Return to Altcar - more wader ringing

After last Septembers successful attempt to catch and colour flag Knot at Altcar  (see here) plans were made for an attempt this spring to try and catch and flag a different cohort of birds. The number of re-sightings of these initial birds exceeded all expectations with re-sightings from the Wirral the very next day.

The date set was Good Friday and I met up with some of the regular SCAN team at 6.30 to set the nets before the others arrived later.

The forecast rain gradually stopped and as we arrived at the training camp gatehouse a Tawny Owl called from a nearby copse. Four nets were set and as the rest of the team arrived we all assembled at base camp for a briefing on the days events. A small group (including me) were hidden in the dunes with the firing box waiting instructions from Steve and Richard via radio. We could here birds congregating as the tide rose but couldn't see them. We had to rely on radio communications to let us know what was happening.

Eventaully the message came to arm and fire and we stumbled through the long marram grass to the waters edge where we could see we'd made a good catch. After lifting the nets clear of the still rising tide, to ensure the birds were safe, they were covered in hessian to keep them calm before being extracted, put into storage cages and then ringed and processed.

Last autumns Knot were marked wit ha pale blue colour ring below an orange flag on the left leg. This time we used a green colour ring below the orange flag:

Around 530 Knot were caught and flagged this time and we've already had re-sightings from Hilbre.
We caught a few controls as well with the highlight being this colur ringed Polish bird (photo by Kenny Mac).

Last time we were at Altcar there were good numbers of Grey Plover, another high arctic breeding species, but Knot were our priority so the urge to make a good catch of this species was ignored! This time we were prepared with flags and colour rings for this species as well as bar-taield Godwits.

We were pretty pleased to catch probably the biggest single catch of Grey Plover made in the UK for20 years - 78 birds! These are truly beautiful birds in full summer plumage but very few of the birds caught were starting to attain this. Very few juvneiles were caught and these are identified by the juvenile gold feathers mixed in with the adult grey / black ones.

                                                 Above: Juvenile Grey Plover

 We also caught and flagged 9 Bar-taield Godwits and one of these birds has been sighted roosting on Middle Eye already. It was to far to read the flag code but the fact it was getting its summer plumage narrows it down as we only caught one bird this advanced!

Above: Bar-tailed Godwit VU - probably the one seen roosting on Middle Eye by Steve yesterday.

A great day and hopefully some valuable data collected and more to be collated once these birds are re-sighted. After waking up at 3.30 I was knackered by the time I got home at just after 17.00 and after a quick shower sat in the garden with a cold beer reflecting on how far these birds will be flying in the next few weeks to their breeding grounds. It would be fantastic to get some sightings of these birds from the Arctic.