Summer here at the White Sea, that is above the Arctic Circle, is short. Birds that did not breed, or failed, already accumulate in a so called “club” – in one of the three known areas in Kandalaksha bay of the White Sea (all within the nature reserve). On the 24th I visited one of these, where in former years the big flock reached the total of 420 Oystercatchers. I still remember from those times the fascinating memorized “video” of how they altogether fly off at high tide, and in a synchronous move with intense piping circle over the islands, gaining altitude, and then at a certain moment when they are at least 300-400 meters high – go westwards and disappear in the distance over the mountains of the Kola Peninsula. Saw it only twice in all my 25+ years with Oystercatchers at the White Sea. Obviously that is the real migration move.
Well, we will hardly see it this year, but the visit to the “club” from low to high tide, when the birds so-to-say concentrate from the enormous intertidal area to few stones emerged above the sea at fill tide is in a way “a day of big hunt”. They all show their legs, and I can sit quitely in the primitive hide and read the numbers of those colour-ringed.
The total of this year in this club was 175 birds (but it is not the only club and birds redistribute between them). Looking at the site I regretfully realise that canon-netting for ringing hardly has a chance here...
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