A catch of waders was made at Harty on Friday/Saturday when the high tide was at 00.30. With a full moon and a light decreasing south westerly we anticipated that most birds would avoid being caught. Indeed many Curlew and Godwits were observed flying over and away from the pools.
With the help of intermittent cloud cover we managed to catch 35 birds made us as follows:
- Little Grebe 1
- Dunlin 3 (all juveniles)
- Curlew 2 (one juvenile and one adult)
- Whimbrel 2 (one juvenile and one adult)
- Black-tailed Godwit 1 (adult male in winter plumage)
- Redshank 24 (plus a retrap from October 2014)
- Green Sandpiper 1 (a juvenile)
Catching a Little Grebe is very unusual, from memory this is only the third one that we have caught at this site. Green Sandpiper are also quite unusual but this is the second in 2015. Whimbrel are expected at this time of year.