Fieldwork November 2022

Friday 25 November

Recces:

Lucy Y. and Mark went out to recce in the morning. Around 07:00 at the Heacham Dam, Snettisham North, Lucy saw no birds, but by 07:15, groups of 30–200 Sanderling began to gather; Lucy also looked at Heacham South where 1,500–2,000 Oystercatchers were already present at 07:00, and stayed until 10:00, settled even with dog walkers going past the flocks on the beach. There were also a few hundred Oystercatchers roosting on the concrete slope of the Heacham Dam. Mark saw 10 Sanderling and six Turnstone at Heacham North, and 10 Oystercatchers at Heacham North North.

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Why is that wader white?

We all occasionally see birds with some white feathers and, unless the bird has no colouring at all (albino), we generally put the lack of colouring down to leucism – an absence of pigment in some feathers. However, it’s not that simple – there are number of different types of lack of pigment (van Grouw 2021).

Photo of a leucistic Knot amongst standardly coloured Knot at Snettisham Pits in Norfolk. Photo by Rob Pell
Two other birds with ‘white spotting’ seen on the Wash, both at Snettisham. Photos by Rob Pell
Photo of a leucistic Oystercatcher roosting with other Oystercatchers with standard plumage at Snettisham Pits in Norfolk. Photo by Rob Pell
White-spotted birds are seen regularly, but it is rare for us to know if the cause is leucism or ‘progressive greying’.
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Fieldwork August 2022

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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Monitoring Bar-tailed Godwits on The Wash

Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) are large waders which have a wide distribution across several continents. Five subspecies are currently recognised plus a sixth recently proposed as yamalensis (Appleton 2021). Bar-tailed Godwits are long-distance migrants and one subspecies (baueri) makes an incredible non-stop migration from Alaska to New Zealand over the Pacific Ocean lasting many days.

Two populations of Bar-tailed Godwit use The Wash: lapponica breeds from northern Fennoscandia eastwards to western Russia and the Taymyr peninsula and moults on The Wash in autumn, with most birds staying to spend the winter; taymyrensis breeds further east reaching central Siberia and passes through The Wash on migration to its wintering sites, as far south as West Africa.

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WWRG is changing its name!

WWRG had been operating as a Ringing Group since its inception. In consultation with its members, it was decided that becoming a charity would secure the Group’s longer-term future and allow it to take advantage of new opportunities to support our work. Alongside this we are changing our name to Wash Wader Research Group to better reflect the range of activities we do.

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