With my WeBS counts done, it was now time to head over
to Norfolk to join the Wash Wader Ringing Group for a weekend’s ringing. Arriving
on Friday evening, it soon became clear that it was going to be a long night! With
the equipment sorted, introductions done, a lovely tea eaten and the tide
receding, we headed out at 9pm to set nets for an attempted cannon net catch on
Saturday morning. The Friday morning recces had found approximately 20 000 knot
on Snettisham Beach so hopes were high for a good catch.
As the team started to set the
nets under a cold, starry sky, the moon rose big and beautiful over Ken Hill
behind us. The tide was still receding and as the cannon net holes were dug,
they soon began to fill with water, preventing us from filling them in. Still, there are plenty of other things to do when setting
cannon nets so by the time we had finished, the water was low enough to fill
the holes without the risk of the cartridges getting soggy!
By the time we got to bed it was
half past midnight, which in and of itself, isn’t too bad. However, when you
factor in the fact that the alarms were set for a quarter to four the following
morning, it was a tad evil!!! So, a very small amount of sleep later saw us
heading back to Snettisham and by just after 5am we were shivering at base
camp. The briefing had suggested that if we hadn’t caught by 6am, we would be rushing
to lift the nets out of the way of the rising tide. We therefore did what we
always do…we waited.
Nigel kept base camp informed
over the radio and soon reported that we had 100+ knot in the catching area. With
plenty more on the mudflats, hopes were high. Not long after, all the knot headed
to the Pits! Luckily, a flock of oystercatcher turned up and Nigel gave the
order to arm the box. Cue the adrenalin. It’s a strange thing how the adrenalin
starts pumping and at the same time, the nerves start to kick in when you hear
the words ‘arm the box’, even though there is still a chance that the words
three, two, one, fire won’t follow!
Thankfully, those words were
uttered on Saturday morning and we were able to make a nice catch of 50+
oystercatcher, 3 bar-tailed godwits and 4 common gull. When the question ‘who
hasn’t ringed a common gull?’ was asked, my hand went sky high and I was lucky
enough to get to ring a new species (and without getting bitten which was a
bonus). The rest of the catch was spent scribing for the processing team.
The bonus of an early catch is an
early breakfast. After that, it was time to do a few jobs back at base before most
of the team headed out to set mist nets on Terrington Marsh for the evening
tide. The tide was due to be pretty high that evening so we were all prepared
to be wading quite deeply during the catch. I have never been on the marsh
after dark when it has covered completely so it was an interesting experience…particularly
when the high water level means you cannot see the creeks that you usually use
to navigate your way off said marsh! We did eventually make it back to base, but
not without a little help from our friends on dry land and some bright torches!
Anyway, a small catch of dunlin, a
few redshank and a solitary knot were caught mist netting. Sometimes it is nice
to get relatively small catches, particularly when the team includes a lot of
people new to wader ringing, as this weekend’s team did. A small catch allows
the ringers chance to get to grips with the ageing criteria of the species in
the hand without the pressure of having to get through hundreds of birds
quickly.
This weekend’s team also included
Rick and Ellis from an organisation called Wader Quest. They were there to
document the work of the group for their project. The small, more relaxed
catches also allowed them to get involved and to get some great photos. More
information on Wader Quest and some of their photos from the weekend can be found on their website http://www.waderquest.org/.
So, the day finished at about
12:30am again and we all went to bed in the hope of getting a good six hours
sleep before heading out to do some colour ring re-sighting on Sunday morning. Whenever
a Wash weekend falls on the same weekend that the clocks change, it is
traditional not to alter the time zone until the end of the weekend, so as not
to confuse things. Unfortunately, nobody told that to our smart phones, all of
which kindly changed the time automatically and woke us up an hour earlier than
necessary…thanks for that!
I, along with three other members
of the team, headed out to Holme to attempt to find some birds willing to show
us their bling. It soon turned out to be a stunning morning with wall to wall
sunshine. There were quite a few birds on the spits that don't cover at high tide (many of which were
hiding on the far side, out of sight) but as the tide rose, more and more became
visible. The rising tide also flushed out a water rail which we watched
swimming between dry islands of vegetation! We eventually found a flock of
sanderling that were close enough to scope up for rings and found three colour
ringed birds. Unfortunately, none of the godwits or grey plovers in the same
area was flagged.
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| Holme Beach on a gorgeous, sunny morning |
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| Ringed plover - it just wouldn't play the game and face the camera! |
Some of the team stayed on in
Norfolk on Sunday evening for another mist netting setting at Gedney, but I had
somewhere else to be, so I headed home, tired but happy after another great
weekend with my friends at the Wash.
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