Final Totals Summary

Thank you to Simon and Paul for their efforts in entering all the days' data throughout the trip. Anders and Simon this afternoon submitted the records to Stavanger Museum. Here is the sum effort (new birds only) of Teams 1 and 2 between 10.08.12 and 27.08.12.

One Reed Bunting was also controlled and we are waiting to hear further details.

    Totals
Greenfinch    130
Brambling    125
Common Redpoll    415
Arctic Redpoll (exilipes)    9
Great Tit    16
Willow tit    2
Lapland Bunting    53
Reed Bunting    100
Little Bunting    2
Bluethroat    194
Meadow Pipit    335
Red-throated pipit    48
White Wagtail    23
Yellow Wagtail    6
Redstart    8
Pied Flycatcher    4
Dunnock    6
House Sparrow    2
Wheatear    3
Willow Warbler    481
Sedge Warbler    2
Fieldfare    21
Redwing    29
Dunlin    359
Ringed Plover    76
Little Stint    19
Temminck's Stint    1
Curlew Sandpiper    3
Sanderling    1
Turnstone    2
Jack Snipe    1
Merlin    3
Great Grey Shrike    1
   
   
   
New Birds   
Species Count    33
Total    2480

Day 18 - The Last Morning

Final morning this morning and we were still keen to make the most of the area so nets were being opened at 04.30 with the intention of running the whole site and closing down as the different rides fell quiet. As it turned out the morning was busy with an abundance of pipits in the marsh, two new species (for Team 2), and a few interesting birds out on the fjord.

Conditions were cold until the final takedown at around 09.00 when the sun showed through to overheat everyone taking down nets. Through the short session that we had the wind was cold and brisk coming in from the east.

The marsh started strongly and was jumping with pipits. The most successful line was the three fine nets which caught a lot of new birds with surprisingly few retraps.

The 60' two shelf that had been put up a couple of days earlier for Fieldfare caught our first new species of the day in the shape of a wheater.

At the same time the feeder net had attracted the attention of a somewhat larger bird -  a juvenile female Merlin seen her watching or being watched by Shaun; it's not quite clear which.

 Lapland buntings were also present though not in quite such large numbers as yesterday.

We also had a second Sedge Warbler (Team 1 having ringed the first) and six Dunnocks.

Unfortunately no photos exist of the Dunnocks.

 Brambling were absent today and there were only two Red Throated Pipits amongst the forty nine new Meadows that were ringed and we were denied any further chances to get our eyes in with the Arctic Redpoll.

During the session there was also time for the ususal scans of the fjord. Amongst the usual crowd of gulls we also had puffins, kittiwakes, arctic skuas, gannet, and red-necked phalaropes.









So, for the last time (for this year at least) the day's totals are:

    27-Aug
Common Redpoll    7
Lapland Bunting    6
Reed Bunting    9
Bluethroat    4
Meadow Pipit    49
Red-throated pipit    2
Dunnock    3
Wheatear    1
Willow Warbler    14
Sedge Warbler    1
Fieldfare    1
Redwing    2
Merlin    1
   
   
   
New Birds   
Species Count    13
Total    100

Detailed counts for day 17

	26-Aug
Brambling	2
Common Redpoll	8
Lapland Bunting	19
Reed Bunting	5
Little Bunting	1
Bluethroat	14
Meadow Pipit	34
Red-throated pipit	3
Willow Warbler	23
Fieldfare	1
Dunlin	3
Ringed Plover	3
Curlew Sandpiper	1
Arctic Redpoll	3
New Birds
Species Count	14
Total	120

Day 17 - Buntings and Lazarus the Eagle

Today was the open invitation for people to come on down to the ringing station to see us and hopefully some birds. Because of that it has been a long ringing day with nets open at 05.00 and closed at 15.00. The conditions today were not too bad but the easterly wind was somewhat unpredictable, at times making various lines of nets look like tea clipper sails one minute and then dropping dead the next. Apart from that it was relatively warm and very bright.

Apart from a few quiet spells the stream of birds from the net rides were steady and the wader nets, unfurled in the afternoon caught a handful of waders including a Curlew Sandpiper. Unfortunately the Purple Sandpiper spotted early in the day did not come down to join in the fun.

Arctic Redpoll

We had three Arctic Redpoll come through the nets in the afternoon.

We picked up on juvenile and two excellent adult examples which are shown here.,

What were also plentiful today were Lapland Buntings with a total of 19 new birds ringed. At one stage after a round on the marsh 6 were ringed in the same sitting.

An abundance of Lapland Buntings

  We also ringed another new Little Bunting.

This brings the number during the trip to two but with some figures from Anders and some convenient statistics it seems that we have made up around 6% of the total Norwegian ringing records.







After some lunch at the site and a snack of reindeer heart we met some of the local community who came down to see us in action. It was fun to let the children see the birds and to release them as well as speak to the parents and get a bit more insight into life around Varangerbotn and neighbouring communities.

Today's "And Finally" story has to be Lazarus the Sea Eagle who was spotted with his pal by Ferg earlier in the day. The two birds were way out into the fjord on a small island and decided to fish. So Lazarus dropped onto his fish quite nicely and then just sat in the water. He was clearly pleased with his catch and refused to let go and so gradually became more and more water logged as the seconds then minutes ticked by. He was watched anxiously through the scopes from the ringing station for a good fifteen minutes as he held onto the sizeable fish and flapped hopelessly in an attempt to lift out of the water. Anders and Tormod told us of similar instances where eagles have got into trouble and been rescued by fishermen but this was not going to happen here. Eventually the poor bird disappeared apart from the odd splash and was written off and we had to clear some birds that had come in. Then Tormod, scanning along the far island, suddenly spotted Lazarus "swimming" to the shore, complete with fish, and dragging himself out and onto dry land.

Had we all been more emotional types we would have cheered but as it was someone complained that all the hot water had been used and there was no more coffee so normal service was quickly resumed. It was an amazing sight though.

Today's totals are being compiled at the moment and will be posted later but a rough total looks like around 120 new birds with a good number of new Bluethroats arriving as well as the fantastic bunting numbers.

A short photo roundup

Here are a few photos from our ringing trip here in Nesseby that we did not get a chance to put up earlier. We hope you enjoy them.

Nesseby church at 03.50 

Great Grey Shrike

Redstart

Brambling

Ringing

Processing

Just a nice picture

Dunlin

View of Varangerfjord by ringing station

Willow Warbler and George

Sea Eagle on drying racks with Hooded Crow to right

Red Throated Pipit

Ringed Plover

Lapland Bunting

Common Redpoll

Heavy Traffic

Red Throated Pipit

Bluethroat

Little Bunting

Day 16 - An early finish and a Shrike

A low number early finish morning today. Nets were opened along very quiet rides at 05.30 with a cold  north easterly wind which seemed to put the birds off from moving around. We were two men down (one woman and one man to be precise) following an all night blueberry vodka and 80s music session but it made no difference given the numbers.

We had more Redwing in the nets early on and Willow Warblers were the bulk of the catch with Lapland Bunting coming second.  Very few pipits were present on the marsh this morning and Bluethroats were noticeably absent.

However, the bonus bird to cheer us all up was brought from the long line by George. This was a juvenile Great Grey Shrike and we each took turns in losing bits of skin to it for a quick photo.

With fewer and fewer birds we furled the marsh at around ten and then the remaining nets at around eleven.

Although we still have open day tomorrow we got a start on preparing to pack away by dismantling the walk-in traps on the shore and stowing the equipment.

Today we ringed 47 new birds of 11 species. The most were Willow Warblers (18) with Lapland Bunting second (7). The detailed breakdown is:

    25-Aug
Greenfinch    1
Brambling    2
Common Redpoll    4
Lapland Bunting    7
Bluethroat    6
Meadow Pipit    4
Red-throated pipit    1
Pied Flycatcher    1
Willow Warbler    18
Redwing    2
Great Grey Shrike    1

   
New Birds   
Species Count    11
Total    47
   
Grand Total    55

Detailed Counts for Day 15 - 24.08.12

    24-Aug
Greenfinch    7
Brambling    2
Common Redpoll    23
Lapland Bunting    6
Reed Bunting    4
Bluethroat    13
Meadow Pipit    44
Red-throated pipit    8
Yellow Wagtail    1
Willow Warbler    28
Fieldfare    4
Redwing    2
Dunlin    8
Ringed Plover    1
Little Stint    2

Species Count    15
Total    153

Grand Total    172
Ring Access    172

Day 15 - Missing waders and a visit from the school

A slightly later start this morning; not by much but as not much moved yesterday morning at first light the nets we pushed back a little to 05.00. There was still some frost underfoot and it was a clear day. So, much the same as yesterday morning everything slowly started to come to life with the pipits first and the odd Fieldfare and Redwing.

The morning progressed slowly but steadily as usual with a large catch of 40+ birds coming around 10.00 to occupy the team. This came courtesy of the marsh and included a mix of Meadow and Red Throated Pipits and Lapland Bunting. There were also some nice Bluethroat examples today a couple of which justified Svensson's opening word on the ageing criteria: Complex.

As well as the Little Bunting making another appearence we retrapped a Redpoll juvenile ringed as one of four pulli by Dave in Team 1 only the previous week.

What were noticeable by their absence this morning were the waders until the second tide. A flock of around fifty Dunlin were up around the church during the morning by Smelly Gully seemed abandoned until the low tide in the afternoon.

Following on from the visits by the journalists there was a lot of interest in the group's activities. A link to the story on NRK (Norwegian BBC for those reading in the UK - very high profile) and some pictures can be found here.

As word of All Celebrity Ringing spread through Finnmark we were visited by Tormod and Anders who brought news of an impending visit by the Varangerbotn school.

The children duly turned up and were shown the birds and the catching process by Anders and the rest of the team - with Anders doing most of the talking due to his grasp of the Norwegian language.

The ringing team all agreed that it was nice to see the children's enthusiasm for the birds and there were lots of hands in the air when volunteers were needed to release the birds.

Catching went on until mid-afternoon. The weather throughout the day was sunny but with chill north-easterly winds. Afternoon wader ringing picked up with some Dunlin and Little Stint returning to Smelly Gully and the Ringing Station end of the shore.

Slight technical problem tonight with the detailed totals so in brief there were 153 new birds with 8 Red Throated Pipits and 6 Lapland Bunting.

Detailed count Day 14

	23-Aug
Greenfinch	3
Brambling	4
Common Redpoll	49
Lapland Bunting	2
Reed Bunting	3
Bluethroat	10
Meadow Pipit	22
Red-throated pipit	3
White Wagtail	2
Willow Warbler	20
Fieldfare	1
Redwing	1
Dunlin	30
Ringed Plover	8
Species Count	14
Total	158

Day 14 - Frosts in August and a possible digiscoping prize

The day started with the opening team performing a familiar ritual some three months early by scraping windscreens before setting off for a day at the office. According to our new friends parked up in their motor home by the church the temperature had hit 0 degrees at 23.00 last night and the weather at 04.00 this morning was cold and sunny.

Accordingly not much was moving until a little later and so there was a slow start to the morning's ringing. 

Birding event of the day was a lengthy viewing of a young Gyr Falcon. It came in over Smelly Gully slow and low like a Lancaster bomber hired for a village fete fly-by before heading out to the small island that the gulls favour at high tide. After sitting obligingly for us for a while it headed over to play with some hooded crows and so we were treated to an exciting, if inept, hunting display before it tired and headed over to the promentary to sit before moving on. Using some Heath-Robinson technology Shaun managed to capture this shot through the scope. If Birdwatching magazine or BBC Wildlife would like to contact us to negotiate the rights to the image please contact Brewood Ringers in the first instance and quote GYR - if you're thinking less than five figures don't even bother:

We also experienced some intense media coverage today as Tormod arrived with both a print and a radio journalist. The birds were obliging by jumping into the nets after a lull for a tour of the long line and opening the wader nets after high tide also helped to provide plenty of photo opportunities for them. On that front we picked up more Ringed Plover than usual including a really nice example of an adult male. Thanks should also go to Jane for being interviewed at a time when the rest of the ringing team found it essential to go and stand ankle deep by the sewage outlet or perform bag counts.

With the wader nets doing slow but steady business the other nets were furled and sleep was sought whilst Stuart ran his own RAS for the afternoon fuelled only by a cheese sandwich and flask of tea (that he sadly overlooked until closing time).

It turned out to be a long ringing day today and various bodies are currently sleeping whilst George curries the last of the cod and crab - tomorrow we can have something else! We are due a change of wind direction tomorrow to a south easterly so sound systems are being primed for all sorts - though the playlist is currently under wraps.

Shaun sums up the mood in a picturesque fashion

Due to the slightly strange working pattern the detailed summary is still being compiled so will be posted later or as soon as possible tomorrow but the quick summary is c.144 new birds with Bluethroats tailing off but Willow Warblers and Redpoll still showing strongly.

Day 13 - Pipits and not a big bunting

Better weather this morning. There was still a westerly breeze but it had dropped considerably and was slightly overcast but warm allowing for a brisk session with an influx of pipits and, for the first time in this region, special guest star the Dvergspurv:

Little Bunting (hand supplied by Anders)

We had the usual two team split shift - extending to three teams as a couple of members polled up a little later. Once the nets were unfurled the catching started quickly with the marsh site providing a large number of pipits. The percentage of pipits in the day's catch came to almost 50 per cent and there were enough red throated to allow us to get our eyes in with the differences between the species.

The usual suspects - redpoll, brambling, and bluethroat - turned up in decent numbers but the star of the show came from the bottom shelf of the long line during a mid-morning round.

 After his first Jack Snipe last night Anders was able to ring not only his first Little Bunting but the first record in the region.

The bird was a young female in fine condition who obligingly posed for many photographs before being released.

Aside from the bird of the day we also opened up one wader net by the shore for a few dunlin although whimbrel and barwit had been seen and heard early in the morning whilst opening the nets.

We seem to be doing well on the wader front with a good number (an estimated 30%) of birds feeding along the shore wearing rings.

 On the passerine front the number of bluethroat seems to be tailing off with retraps outstripping new birds. The redpoll still have a strong showing and today the large number of pipits gave us a 10:1 ratio of meadow to red throated.

We closed the nets fairly late at around 13.00.

With the high tide becoming later we decided to miss a wader session this evening.

So instead of heading out to the shores we have tonight opened Nesseby's answer to a fish and chip shop because it turns out that even with eight people to feed a whole cod is an awful lot of fish!





Just before the final scores here is a picture of a happy ringing team. If you look closely you can see that less than one second later Ferg (centre left with hat) does Jazz Hands....

	22-Aug
Greenfinch	2
Brambling	6
Common Redpoll	22
Lapland Bunting	3
Reed Bunting	6
Little Bunting	1
Bluethroat	6
Meadow Pipit	81
Red-throated pipit	10
Redstart	1
Pied Flycatcher	1
Dunnock	1
Willow Warbler	26
Redwing	2
Dunlin	3
Little Stint	1
New Birds
Species Count	16
Total	172

Gentle Wader Session

Just four of us headed down to the site last night for some wader ringing and optimistic owl catching. As of now the owl recordings have not yet made their money back but there are still enough nights left strike gold. The wader ringing did not produce great numbers but there were a couple  of different birds during the evening.

The first to make an appearance was the curlew sandpiper picked up at Smelly Gully.

A Ringed Plover also came in to break the stream of Dunlin but towards the end of the evening a Jack Snipe was flushed into the nets.

The final score was 14 Dunlin, 1 Curlew Sand, 1 Jack Snipe, and 1 Ringed Plover. 14 Dunlin were retrapped.

Day 12 - A quiet morning and a quad bike.

This morning's conditions were not so good with fairly strong westerly winds and rain in the air. Despite this we started from around 04.00 in two shifts, according to sleep patterns rather than any other rationale and finished at around noon. We were joined by friend of the show Anders who appeared late last night after some survey work further north. 

Anders (right) with friend.

A quiet morning that, unsurprisingly , netted only 83 birds in total and included one Lapland Bunting, one Red Throated pippit, and one Pied Flycatcher. 

Both of these were ringed by Anders and were his first juvenile Red Throated and only second Lapland Bunting.

We also had a number of Redpoll come through as usual and spent a little time looking at those birds that have characteristics of Arctic Redpoll despite being Common Redpoll with Anders speculating that a hybrid is emerging.

Looking a little closer at some of the birds

With the conditions as they were there was also some net setting to be done in more sheltered areas including extending the long line of nets we have. Here we encountered two problems. The first being that a loop flipped over the top of a pole mid way along causing tension to be lost and never refound. This was easily (eventually) solved by splitting the line into 6 and four nets. 

Add caption

The second problem was caused by a local fisherman driving a two and a half foot wide quad bike along a three foot wide pathway containing the nets. Stuart waved cheerfully to the gentleman as he sped along the beach and up onto the pathway and through the meadow and disappeared down the warren containing the nets whilst Dan and Jane enjoyed making the universal symbol for Stop - You Are Going To Run Us Over as they met him at the first bend.

In all fairness he did a fine job at an impressive speed and aside from hitting the first pole (which would have deterred a lesser man) he navigated the run largely without incident. In fact, we may write to Apple Coporation to say that the 2nd generation iPod is able to withstand the weight of a determined quad bike.

Bluethroat

Last night saw a team head down to the ringing site at around 21.30 to sit in the meadow and listen to Jean C. Roche's excellent recording of a Hawk Owl - though the plan made in the dining room was to catch one. So this evening there may be two teams: one to try to find where the hawk owl (or other) might be; the second to try for a few waders as earlier in the day three Curlew Sandpipers had been spotted on the shore by the church.

On the birding front Shaun, Ferg, George, and John headed towards Vado for rough legged buzzard, merlin, sea eagles, and a possible (but not convincing) gyrfalcon and also encountered a herd of reindeer whilst a trip to the supermarket with Anders, Jane, Stuart, and Dan yielded long-tailed duck, velevet scoter, red- and black throated diver, and eider - as well as discovering possible free coffee at the supermarket/vets/police station/craft centre.

So today's totals so far:

	21-Aug
Greenfinch	5
Brambling	6
Common Redpoll	17
Arctic Redpoll	1
Lapland Bunting	1
Reed Bunting	1
Bluethroat	8
Meadow Pipit	1
Red-throated pipit	1
White Wagtail	1
Redstart	1
Willow Warbler	20
Pied Flycatcher	1
Great Tit	1
New Birds
Species Count	12
Total	65

Day 11 - How to buy fish and see birds.

So Team 1 leave today. All the batons are now handed over and Team 2 are now left to prove themselves. So what better way to do that than a leisurely morning of ringing and then some fish buying from local fishermen?

The morning started well about 05.30 with 3 Lapland Bunting coming in before 8 o'clock and a couple of Arctic Redpoll. There was also the first appearance of a Sedge Warbler for the trip.

After furling at midday an elite foraging unit  headed to the harbour to acquire king crab and fish. The resulting haul radically altered the week's menu from pasta and anything that goes with pasta to anything that goes with cod:

Fish with rather unfortunate backdrop

George waits eagerly to hear how the Bird's Eye audition went

With the evening session dropped from the schedule there was plenty of time for some birding from the base. Shaun was best rewarded for his efforts with a merlin, two peregrines and a very close encounter with a gyrfalcon. He was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and was only a few feet from the bird. It definitely made eye contact with him whilst scoping out the hoodies for dinner. Depending on how much gets drunk tonight it may be that they exchanged addresses but we will have to wait to find out...

Today's totals were somewhat lower with there being no evening session although the morning was down in volume despite there being a steady flow of birds for everyone:

	20-Aug
Brambling	5
Common Redpoll	21
Arctic Redpoll	2
Lapland Bunting	6
Reed Bunting	1
Bluethroat	7
Meadow Pipit	11
Willow Warbler	23
Sedge Warbler	1
Redwing	1
New Birds
Species Count	10
Total	78