gemfyre | Cannon Netting

Well this was my second day off. And we went cannon netting/banding.

Cannon netting is a rather precise and complicated affair involving a few days reconnisance to see where the birds are, figuring out the tide times and where to set the net so it catches not too few and not too many birds (too few and it's not worth it, too many and it takes too long to get all the birds out of the net), "twinkling" the birds towards the net site - twinking involves moving along and kind of chasing the birds to the right spot, then deciding on the precise time to fire the net.

After a 3, 2, 1 there's a loud bang as the net fires and suddenly everyone's moving. Half the people dash to the net to hold down edges so birds don't escape and to start removing birds while other people quickly set up the holding pens and shadecloths to keep the birds and banders cool. Once the birds are out of the net and sorted into the pens things get a little more relaxed.

Everyone sorts into teams at the pens and begins removing birds, taking weights and measurements and banding the birds. I was situated at the end of the line among the people placing yellow coded flags on all of the larger species (in this case Great Knots and Bar-Tailed Godwits... and one Red Knot, the Curlew Sandpipers only got plain yellow flags). If you're ever looking at waders and notice a yellow flag on the leg first you'll know that that bird was banded in the north-west of Western Australia. If you have decent binoculars or a scope you'll possibly see a letter and a number on the flag. If you do let a birdy person know, the info should get back to the wader study group and help with research into where these birds go.

My job today was gluing! I had to squeeze a drop of cement onto a screwdriver and put it on the flags so they could be firmly stuck together around the birds leg. Didn't get a chance to hold any birds today (next time I'll certainly go for that) but I had many close encounters anyway. The Great Knots have lovely black heart shaped markings all over their breasts and Godwits are just sweeties.

Our Red Knot had a bit of trouble. He was a tad stressed and when he was released he immediately went headfirst into the sand and rolled over. Eventually he was alright, he got to the cool sand by the water and ran off before flying off.

I was worried I would overheat and just stop for a while while we were out there - usually around the middle of the day the heat gets to a stage where I just have to sit still for a while before I can keep going. But under the shadecloth with a lovely breeze blowing I was fine, just a bit of sunburn on my back that I missed with sunscreen. The tide almost washed us out, but Clive, the leader of the expedition figured the tide quite well, it JUST got to the edge of the holding pens before turning.

Now I am covered in sand which just clings to sweat and sunscreen, looking forward to my shower. :)

Bird log tonight will be chaos but that's cool. Tomorrow it's back to work for me (which is barely a change from what I'm doing on my days off anyway!) I've got to go into town and see what the staff at Centerlink up here say about me getting money from them while I'm up here. Maybe I'll get to Cable Beach and see a frigatebird.

I'd really love to have a laptop up here. Anyone wanna donate to the fund??

I promise, promise, promise that I will soon start to try and get pictures uploaded for everyone to see. A laptop would help with that! ;)

Ah yes, I'd like to end with one of the "rules" of cannon netting. Never carry more than two birds... in the same hand. (You had to be there).