Upon arriving at the beach on Saturday morning car temperature gauges were reading an unbelievable minus fifteen degrees Celsius, after a few minutes sitting at base camp behind the sea wall it definitely felt like it. I was quick to volunteer when the hide team requested a twinkler and soon warmed up a little on the 100 metre run behind the sea wall. The attempt was futile as birds just flew out and then landed back in the same spot so I endured lying prostrate in the snow while we waited for a Turnstone to climb off the net that promised the best catch. As it wouldn't move the decision was taken to fire the adjacent net over far fewer birds but mid conversation the bird took flight and the preferred net was fired over a large quantity of Knot.
Extracting Knot Photo by Alice Tribe
Small mesh nets have the advantage that should an excessively large catch be taken a corner can be lifted to allow some birds to escape. As shown in the photo birds do not become entangled. In this instance, however, it was decided to start extracting as soon as the net was lifted away from the edge of the rising tide. It quickly became evident that the catch was very large indeed and box after box was filled with Knot and taken back to the team erecting the keeping cages on the very icy beach. Once the keeping cages were starting to fill up a couple of ring and fling teams were recruited to crack on with the mammoth task of ringing several thousand Knot. Given the size of the catch only a small sample of were Knot passed to the assembled processing teams. Other species were fully processed with Bar-tailed Godwits receiving leg flags as part of the group's on going colour mark project.
In debrief the team leaders remarked upon how efficiently the catch was dealt with and that all the birds seemed to be in good condition considering the recent spell of harsh weather. It should be noted that it was still minus five when we left the beach but being involved with such a spectacular catch made the frozen toes and bruised knees truly worth it. Such large catches are very rarely made and this was the largest for forty years. Controls hailed from Norway (5), Iceland (1), Holland (2), Germany (1) and Britain (13). Interestingly the oldest retrap was 19 years old and will have survived many a cold winter.
Knot Photo by Alice Tribe
Bar-tailed Godwit Photo by Alice Tribe
In debrief the team leaders remarked upon how efficiently the catch was dealt with and that all the birds seemed to be in good condition considering the recent spell of harsh weather. It should be noted that it was still minus five when we left the beach but being involved with such a spectacular catch made the frozen toes and bruised knees truly worth it. Such large catches are very rarely made and this was the largest for forty years. Controls hailed from Norway (5), Iceland (1), Holland (2), Germany (1) and Britain (13). Interestingly the oldest retrap was 19 years old and will have survived many a cold winter.
Ringing Knot on Snettisham beach Photo by Rob Robinson
Totals - 2831 new, (95) retrap
Oystercatcher - 11, (3)
Knot - 2680, (77)
Sanderling - 1
Dunlin - 35, (2)
Bar-tailed Godwit - 104, (13)
Needless to say the mist netting planned for Saturday evening was cancelled due to the large cannon net catch but also the freezing fog that had kept temperatures low in the morning was still lingering over the salt marshes and would render the nets highly visible.
Sunday morning saw a number of teams depart to various locations around the Norfolk side of the Wash to do some colour ring resighting and general birdwatching. My team headed to RSPB Snettisham Pits and were rewarded with extremely close views of Goldeneye and a beautiful drake Red-breated Merganser. A flock of Snow Buntings were flying up and down the beach and both Short-eared and Barn Owls were seen. The only birds lacking were those wearing colour rings but a good morning and weekend were had by all.
Sanderling - 1
Dunlin - 35, (2)
Bar-tailed Godwit - 104, (13)
Needless to say the mist netting planned for Saturday evening was cancelled due to the large cannon net catch but also the freezing fog that had kept temperatures low in the morning was still lingering over the salt marshes and would render the nets highly visible.
Sunday morning saw a number of teams depart to various locations around the Norfolk side of the Wash to do some colour ring resighting and general birdwatching. My team headed to RSPB Snettisham Pits and were rewarded with extremely close views of Goldeneye and a beautiful drake Red-breated Merganser. A flock of Snow Buntings were flying up and down the beach and both Short-eared and Barn Owls were seen. The only birds lacking were those wearing colour rings but a good morning and weekend were had by all.
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