Tag: Wash Wader Research Group

Delaware 2026: 17–24 May – we still have Knot!

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Sunday 17 May

We started off the day with the majority of the team heading to Slaughter Beach for an early morning catch, aiming to target Turnstone for tagging. After a long and extremely noseeum-infested wait, we made a dry catch. We even managed to sneak some public engagement in. At least four of our Turnstones were of a suitably high weight to be tagged, and thus the last four ARGOS tags were deployed by Katharine and Jessie. It was a stiflingly hot day (30° C), but we powered on with lots of data checking, kit maintenance and site surveys. Isla and Rob Rob even managed to go grab some Philly cheesesteaks on the way to our survey. Ema made us all a fantastic Argentinian meal; fried beef and tofu with all the trimmings, followed by (healthy) tiramisu.

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Delaware 2026: 4-16 May – we have Knot!

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Monday 4 May

The team started heading for Delaware a little early this year on Monday 4 May – with four of us staying for a full four weeks to catch the beginning and the end of the season. All four of us headed down to London a day before the flight to avoid the M25 issues. Nigel and Jacquie picked up Graham, then dropped off their dogs before spending the night at a Travelodge in Slough , while Cathy took the train. 

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Fieldwork late March 2026

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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

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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 late February 2026

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Friday 20 February

The morning began with Nigel taking a trip to Sailing Club Bay to recce for a potential Oystercatcher catch. Unfortunately, the recent beach recharge had created a pile of sand that would make catching extremely difficult. Fortunately, on Thursday morning, Molly had recced the Horseshoe Lagoon in Lincolnshire and found an incredible flock about 3,000 Oystercatcher, 1,000 Knot, 500 Bar-tailed Godwit and 200 Dunlin. With this being the more favourable catching option, Nigel gathered the cannon-netting gear and met Flo and Liam to set two nets in the Lagoon at 13:30.

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