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 |
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.
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.
Finally the knot are here! |
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.
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.
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