What a cracking day to round off this year's Varanger/Nesseby ringing project! Perfect weather, lots of birds, good teamwork, and a couple of 'nearly birds' in the form of two Citrine wagtails and a Great grey shrike--next time maybe. We dismantled the site at midday, then to make sure we squeezed every last drop out of our time here, did a bit in the garden and got a second baby Waxwing ; and followed that up with a roost attempt for more Waxwing (which unfortunately didn't show), and Brambling of which we caught 10 bringing our daily total to a very respectable 401, with and overall total for our trip coming to 3531 of 36 species (plus about 500 which Anders did before we arrived). Full details will be published when we get home.
Apart from the birds we have had a good laugh, been given superb hospitality, and learned new things- like what a hoot Ivor Cutler is. Must get some of his stuff ASAP. All packed and ready for a lie in till 6.30, before Anders ferries us to the airport. We hope that we can firm up some good proposals to take the project forward in the future; we will be working on that as soon as things settle down.
Wheatear 1
House sparrow 1
Redwing 2
Redpoll 18
Arctic redpoll 10
Fieldfare 1
Magpie 1
Great tit 11
Willow warbler 21
Garden warbler 1
Sedge warbler 1
Meadow pipit 192
Reed bunting 73
Bluethroat 9
Lapland bunting 6
Greenfinch 3
Dunnock 4
Red throated pipit 1
Waxwing 1
Brambling 44
Total 401
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Monday, 2 September 2013
Merlin's Magic? Sure is!
Another day, another set of birds at the Nesseby ringing site on our penultimate day. The wind was again from the east and yet again the birds were moving into the wind ie in the opposite direction to the last 10 days-why? Generally passage was lighter than of late but we still managed a very healthy total-see below. Our thoughts are now turning to home but we still want to make the most of our last session tomorrow morning, and the weather looks set fair with gentle east winds.
Today's highlight was undoubtedly the young female Merlin which had been hanging around for a couple of hours, even perching on the top shelf of one net giving me the evil eye. In the end it's fascination with the nets got the better of it and it was in the bag.
Wader numbers have dropped dramatically and although we caught a few, we think we know the remaining Dunlin by name, and similarly they have sussed out our twinkling techniques and manage to avoid the nets with ease. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Ringed plover 1
Dunlin 3
Redwing 3
Merlin 1
Redpoll 43
Arctic redpoll 5
Willow warbler 9
Reed bunting 51
Meadow pipit 95
Brambling 16
Red throated pipit 1
Dunnock 3
Bluethroat 5
Greenfinch 2
Lapland bunting 1
Yellow wagtail 1
Total 240
Today's highlight was undoubtedly the young female Merlin which had been hanging around for a couple of hours, even perching on the top shelf of one net giving me the evil eye. In the end it's fascination with the nets got the better of it and it was in the bag.
Wader numbers have dropped dramatically and although we caught a few, we think we know the remaining Dunlin by name, and similarly they have sussed out our twinkling techniques and manage to avoid the nets with ease. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Ringed plover 1
Dunlin 3
Redwing 3
Merlin 1
Redpoll 43
Arctic redpoll 5
Willow warbler 9
Reed bunting 51
Meadow pipit 95
Brambling 16
Red throated pipit 1
Dunnock 3
Bluethroat 5
Greenfinch 2
Lapland bunting 1
Yellow wagtail 1
Total 240
Sunday, 1 September 2013
It's a pretty rustic lifestyle up here
Ok so I know that's a pretty naff way of introducing the major highlight of the day in the form of a young female Rustic Bunting! This was a lifer for all of us and a ringing lifer for Anders, and adds yet another rare bird to the Varanger Ringing Project list. To make matters worse this bird brought up the hat-trick of top birds that Ferg has delivered, so we must all give him a heart felt well done.....?!
Seriously though it was a top bird and fortunately we have a techy expert in Tormod who has helped me get the picture for you:
The wind turned east today but seemed to reduce the amount of visible passge-but we still managed a good total as shown below. The other highlight was another Willow/Siberian tit hybrid very similar to the one we caught (but failed to properly identify) last year. Fortunately we caught a Willow tit for comparison- the hybrid is on the left. The lower picture shows the photo gallery for recording purposes.
After a few hours in the garden, the final totals (unless we catch birds roosting in the garden later) are:-
Reed bunting 78
Brambling 13
Meadow pipit 58
Redpoll 58
Arctic redpoll 5
Bluethroat 6
White wagtail 2
Great tit 2
Dunnock 12
Lapland bunting 2
Rustic bunting 1
Greenfinch 4
Dunlin 3
Ringed plover 2
Chiffchaff 1
Willow warbler 20
Willow tit 1
Willow/ Siberian hybrid 1
Total 269
For interest, here is a picture of the Nesseby Ringing site:
Seriously though it was a top bird and fortunately we have a techy expert in Tormod who has helped me get the picture for you:
Reed bunting 78
Brambling 13
Meadow pipit 58
Redpoll 58
Arctic redpoll 5
Bluethroat 6
White wagtail 2
Great tit 2
Dunnock 12
Lapland bunting 2
Rustic bunting 1
Greenfinch 4
Dunlin 3
Ringed plover 2
Chiffchaff 1
Willow warbler 20
Willow tit 1
Willow/ Siberian hybrid 1
Total 269
For interest, here is a picture of the Nesseby Ringing site:
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