Mission Accomplished!!!

On Thursday 3rd March a birder photographed a Turnstone carrying a Norwegian ring at Kinmel Bay, Rhyl in North Wales. Unfortunately not all of the code was photographed, so members of the SCAN ringing group quickly got together a team of ringers & helpers and this morning we set two nets on the beach, in the hope that we would catch the Norwegian ring bearing visitor!

Happenings were looking very good this morning as the high tide pushed good numbers of Sanderlings, along with small numbers of Dunlin up towards the beach. A number of Turnstone were 'twinkled' from another part of the bay, which beautifully placed them near the catching area. A bit more twinkling by Steve got the birds into the catching area, followed by his go-ahead for the catch to take place. 61 Sanderling, 17 Dunlin and 30 Turnstone were captured.... including the Norwegian ringed bird, which made all the effort worthwhile!

The 61 Sanderling was an added bonus, as apparently prior to this catch - the group had ringed 5 individuals, mainly due to Sanderling being uncommon in North Wales!

Thanks to Chris Bridge for the above photos.