Wash Wader Ringing Group

Friday 28th April

Recces done by PLI and SLD. Dry but force 5-6 Northerly wind. Terrington (PLI); 2000 grey waders (Dunlin and Grey Plover) already on the pool to the east of the mist netting ‘E’ pool. Also several hundred Brent Geese a bit further seaward. None of the other pools in the area had waders using them but a smaller number of waders were seen using the tide edge near the bund. Snettisham (SLD); 70 grey waders mostly Sanderling and Dunlin but with 7 Grey Plover, 3 Knot, and 2 Oystercatchers. Heacham by tump; Two flocks of Oyks, ca. 400 in total. Stayed until at least an hour after tide. Heacham far North; no birds. PLI and SLD met up at base then went out to the saltmarsh to look at potential catch sites. Flock of Brent Geese still on saltmarsh just by pool.Discussed where to set with NAC by phone! Having done this, afternoon spent food shopping and sorting equipment. Returned to saltmarsh 2½ hours before high tide to watch what happened on pools. About 1½ hours before tide, Dunlin and rather fewer Grey Plover than in the morning went on to the pool, many in front of the area marked for catching. Did not wait to see what happened after that as it was bitterly cold on the seawall! Because the evening tide quite a bit higher than the morning, it was anticipated that setting could not be done until three hours after tide, which was reasonably convenient as some team members were unable to arrive early. Left base at 22:30, arrived behind sea wall and unloaded the trailer. Set off out to set only to find, on reaching the top of the sea wall, that the tide had still not fallen off the marsh. Decided that all that could be done was to get up earlier in the morning and set then. Back to base for briefing and bed at midnight

Saturday 29th April

Up 04:00. Efficient set of two small mesh nets. PLI in the Fensman hide with the team alongside under camouflage netting apart from KC who remained on the sea wall as a potential twinkler. Soon five Dunlin landed in near net but wandered round feeding. Brent Geese then started arriving on the far side of the pool, eventually building up to about 300. These were spooked by something and left. Then Dunlin started arriving but landed in centre of pool rather than by nets. This quickly built up to a flock of about 2000, all on the islands or in the shallow water of the pool. They gradually spread so that some were feeding on the grassier area beyond the far net but none in the net. After a few lift-offs and fly-rounds there was a drift towards the near net and the edge of the flock started to walk in but only 20 or so would have been catchable when all left.  Some twinkling was attempted by KC to bring birds from the “E” pool and later by SLD from the saltmarsh towards King’s Lynn but few birds interested in the pool with the nets set. Gave up shortly after high tide. SLD and KC identified an area (which turned out to be where the 2000 Dunlin were caught a few years ago) where birds were concentrating so this was earmarked for catching on Sunday morning. Returned to base for breakfast.

 With the AGM in the afternoon and no chance of setting in advance for the morning, several jobs were done at base and a team visited the saltmarsh to do some preparatory work for future catching. They returned somewhat muddy, one dog owner being even muddier than her dog! (The dog won on smell though, having found a dead seal to roll on).

The AGM started at 16:00, continuing to 18:00 when the beef/veggie casseroles left in the oven to cook during the meeting were consumed. After the meal a group visited the saltmarsh to look what happened on the evening tide. The pool set on this morning had just 100 birds and these were very jumpy. The “E” pool had about 400 Dunlin, 50 Grey Plover and 20 Shelduck, somewhat dispersed. The only other pool with a flock of waders held 70 Grey Plover and 100 Dunlin in one discrete patch and about 120 Grey Plover and 150 Dunlin in second patch. All extremely stable. Straight out from white barn. Nothing on the 2000 catch site. Hence a decision was made to change to catch on the newly identified pool site. Early night with all in bed before 22:00.

Sunday 30th April

Up 04:45. Arrived on site at 05:20 to find that there was more surface water on the marsh than expected. This hampered the setting of two nets as did a problem with one of the droppers but in position by 07.00. It was very quiet until about 08:20 when birds started to land on the pool towards Kings Lynn where the nets had been set the previous day. The birds were very flighty and returned to the marsh edge after 10 minutes. At this point about 3000 Dunlin came up onto the marsh and landed about 300m from the pool. Then about 20 Grey Plover and 40 Dunlin came onto our pool with some in front of each net. SLD despatched to twinkle the large flock. These went back to the tide edge but suddenly a flock of about 400 Knot flew over the hide and landed in the catching area. When all but 30 had landed the net was fired - there were then several expletives as NAC realised that the net had not gone out properly and only a couple of birds had been caught. Concluded this was because the net had become waterlogged.

After working out how to get it right next time, went back to base for breakfast.

After breakfast two people ringed a new species - two Stock dove pulli in the owl box in the roof of the house. A check of the House sparrow boxes on the annex wall revealed that a great tit had laid 8 eggs in one and a pair of house sparrows were building in another . All left by 13.30 after a fun but rather unsuccessful weekend.