Night Ringing, Deserves a Quiet Night

Night Ringing, Deserves a Quiet Night

Towards the end of last month a band of 8 keen beans packed the car for night out on the mud flats of Mida Creek. They left at 5.00pm to set up 162 m of mist nets in the light of day. Just as the light was fading the last net was secured. Anna and I were cooking that night, so I came out later at 8:30 pm to feed the hungry souls waiting for the tide to rise. As the tide rises, the wading birds are pushed closer to shore and ideally right into our strategically place nets. Every hour a small crew head out to check the nets for birds. If left in the nets for too long, the birds can get really tangled and injure themselves.

For the first few hours the birds came were caught in ones and twos but as it hit high tide at 1:50 am we caught 12 in one sweep of the nets. When removing birds from the nets you don't want to scare any uncaught birds nearby so torches are a big no. Thankfully Colin and Albert have magical hands (and eyes), extracting birds with ease in the faint moon light. Once back at base camp, 400 m away, the birds are removed from their bird bags and place in a 'bird tent' as they wait to be processed. The gas lantern is lit, the ringers watered and scribe penciled. The rest of us helpers bring birds one by one to Colin and Albert to be ringed and measured before being taken back to the beach to be released.

 Me and my Little Stint

Once the birds are all done, its time to get a few winks before it's time to check the nets again. After the peak catch around high tide, there is a quiet patch until just before sunrise. During this period, the collectors often returned empty handed. By 4 am, the team was scattered all over the place trying to sleep and keep warm. Unfortunately, it was rather windy at Mida Creek until 3 am. In wind it is more difficult to catch birds as they are more likely to bounce out. The ringing expedition ended at 7 am, as the sun was rising over the mudflats. Everything was crammed back into the car to take the tired birders back to their roosts.

 A month has past and we are soon to venture out again, hopefully without wind this time because night ringing deserves a quiet night.