A team of nine ringers carried out a catch at Harty on the night of the 26th/27th November. With the calls of Lapwing, Brent Geese and other waders in the background 8 nets were erected over the shallow saltmarsh pool. High tide was at 11.00 pm. The weather was fine and dry, the temperature about 7C, and a light easterly. With no moon, a very dark night was created, giving ideal conditions for making a good catch. November is always a good month for numbers of birds and we were not let down this time. A catch of 141 birds was made, comprising 134 unringed birds plus 5 retraps and 2 controls.
The following birds were caught:
- Shelduck - 1 adult female
- Avocet - 2 (one adult and one juvenile)
- Grey Plover - 4 (3 juveniles and an adult)
- Black-tailed Godwit - 7 (all adults)
- Bar-tailed Godwit - 10, plus a retrap
- Knot - 2 (both juveniles)
- Dunlin - 103, plus 2 controls and 3 retraps
- Redshank - 4, plus a retrap
- Turnstone - 1 adult
As usual the retraps were interesting. The Bar-tailed Godwit was ringed at Harty 6 years and 20 days ago, while the Redshank was much more recent at just 87 days from ringing.
The Dunlin retraps were all ringed at Harty, the most recent at 1 years and 2 months, the second oldest at 2 years and 3 days and the oldest at 5 years and 18 days. Of the controls one had a Swedish ring and the other an East German ring, this bird had been ringed at Largenwerder, near Rostock, Germany on 31st July 2007 and had been previously controlled at Harty on 9th October 2010. So now over nine years old.
Thank you to all of the team and to Terry for dropping off the pools all ensuring that a successful night's ringing was achieved.