Delaware 2013 – Part 3 – a.k.a. the knot are finally here post

The recces did not look too promising for a catch attempt on Sunday morning so we all headed to Port Mahon to attempt to catch some semi-palmated sandpipers in walk-in traps. A small team set the traps at the far end of the beach and we all sat back and waited…and waited…and waited…and then gave up! Unfortunately, the thick peat on the beach meant that we couldn’t put the guide walls exactly where we wanted them to be to lead the birds into the traps. Added to this the fact that the birds just didn’t want to play and it ended up being a slightly frustrating (and quite cold) morning. Those of us not directly involved in the twinkling / setting effort spent a lot of time huddled by the cars with our hoods up against the cold wind and bemoaning the newly arrived Brits for bringing British weather with them. 

Back at the house, the consensus of opinion was to attempt a cannon net catch on Slaughter Beach in the afternoon. A small set team headed out after lunch to set a net and base camp went to hide in the vegetation along the beach from the catching area. A few of us stayed back at the house doing other chores until the message over the radio came that they may need a few additional people for the lift. We headed out towards the edge of the beach, waited for the ‘boom’ and ran and ran and ran, all the way cursing the distance down the beach which the team had set the net.

The lift was a wet one but all went well and the birds were soon safely in boxes and heading back to the house to be processed in the back garden. Two teams flagged, ringed and processed the birds whilst being eaten by stable flies (I would post a photo of my ankles but it might put people off their food). The catch included (wait for it) ten knot (woop di woop), fifty turnstone and one short-billed dowitcher. It was superb to finally get my hands on some knot in summer plumage. Some of them were unbelievably skinny so had clearly just arrived in the Bay. They were quickly released to go and feed! The catch also made one passer-by’s day. She had come to look for some knot on Slaughter Beach and had ended up sitting at base camp for the catch and then helping to flag all of the turnstone. One very happy camper!

 

Turnstone being released

Me with my first knot of the year

On Monday morning, I was in the Jeep heading back to Port Mahon to re-sight turnstone. The huge numbers of a few days ago (6500) seemed to have moved on and we only had around 1850 birds. A good few flags were still read however, adding to the rapidly growing re-sightings database. I had volunteered to be sous chef for Guy that evening, which precluded me from the afternoon’s re-sighting activities. Instead, I spent a couple of hours learning to make flags (for turnstone as we had almost run out). The session produced numerous candidates for ‘quote of the day’ from Dave who seemed to not be able to say anything without it sounding rude! Flag making involves dipping individual pieces of plastic into near boiling water until soft, wrapping the strip around a metal rod, shaping it into a flag shape, dipping it back into the hot water then quickly into cold water. It is very hot work. Not really ideal for the hottest day of the trip so far!

When Guy returned from re-sighting at Slaughter Beach, my attention was diverted to cooking. The menu for the evening was cottage pie followed by steamed pudding a.k.a. spotted dick. This caused mass hilarity amongst the non-Brits on the team who found it difficult to use its proper name! Three hours slaving in a hot kitchen is also not ideal on the hottest day of the trip so far! By the end of the day I was roasting and very much in need of a shower!

As I had been unable to go out on a boat the previous day, I was on the boat trip into Mispillion Harbour on Tuesday morning. As we chugged along past all of the beaches, it became apparent that there were quite a few birds knocking around in the harbour. We toyed with the idea of dropping someone off on Osprey Beach but decided against it. This turned out to be a fortuitous decision as the number of birds on Back Beach was phenomenal; Back Beach looking like it should at this time of year! We were treated to a fabulous morning’s re-sighting with knot galore. The smaller species were also out in force which caused a few difficulties in terms of being able to see the flags. Still, I managed a respectable total of 82 flag re-sightings in the three hours that we were out there, including flags originally put on in the US, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Thankfully, no peregrines came through to spoil our fun today, although a bald eagle was spotted flying away from the vicinity of Back Beach as we were driving over there. It didn’t seem to be disturbing anything though.

Finally the knot are here!

Part way through the morning, I heard my name being called by Kevin from the boat over on Point. I looked up to see him waving madly and shouting for me to also get Dave. It soon became clear that the boat had beached on the sand as the tide had receded and Kevin and Paul were in need of a little help to push it off. Dave and I therefore waded through thigh deep water to help. Soon after, Lucy also joined us. We eventually managed to get the boat afloat again and we were able to return to our re-sighting. It didn’t take the birds long to return to their feast.

Now if this had been on the Wash, I would be writing about how utterly frozen I was after wading in the sea (although I would have been wearing waders if it had been there). Thankfully, this is Delaware and the water is lovely and warm. My trousers and sandals soon dried in the sun. The most disconcerting part of the event was walking over hundreds of horseshoe crabs in the water; it’s not right when the seabed moves when you walk on it. It is also slightly strange having your ankle tickled by a horseshoe crab!!!

So, the birds are arriving at last but the huge numbers of knot that we had last year are not yet in Mispillion Harbour. We had approximately 600 – 700 knot today on Back Beach but there are also a few hundred other birds spread out on other beaches along the coast. It is possible that they are spreading out to avoid the peregrine disturbance but this is just a theory. It is also possible that the majority of the birds are either not here yet or are over in New Jersey; we know they had 5000 birds last week. Presumable, time will tell.

In the afternoon, I joined a small team re-sighting at Pickering Beach which had a decent number of turnstone on it, a few knot, dunlin, semi-palmated sandpipers and the odd sanderling. Oh, and, two people with metal detectors, a dog and a fair bit of disturbance caused by huge, noisy planes from Dover Air Force Base. Despite this, we managed to find a few turnstone and knot flags along with my first semi flag of the year. On the way home, we nipped into Little Creek in an effort to find a Least Bittern. Unfortunately, I think we were in the wrong place and it was also very buggy so we gave up pretty quickly and headed back to Slaughter Beach.

 

One disappointing sighting at Pickering Beach was a fishing net full of dead horseshoe crabs. Whether this was a crab fishing net that got away or an accidental catch is impossible to guess. Either way, it was a sad sight to see.


Dead horseshoe crabs caught in fishing net



The rest of the team stayed in Mispillion Harbour to attempt to take a catch on Back Beach. When we arrived at the Nature Centre, we could see the team processing birds out on Back Beach. They had managed to take a great catch consisting of around thirty knot, a hundred or so short-billed dowitcher, a good number of semi-palmated sandpipers, a few turnstone and a few dunlin. The catch had been taken early enough on the tide for the birds to be ringed out on the beach before the light went so the team hadn’t needed to bring the birds over to the Nature Centre to be ringed under lights. It sounds as though it was a good catch and definitely good to get a few numbers on the board for some species that haven’t been ringed yet this year. We missed this catch but there will hopefully be plenty of other opportunities before we head home.