Mist-netting - Skern - Monday 3rd March 2025
High Tide 6.04 m @ 20:21, Sunset 18:10, Team meet time 16:30
Mist-nets set at Greysands Pool, Northam Burrows © C W DeeDespite the tide being quite soon after sunset, we had decided to make one last mist-netting attempt of the winter at Greysands Pool at Northam Burrows. A team of nine set eight nets across the shallow pool and along its shoreline. The previous day's tide would have been higher, but so soon after sunset that the nets would have been visible to birds moving off of the saltmarsh onto the pool as the tide flooded. Weather conditions on the evening were ideal at this exposed site, with the light northerly dropping at dusk, but the small crescent moon was surprisingly bright in a clear sky. All nets were set by 17:45 backed by a beautiful sunset and the tape players were turned on as the last light disappeared at 18:45.
Mist-netting - Exminster Marshes – Friday 31st January 2025
HT 3.76m @ 19:46, Sunset 17:02, Meet Time – 16:00
As the dimming afternoon light washed over Exminster Marshes, the 13-strong team assembled at the RSPB carpark, donned their boots and waders and made their way along the flooded road towards the catching fields.
Mist-nets on the Exminster Marshes lagoons © Nik Ward
The group split into two teams to put up the mist-nets. The larger team set-up two lines of nets (10 nets in total) in the lagoon fields near the ringing station. In a further field, Ryan, Ezra and Flo used 2-shelf nets to create a Y-shape formation of 4 nets and a separate line of 2. Interestingly, despite the lower number of nets, these two sets were more productive than those in the main lagoons. Tape lures were set to play Curlew and Lapwing calls on the nets set in the further field, with the aim to call in these species as the tide pushed them up to roost. The fields were muddy to say the least, and there were some near misses of slipping over in the squelch!
Setting began at 16:45 and was completed before complete darkness around 17:30. Once dark, the tape lures were switched on. The evening began starry and clear, but cloud cover gradually increased as the night progressed. Thankfully the moon was just a silver sliver and so did not cause too much illumination.
Cannon-netting, Dawlish Warren, 4th January 2025
High Tide 3.83m @ 09:26, Sunrise 08:15, Team meet time 06:30, Catch 09:20
The catch was split into three parts, with a recce on the morning of Friday 3rd January, catch set-up on the afternoon of Friday 3rd January, followed by a catch attempt on Saturday 4th January. Sunday 5th January, was selected as a reserve date in the event that the first catch attempt did not go to plan. The recce is a vital part of cannon netting. It is used to observe the number and behaviour of birds present during the tidal period. Based on this information, the best place to set the nets and the appropriate number and mesh size of the nets required to catch the target species can be determined.
Aims
The aims of the Devon and Cornwall Wader Ringing Group are to study the wading birds that live in, or pass through, Devon and Cornwall.
We hope to undertake fieldwork approximately once a month, mainly at weekends, involving either mist-netting or the use of a cannon net. Members of the group live across Britain, although many are based in Devon. A key site for fieldwork is the Exe Estuary and in particular Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve, where we have a project on colour ringed Oystercatcher.
Birds are marked with individually numbered metal leg rings and, to aid relocation without the need to recapture them, with colour rings. Under special license we are also fitting GPS tags to a small number of birds to help understand the way they use the habitats around the estuary through the winter and at different states of the tide.
Links
The Dawlish Warren Recording Group publish regular updates on the birds seen at Dawlish Warren.
The county bird clubs are Devon Birds and the Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society.
Bird ringing in Britain is licensed and coordinated by The British Trust for Ornithology. More information on why we ring birds and why we use colour marks on our study species can be found here. Bird ringing in Europe is coordinated by EURING.
The definitive database of all colour-marking schemes for waders in Europe and the East Atlantic flyway is available on the International Wader Study Group website. All editions of their publications (Wader Study, Wader Study Group Bulletin and International Wader Studies) are available online.
For species other than waders the European colour-ring Birding website, voluntarily maintained by Dirk Raes, should be useful.
Policies
Join us
The group welcomes volunteer ringers from anywhere who are interested in taking part in the fieldwork, although membership of the group is open to all, whether or not you hold a bird-ringing license. Please bear in mind that we need to have a good balance of experience across the team for each session, but we do our best to accommodate and train the less experienced.
The current membership fee is £5 per year, running from November to October. You can register and join here.
Acknowledgements
The group operates with the excellent support of Teignbridge District Council and Devon Wildlife Trust as landowners of Dawlish Warren. Warren Golf Club kindly allow access across their land.
We are also grateful to he RSPB and David King for allowing us to operate on their land at Exminster Marshes and to Torridge District Council for co-ordinating permissions at Northam Burrows.
The value of the projects would not be fully realised without the excellent re-sighting work undertaken and publicised by the Dawlish Warren Recording Group.
We are grateful to Natural England for funding the rings and GPS tags, and for providing staff time for ongoing management of the projects. We are also grateful to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) for staff time for fitting the GPS tags, organising the project and dealing with data. Devon Birds have generously provided some funding for colour rings.
Header images on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons license by the photographers.