Devon and Cornwall Wader Ringing Group

: 28 February 2026

High Tide 3.93m @ 09:10, Sunrise 07:13, Team meet time 06:30, Catch 08:31

After an aborted session at Dawlish Warren in January due to high water levels in the estuary changing the birds roosting behaviour, reconnaisance earlier in the week looked promising for a catch. A final recce on the Friday morning tide by Nik and Robin assessed that setting a half-net, firing down finger point would be practical would stand a good chance of catching Oystercatcher, our target species.

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed	GPS tagged
Curlew	2	0	0	2	0
Oystercatcher	83	12	0	85	0

High Tide 3.83m @ 09:26, Sunrise 08:15, Team meet time 06:30, Catch 09:20

The catch was split into three parts, with a recce on the morning of Friday 3rd January, catch set-up on the afternoon of Friday 3rd January, followed by a catch attempt on Saturday 4th January. Sunday 5th January, was selected as a reserve date in the event that the first catch attempt did not go to plan. The recce is a vital part of cannon netting. It is used to observe the number and behaviour of birds present during the tidal period. Based on this information, the best place to set the nets and the appropriate number and mesh size of the nets required to catch the target species can be determined.

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed	GPS tagged
Oystercatcher	1	0	0	1	0
Dunlin	150	2	2	99	0

High Tide 3.84m @ 07:24, Sunrise 07:09, Team meet time 05:20

The Oystercatchers at Dawlish Warren have become increasingly difficult to catch over the past few years. This is principally due to the flock no longer roosting in the recharge area due to a change in beach profile. The flock now roosts almost exclusively on finger point itself, a much more complex site to cannon-net on. Birds can approach a possible net set from all directions; the mix of species and numbers is less predictable, and the site covers on some of our workable high tide series. After recces last winter and another in October, the group leaders formed a plan to catch on finger point in October, which sadly had to be cancelled due to weather, but we were back there in early November for an attempt.

Project Background

Over recent years the wintering Oystercatcher population has declined significantly in the UK, but this decline has been even greater on the Exe estuary. A number of factors are suspected to be causing this decline, some relate to the estuary, some at larger scales. The colour-ringing project that we are running should help determine what factors are causing the population decline; and to what extent birds from the SPA use the surrounding landscape. The results will help indicate what, if any, actions can undertaken to help reverse declines.

Oystercatchers are faithful to wintering sites so the birds you have seen here years ago may be the same ones now. The oldest Dawlish Warren Oystercatcher on record is at least 36 years old, last seen in Jan 2018.

If you see a bird with one of our colour rings, please use the form on this website to send us the details (ring-code, date, location, species) or you can send email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Cannon netting totals

2021-2022 winter totals

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed
Oystercatcher	53	5	1	51
Curlew	19	0	2	19
Redshank	33	0	0	0
Dunlin	31	0	0	31
Grey Plover	4	0	0	4
Ringed Plover	3	0	0	0

2022-2023 winter totals

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed
Grey Plover	3	0	0	3

2024-2025 winter totals

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed
Oystercatcher	1	0	0	1
Dunlin	150	2	2	99

2025-2026 winter totals

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed
Curlew	2	0	0	2
Oystercatcher	83	12	0	85

Grand totals

Species	Ringed	Retraps	Controls	Colour ringed
Curlew	21	0	2	21
Oystercatcher	414	32	2	387
Dunlin	181	2	2	130
Grey Plover	7	0	0	7
Redshank	33	0	0	0
Ringed Plover	3	0	0	0