When cannon nets go bad
May. 29th, 2005 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreThis morning I mudded at Fall Point.
On my own.
And I didn't die.
I actually went a little to the right and pretty much found the "sand walk" Ricki assured me that Fall Point was, so it was nowhere near as traumatic trudging out there. Ricki and Chris did One Tree finally, which was also a lot easier than usual, the mud was nowhere near as deep as Ricki said it would be. Came back and sorted through the samples, had some help which was good.
Afternoon was cannon netting once again. Reports of "a few (eastern) curlew, greenshank and 1000 red-necked stints".
When the cannon went off I sprinted down to the sight of most of the net in the water. Crap. This is a case of "Get the damn net out of the goddamn water NOW!" (lest birds drown). As I got down there I realised, this net only had 3 eastern curlew in it and they'd already been extracted.
There had been 14 curlew in front of the net, and seeing as curlew are rarely caught in Australia and NONE had engraved flags yet Ady (guy in charge today) figured he'd go for it. Problem was that the net's moorings came out of the sand, causing the net to fly over the water and let a bunch of birds out the back end.
Oh well, Ady was still happy we had some curlew (2 female, one male). The tide was also high enough to reset the net and try again, so we did.
*boom*
*sprint*
This time one of the weights that gets fired from the cannon and pulls the net with it detatched and went flying off into the ocean.
We caught one red-necked stint.
Ady said "Three eastern curlew is far preferable to 100 red-necked stint."
At least the processing was quick and easy. Loads of volleys turned up, and spent most of the afternoon chatting and birdwatching. Tough stuff.
On my own.
And I didn't die.
I actually went a little to the right and pretty much found the "sand walk" Ricki assured me that Fall Point was, so it was nowhere near as traumatic trudging out there. Ricki and Chris did One Tree finally, which was also a lot easier than usual, the mud was nowhere near as deep as Ricki said it would be. Came back and sorted through the samples, had some help which was good.
Afternoon was cannon netting once again. Reports of "a few (eastern) curlew, greenshank and 1000 red-necked stints".
When the cannon went off I sprinted down to the sight of most of the net in the water. Crap. This is a case of "Get the damn net out of the goddamn water NOW!" (lest birds drown). As I got down there I realised, this net only had 3 eastern curlew in it and they'd already been extracted.
There had been 14 curlew in front of the net, and seeing as curlew are rarely caught in Australia and NONE had engraved flags yet Ady (guy in charge today) figured he'd go for it. Problem was that the net's moorings came out of the sand, causing the net to fly over the water and let a bunch of birds out the back end.
Oh well, Ady was still happy we had some curlew (2 female, one male). The tide was also high enough to reset the net and try again, so we did.
*boom*
*sprint*
This time one of the weights that gets fired from the cannon and pulls the net with it detatched and went flying off into the ocean.
We caught one red-necked stint.
Ady said "Three eastern curlew is far preferable to 100 red-necked stint."
At least the processing was quick and easy. Loads of volleys turned up, and spent most of the afternoon chatting and birdwatching. Tough stuff.
