing in one more resighting visit to Mispillion Harbor!

On their way to Osprey via Cedar Beach with Flo, a new volunteer got stuck in the deep mud. Showing their quick thinking and fantastic team strength, the Brits rallied together to undertake a quick and effective two-pronged rescue with help coming by boat and car/foot. Well done all!

Not many flags were spotted in Mispillion, it would seem many shorebirds were already migrating northwards. There is also the thought that more are heading to feed in New Jersey, where there are areas for roosting closer to the feeding sites. The evening harbour survey was cancelled due to an approaching storm, but this did not stop Ryan and Guy from cooking up an epic meal on the BBQ.

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Delaware 2024: 19-25 May

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Sunday 19 May

Our second week in Delaware began warm and sunny and everyone made a great effort to survey the beaches over the morning. Two Mispillion surveys were completed as usual and, after the afternoon boat trip, Nigel, Richard, Guy and Ema returned very happy with lots of flag resightings. Poor Graham, however, did not have such joy on Osprey. Nigel and Richard had found there to be a decent number of Sanderling still on Back North and so began planning a catch.

Many more rings were opened throughout the day in anticipation of a big forthcoming catch. Ryan and Flo baked veggie lentil lasagna, using layered potatoes instead of pasta (which surprisingly worked very well!) and a couple of batches of flapjack – this really didn’t last long, 24hrs at most!

Nigel led a thorough evening team talk to go over plans for a Back North catch the next day.

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Redshank on post, by Rob Robinson

Fieldwork April 2024

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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.

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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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