Delaware 2025: 10–17 May – Dowitcher City

Saturday 10 May

After a long journey over the ocean from London to Philadelphia, and a familiar drive down to the team’s base on Slaughter Beach, the Brits made it safely to Delaware Bay for the start of another exciting season on the Delaware Shorebird Project. Kirsten Grond had joined us at the airport and both Jim Lyons and Ema Tiberi were at the house to welcome us warmly home. The traditional evening visit to Mispillion Harbour produced beautiful views of Common Scoter bobbing on the water, Short-billed Dowitchers probing and singing along the shores, and an Osprey elegantly gliding over the pink, sun-stained water.

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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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Colour-mark resighting bonanza

Friday 6 October – Sunday 8 October  

With many of the usual team members away in faraway places, poorly or with car troubles, a small team collected at the fieldwork house with plans for a weekend of colour-ring resighting and the possibility of a mist netting session on Saturday evening. The likelihood of mist nesting was always doubtful due to an unsettled weather forecast. The forecast had deteriorated by mid-morning on Saturday and a decision was made that this would not go ahead.

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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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