Fieldwork January 2018

This was the first field trip of 2018 for the Wash Wader Ringing Group and was the first cannon net catch by the group since September 2017. This was an extremely experienced team, with four cannon net licensees (plus one trainee,) as well as several ringers with considerable experience of both cannon netting and mist netting waders with the group. Sophie and Alyce had each been to one mist net catch previously and only Ellie was completely new to wader ringing with the group (although she had done some wader ringing with another group).

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Fieldwork November 2017

Friday 17 November

This was a second weekend for the group with no opportunity for making a cannon net catch. However, there was a double opportunity for mist netting, along with the usual colour ring resighting on one tide. The mist netting sessions were initially planned for the high tides on both Saturday morning and Saturday evening but, as with all WWRG field trips, this was dependent on the weather.

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Fieldwork September 2017

Friday 22 September

The weekend began, somewhat unusually, with a mist nesting session on Terrington Marsh. This required a small number of people to arrive at the fieldwork house mid-afternoon to set the nets on the marsh ready for the evening catch. Two lines of nets were set, one on the E-pool and the second on the cannon-netting pool, with Ron and Nigel leading the respective teams.

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Fieldwork – July 2017

The team assembled at the field house on Monday evening for a rather unusual mid-week weekend Wash trip. We were all confused by the days, constantly referring to Friday, Saturday and Sunday rather than Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The main aim of the weekend was to make a Sanderling catch with a second catch of Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew if possible.

Rob P had undertaken a recce on Sunday morning and had located 150 Sanderling and 200+ Oystercatcher at high tide on Snettisham beach. Dave K had undertaken a further recce on Monday morning and had found 500 Sanderling on Snettisham beach. Dave had also looked at the fields behind Snettisham pits, where we had made a good catch of Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew last summer. A small number of Curlew and 2 Black-tailed Godwit were the only birds present. No birds were found on Ken Hill.

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