Swale Wader Group

 

A team of six ringers successfully caught a few birds at Harty. On a very dark, slightly misty, still and mild night we managed to catch 39 birds, which is by far the best catch of the autumn so far. Only the two small pools at Harty were in good condition so we erected three 60ft nets on each pool.

The catch was rather unusual as it was dominated by Curlew, we also caught a Green Sandpiper which do not normally come onto the salt-marsh:

  • Avocet 1 (adult)
  • Grey Plover 1 (moulting adult)
  • Dunlin 11 (all but 1 were juveniles)
  • Curlew (19 plus 3 retraps)
  • Redshank 3 (adults)
  • Green Sandpiper 1 (juvenile)

The Curlew retraps were quite interesting:

  • one from November 2010 (2 years 11 months)
  • one from August  2004 (9 years 2 months)
  • one from September 2001 (12 years 1 month)

 

Ringing Sessions