Roundup Day 7

Hello from Nesseby on the Varangerfjord where a change of wind has brought a chill autumnal feeling to the air and an influx of waders which bodes well for our colleagues who will be ringing in team 2.  The bird of the day so far has been a Sanderling

This lovely little bird dropped in to see us this morning along with more Dunlin.  Although the temperature has dropped the wader pace has risen  Today we are splitting our activities with a ringing session this morning (141 birds) followed by a bit of R and R and then a session to coincide with tonight's highwater.

Some of us took the opportunity to walk out past Nesseby church to do a spot of birdwatching and were rewarded by a spectacular display from the Arctic Skuas.  They often feed by bothering gulls so that the gulls regurgitate their food in agitation which is the consumed by the Skuas, not nice maybe, unpleasant perhaps but very effective and surprisingly interesting to watch the dramas unfold.  There were a good number of Kittiwake in the fjord this afternoon and these soon attracted the attention of the piratical Skuas 

This developed into a series of flying contests with astonishing agility being shown by all participants

As well as flying well the other feature of these confrontations was the vast amount of screaming at each other,  they are very like most football crowds lots of aggressive shouting and probably strong language if we could understand it but surprising little physical contact

Not all the birds were bent on confrontation,  some birds were just gracefully passing through like the lovely Bar-tailed Godwit

On the human front our intrepid team leader Colin probably now regrets not bringing any thigh waders and may well be our first case of trench foot if he continues to underestimate the water depth or overestimate the height of his wellies.











We will include the results of tonight's escapades with the Day 8 roundup as your blog scribe has every intention of sitting down with a beer or two at the end of today and my typing is bad enough without being "tired and emotional"
 

	16-Aug
Greenfinch	4
Brambling	9
Common Redpoll	3
Reed Bunting	10
Bluethroat	12
Meadow Pipit	10
Red-throated pipit	4
White Wagtail	2
Dunnock	1
Willow Warbler	36
Redwing	3
Dunlin	46
Ringed Plover	1
Species Count	12
Total	141

So here are this mornings catch figures as you can see another very satisfactory haul!