Another weekend, another visit to
Norfolk to ring with the Wash Wader Ringing Group. The team met on Friday
evening and found the times for the evening and morning’s activities written on
the board. ‘Umm, are those timings correct?’ was heard to be uttered a number
of times before Nigel returned from his recce of Terrington Marsh to confirm
that they were indeed accurate. In fact, they weren’t… instead of having the three
and a half hours sleep that the board suggested we would get, we actually only
got around two hours!!!
Aron’s recce on Friday morning
had found a good collection of grey waders (knot, grey plover, sanderling,
dunlin etc.) on Snettisham Beach so, on Friday evening, we set three nets in
anticipation of the morning tide. Unfortunately, the birds had other ideas and
found themselves a better place to be on Saturday morning. Just as we were
beginning to get disconsolate, a flock of ringed plover appeared in the catching
area. We were able to take a small (but useful, as we don’t ring huge numbers
of ringed plover) catch of eighteen ringed plover and three turnstone. I was
part of the processing team for the catch but did manage to ring one bird which
was a treat as I have only ever handled one ringed plover before. The
processing team had to de-camp into the back of Aron’s car when a hail storm
made ringing in the open problematic – not what we expect in Norfolk at the end
of April!
After breakfast, the team all
headed back to bed for a couple of hours of well needed sleep. Refreshed
and ready to go again, we headed to Heacham Beach in the afternoon to set two
nets for an evening catch of oystercatchers. A nice catch was made of 56 birds,
including a 21 year old retrap! I was in the processing team again, but
thankfully, no hail storms interrupted us this time.
After an early night some members
of the group went out colour ring re-sighting on Sunday morning, whilst the crocks amongst us (me
included) stayed behind and did jobs around the base. When all were back, the
group held its AGM before everyone headed home for another early night!
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