30 Aug 12 – Knot a bad day

We had been in our new house 6 days and were moving the final boxes over from the rented cottage when my trainer rang to say that he was going to try for a cannon net catch that afternoon as he had found a flock of Knot in amongst other waders on one of the nearby beaches.

As this was a new species for me I was keen to go along, so I took time out from moving boxes and went to the meeting point where I met up with my trainer and a couple of other members of the ringing group.

With the net set up it was a question of waiting for the birds to move up the beach and into the capture area. Just when things were looking good a chap appeared on the beach with a small group of dogs. Everything went on to hold until he and the dogs disappeared. After what seemed to be an age he disappeared off the beach and we were back into readiness mode for the catch when the chap reappeared with his dogs. Back to the waiting game.

Eventually he disappeared, the birds returned, albeit in small numbers, and the net was fired. In total we caught:

Knot                       6

Pied Wagtail            1

Ringed Plover          1

Starling                  1

Knot aren’t ringed very often in Orkney so it was good to have the chance to ring some.