Redpolls pipit to the post.

Nets opened by 04.45, on a beautiful early Autumnal morning. The impression we got however was of a very slow day--but actually numbers built up steadily, until the strengthening westerly wind made catching very difficult. Wader catching was almost non-existent after the harassment they had from the Merlin yesterday. Two Merlins appeared today and we thought at least one would be caught but they remained elusive. Bird of the day was a young Redstart in very juvenile plumage suggesting breeding nearby.
Most numerous bird in the trapping area was Meadow Pipit with another slight passage, but once we got back to Kate's house, the Redpoll were about in good numbers and we ringed another 30, plus one Arctic Redpoll which was processed for the DNA analysis we are doing. The title refers to 64 Mipits beaten by 104 Redpolls--just in case you were baffled like some of the team!
Total for the day was 239, and tomorrow's forecast is OK--assuming it turns out as indicated. We do have a school visit and potentially a press visit also so we hope we can deal with the predicted rush along with the public relations....
Domestically things are going really well--we have a rubbish collection tomorrow, Kate had a log delivery which we have stored in her garage, and Dave made a potentially stunning flapjack for dinner, which Colin M unfortunately burned around more than just the edges....
Just a few pics of some of the birds we ringed today...

A juvenile Redsart-how many breed in Varanger is an interesting thought for a bird which in Britain we associate with mature Oak woodland near streams.

This is a male Brambling in Winter plumage--note the buff tips to the head feathers which will wear off during the winter to expose the jet black beneath for the breeding season next Spring. The buff tips help to reduce aggression in this species which feeds gregariously during the Winter.

A classic young male Fieldfare. These breed in  big numbers in Varanger--and this bird along with its mates will be heading south and west very soon to spend the Winter months in warmer climes where it will be able to find worms in warm weather and berries in frozen conditions.

See  Charlie blog http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk for further information.

A day at the Fayre.

Today dawned bright, cool and still with us all having a much needed lie in until 4am. Nets were opened before 5am and soon we were catching steadily, but with no great rush at either the main site or at the 'marsh site'. However numbers began to build and it became obvious that there were 2 main species on the move--Redpoll and Reed Bunting. Highlights included re-trapping one of the Little Buntings, and the Blue Tit--something of a rarity in itself up here. With only 7 individual Dunnocks ringed today, this represented a phenomenon not really known in Britain-- a passage of Dunnocks--we had the same type of thing last year at the same time.
A Merlin spent much of the morning terrorising all sorts of birds but especially the waders which really cut down the numbers staying around and hence reduced the catch a lot.
Nevertheless our total of 300 birds ringed is very good by any standards, and was paced such that we were able to collect data on most of the birds.
I have included a pic below of one of the Bluethroats we caught today, an adult male clearly showing the 'red spotted' throat patch which gives this northern race its title.

After lunch we mosied down to Varangerbotn where the annual Sami craft and food fayre was being held. This regularly attracts visitors from a wide geographical area and gives the Sami people a chance to demonstrate their skills, show off their costumes and catch up with old friends. Here are a few pics from the event.

 This group of young people shows how strongly the tradition of owning and wearing their ethnic costumes and jewellery is held.

 This man had a stall selling dried meat--including some of the dried moose and reindeer heart we sampled last year. It's a shame we wouldn't see any of our local butchers wearing traditional costumes like this.

The old meets the new. Traditional costumes on the left--digital till and modern wear in the foreground and on the right.

We had a great time at the fayre, and bought some cool gifts--we hope--and this rounded off yet another superb day in Varanger. Sipping a gin and orange as I write, I am looking forward to having a halibut chowder for dinner--but not looking forward to hearing the Walsall score when it comes through.......more tomorrow.

more information at http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

A Wizard Day!

After a lie in till the alarms went at 4am, we got to the nets at 4.45am--nets open by 5.15. The weather was perfect with gentle NW wind and light cloud cover. Passerine catching got off to a slow start, but picked up with another decent pulse of Meadow Pipits resulting in 117 new birds ringed--but as in recent days as the wind dropped and cloud cover came in, the passage stopped. However, we had a good early session of wader catching as the tide came in--resulting in 1 Little Stint, 17 Dunlin and a very respectable 9 Curlew Sandpiper--quite simply gorgeous birds.
Back on land, catching stayed consistent but easy to handle with 2 star birds--a beautiful young male Merlin (hence the title), and a second for this trip- Siberian Tit. The two pics below show both of these star birds.
We also caught a Hooded Crow in one of the wader nets which gave Stu the opportunity to demonstrate his sprinting skills.....unfortunately we didn't have a ring size suitable for this bird so we had to release it unhinged--aaaargh!.
An afternoon spent as tourists heading back to our accommodation later added only a small number of birds to today's total of 291 birds.

How stunning is this young male Merlin--except if you are a Meadow Pipit or a small wader for whom this bird poses a constant threat of a rapid death.

A handsome beast--worthy of a hug.......??? Shame we didn't have any rings for it.

A lovely juvenile Siberian Tit--this is the second of our trip, and a new species for our Varanger visits--is this a Putin exile?

See more information on http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

It's a long wader to tick a rarity

Please take a moment to think about that title....Colin H spent a lot of time in  the van this afternoon thinking it up--I hope these notes will explain it.
This morning dawned very disappointingly with very low cloud and rain constantly a threat. Fortunately the rain didn't materialise, but neither did the migration movement we had hoped for. Consequently the morning got off to a very slow start--but because of the state of the tide, wader catching soon took over as the main positive of the early hours. Eventually the cloud started to lift and we had another small movement of Meadow Pipits. However, the gentle winds so far have all been from the east and movement has been into the wind and rather low key. The forecast for tomorrow is for a gentle westerly so here's hoping.
Wader catching worked well all day on incoming and outgoing tides with 46 waders caught--hence the first part of the title.
Tormod brought his three interns over to sample what we were all about--the picture below shows them all proudly handling some waders before release.

After lunch we decided to be tourists again and sample what the tundra area was really like, so we drove up the Tana valley and onto the upland road towards Botsfjord. En route we were very fortunate to hear Dave shout "Stop--owl on a post"-- and sure enough there was this stunning Hawk Owl preening on top of a telegraph post. We saw several Rough Legged Buzzard--pics on Charlie Sargent's blog, and a small pool with some eclipse plumage Long Tailed Duck.

What a superb bird the Hawk Owl is--it flew from perch to perch showing all its characteristics--so cool.

We arrived back at Varangerbotn at 16.30, to fill up the van and do some shopping. We heard Redpoll singing in Kate's garden so we decided to open the net--29 Redpoll caught in just over half an hour was an excellent result and included 2 adults with credentials for DNA sampling. Overall total of birds ringed today was 235, not bad considering a very modest amount of passage and a restricted time of ringing due to poor weather. Let's hope tomorrow is better.

For further information see http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

Rein costs us deer

The original forecast proved inaccurate because when the alarms went at 03.30 it was raining steadily outside--'set alarms for 7' was a welcome group decision. We actually woke earlier and were opening nets at 07.00 but on/off showers meant we didn't really get going till about 9am. This cut down the catch significantly--which perhaps wasn't such a bad thing as we had a planned visit from the delightful pupils of Vestre Jakobsvelt school who had done quite a bit of preparatory work and knew lots of the English names of birds--and things about the ringing process. We also had visits from our Dutch friends, a couple from Finland, and Lee/Bernadette and Lindsey/Keith from England.
K and L are trainees so we got them involved and Keith in particular got a few cool ringing 'ticks' towards his training log.
The main birding issue of the day was a short pulse of Meadow Pipit passage resulting in 89 ringed. Despite the poor weather we still managed a very creditable 202 new birds plus a Reed Bunting retrap--probably from one of the two previous years We have now been here a week, and have ringed 1716 birds of 31 species, and have added 4 new species to the Nesseby list--Blue Tit, Siberian Tit, Bullfinch and of course Barred Warbler. Things are going well--but we have not yet experienced the mass, sustained movement of birds that we had last year--but we still have another 6 days......

Col holding court with the pupils.

The kids from Vestre school really got involved with the process.

Finally-apologies for the pun in the title.....

Please see Charlie's blog for further details http://varangerringing.blogspot.co.uk

Back to school for the old fart-and the shape of things to come?

Col had a short break from ringing this morning to call in at Varangerbotn school to give a short presentation to pupils from grades 5-8 with their teachers in preparation for their visit to our ringing site on Monday. It was a very enjoyable session and we are looking forward to hosting them next week. Tomorrow we have a visit from the school at Vestre Jakobselv. We hope it is as enjoyable as the visit we had from them last year.

Back to today's ringing. We gave ourselves a long lie in until 3.30 today and arrived on  site at 4.30. It was a balmy 9 centigrade, thick cloud and still--with absolutely no birds around. However, as the cloud lifted, and a very gentle easterly breeze got up, birds started moving--especially Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings and Lapland Buntings. We suspected birds were dropping into the nets when Charlie didn't get back from the 'marsh' site as quickly as usual. The 'new' boys had their first taste of a decent movement with a big catch, although it did not last as long as we would have hoped. However it did result in 135 Mipits, 57 Reebus and 11 Lapland Bunts. There was a steady catch rate until about 13.00 when we called it a day having ringed 323 new birds--notably 5 Sedge Warblers, 41 Willow Warblers, and another 27 Bluethroats taking us to 216 of this species so far. A couple of interesting points were that there was a movement of Greenfinches resulting in 10 new birds caught, with lots around. Finally it was again clear that the migration movements mentioned above always seem to take place INTO the wind. This means that the birds are going the 'wrong' way i.e. north east at this time of year. Why?
We also resurrected the minigoland walk-in trap for waders which was quite successful with a new species caught in the form of 2 delightful Curlew Sandpipers--another new species for Colin H and Charlie.
Picture of Curlew Sandpiper and Dunlin, the Dunlin is on the right:-

Another helpful looking forecast for tomorrow--what will it bring??

See http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk for additional information

Oh so close to a lifer....

STOP PRESS--Tormod has just confirmed that the Barred Warbler was, as suspected, a first for the Finnmark region--niceness!!

I've been banging on about the variation in the birds on offer on previous posts--and today was no exception. It was a cold morning so we decided to hold fire and didn't open the nets until things warmed up a little. It quickly became apparent that there wasn't a lot about although there were one or two short bursts of visible migration; but nothing sustained.
The result was that we struggled to reach a creditable 205, with no particularly noteworthy species, although it is always nice to catch a few waders and Lapland Bunting. The stand-out species in many ways this visit has been Bluethroat. Today we caught another 33 new birds bringing the total for our 5 days so far to a stunning 189. To put this in context; last year we caught 135, and in 2012 we caught 194--both totals refer to a 13 day catching period.
This has given us plenty of time to clean up, prepare for dinner, do some serious shopping, and catch up with a few z's. Our Dutch friends Petra and Frank again showed up at a very welcome time with tea, coffee and biscuits-and some good info on a potentially cool place to catch a particularly cool bird. I will report in due course if it works out.
Oh--I'd better explain the title of todays post. A call from the nearby hedge indicated a woodpecker was close, and when it flew onto a wooden telegraph post it revealed itself as a White Backed/ Three Toed pecker. I shot down to the nets and switched on the relevant track, which brought the bird to within a few feet of the net. At which point the iPod ran out of juice, and the bird ran out of patience. Those who know me will realise that I may have cursed under my breath at this point.....
However, it's very encouraging to know that they are in the area so I hope we get another chance. The weather looks brilliant for tomorrow--quite warm still and cloudy so let's hope the birds oblige. Charlie took no pics today so here are a few extras from previous days:-

Here's a nice view of a small group of typical waders that we have been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to catch. Dunlin in front, then Ringed Plover withLittle Stint in the background.

A stunning male Bluethroat-this is the northern or red-spotted form and you can just about see the faint red on the throat above the blue area. One of the key species of this year's trip so far.

 This is a Red-Throated Pipit, showing -unusually at this time of year-a reddish throat patch. This species has been less common than in the previous 2 visits.

This is an unusual view of the iconic Nesseby church to show the old fish drying frame which is so typical of many villages in this part of the world. Doubters please note the beautiful blue sky!

Please see http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk for additional information.

It keeps getting better.

A cool, dull start to the day resulted in a first net round of less than 10 birds-not very auspicious-and got us thinking about what excuses we could make on the blog tonight for a poor catch. However, things gradually improved along with the temperature and overall weather.

What is intriguing, and I guess keeps birders and ringers going is how different each day can be. Although we ended up with a very respectable 220 new birds, it became apparent that there had been very little movement of common species such as Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting with a meagre 19 and 40 birds ringed respectively. The first diamond to be pulled out of the net was a cracking Little Bunting--followed shortly afterwards by a second--these alone would have made this a belting day, but more was to come.
Some weird kind of migration must have been happening because we caught 4 Redstart, 2 Pied Flycatcher, 3 Wheatear and a ginormous female Bullfinch. Then Charlie appeared from a net round uttering that magic phrase--''I've got something in this bag and I haven't got a clue what it is"--how I hope he comes out with that one a few more times this trip. The 'something' turned out to be a Barred Warbler, miles out of it's range, and although we haven't been able to check yet, we feel sure this is the first record for the area.
To top this off we caught 23 Redwing and another 45 Bluethroat-more of this species in 4 days than we caught in two weeks last year.
After a quick , late lunch we decided to become tourists and set off for downtown, sin city Vadso, which, being Sunday, was closed. But the attached island of Vadsoya was beautiful in the late summer sun, and we had a lovely walk with some good birding rounded off with a very close view of an imposing mammal--see below.

A lovely day--although Colin H is much 'harder' than the rest of us cos he's from Peckham. One of our Dutch friends Petra is looking on--thanks so much for the coffee and waffles to Petra and Frank.!

Look at this beauty--a Little Bunting showing the key features--a slightly decurved upper mandible, black ear covert pattern and brown cheeks--oh, and it's small.

Unlike this great big female Bullfinch--the first we have ringed in this site, with a wing length of 94mm and a weight of 30.7 gm. Back home these figures would be around 82 mm and 22 gm--data taken from CH's records of 100 Bullfinches.

Star bird of the day was this juvenile Barred Warbler. It may not have the looks of some species--but is a real rarity in these parts

There were a couple of Purple Sandpipers resting on the rocks at the tip of Vadsoya island--always very unobtrusive, but showing the distinctive down curved bill with a yellow base, overall mottled colouring and the pale legs.

'' Keep off my patch" seemed to be the stance of this ace stag Reindeer on the island, which rounded off a fantastic day.

See also Charlie's blog http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

Many Lapplanders in Lappland!

Another superb day with in excess of 300 new birds ringed--see Charlies blog for details.
http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

For those not especially interested in birds quite a lot of other stuff has happened. For instance, the weather has been still but cool, the mini-bus works well, Colin H has had a decent idea, the chilli con carne and fruit crumble were very nice, and we have a contact to try and get some local fish for meals later.
But more important than these domestic details is the fact that the ringing was again superb, with a slick team to get things done. The highlights were a small but significant passage of Lapland Buntings which resulted in our best ever day total of 17 ringed. A couple of Willow Warblers were super examples of the 'acredula' subspecies--very grey and cold looking--see pic below. We also managed to ring 2 clear examples of what are currently called Arctic redpoll, plus one other which nay have had dubious parentage....with luck the data and DNA samples should clarify this. We finally managed to catch some of the waders which this year appear to be much more intelligent than previously and seem to know our twinkling strategy before we do!!
The forecast for tomorrow is again very good so we are about to hit the sack with a tingle of anticipation--saddos that we are.

One of the 17 Lapland Buntings today--pink bill and chestnut greater coverts are the giveaway

Can you identify this warbler??

Here is that same bird (on the left) with a member of the same species that we are more familiar with in England. These are both Willow Warblers, but the left hand bird is of the acredula race which breeds in northern latitudes.

Left hand bird is a Common (mealy) Redpoll--but just compare this with what most people would recognise as an Arctic Redpoll--with a tiny bill in comparison-and other plumage features. But, are they separate species--DNA sampling may help us with this question.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Stint

What a brilliant day! It started with a sound night's sleep--at last--with all rising at 03.00 for a slice of cold porridge mmmm! Down to the nets at 04.00 in dull, still conditions which were perfect for ringing. Image our chagrin when the first net round turned up only about 20 birds. BUT from then on things developed well with no visible migration but with birds appearing from nowhere--especially Reed Buntings--which ended the day with 93 ringed. We made steady progress until early afternoon with everyone pulling together, including ace scribe Sara, to ring and process 317 new birds of 18 species. 43 new Bluethroats is incredible by any standards, a Redstart, Blue tit and Siberian Tit ( see pic below) were all good birds--and the first 7 Lapland Buntings bode well for the coming days. Very low numbers of Meadow Pipits compared to last year may change as the days pass--but very disappointing are the numbers of Redpoll/Arctic Redpoll--especially since we were hoping to carry out some research on their DNA--maybe things will change. We managed to catch our first wader--a Little Stint --hence the title--but the other waders are proving unbelievable difficult to catch although a couple of Temmink's Stint's, Curlew Sandpipers and Spotted Redshank are exercising our minds about the best way to catch them.

On a domestic front, Kate's place is still standing, and as yet we haven't wrecked either the dishwasher or the washing machine--and meals are yummy!

A Siberian Tit which gave Dave a nice warm feeling.......

Very few of the Willow Warblers show characteristics of the 'acredula' race which are supposed to breed here. However, these two Wibblies show some of the differences--the bird on the right could be a juvenile from my home patch--but the one on the left shows some of the greyness associated with this race.

The day ended with superb weather ( which looks looks set for tomorrow) so Charlie took this view looking east along the fjord--what a perfect ending to the day--apart from a pair of thigh waders full of water after an abortive attempt to catch Dunlin etc--not one of Col's better plans....more tomorrow.

See http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk for more information.

Up and running at last!!

What a fun and event filled day this has been. For details about some of the birds have a look at Charlie Sargent's blog which is linked below.

http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

After a very long and tiring journey yesterday we were all looking forward to a lie in at 06.00 hrs. Unfortunately one member of the team, who shall remain nameless decided to enter the world snoring championships--this is being held in Tokyo at the moment but he wanted to enter from here!! For the rest of the trip he has been confined to a hermetically sealed isolation chamber where Kate stores her dog food.
However, the 03.15 rise did give us time to sort out rings, nets, poles etc even though the pitter patter of rain on the roof clearly meant that we wouldn't be ringing today--or would we??
As soon as we had fed and watered we set off on a mega shopping expedition--stopping for a few lifers for Charlie on the way, and stocked up with lots of food. About midday the rain eased so we decided to set nets and leave open to see what we might catch--result 91 new birds of good quality.
We even had time to have an erection--of the Lavvu that is, which will act as out ringing base from here on. Charlie has spent some time this evening repairing a table to use for ringing which we borrowed from Kate's mum earlier today. Rather embarrassingly it fell apart in our hands as we tried to get it into the minibus--well done Chas.
We have a strategy for what we think will be a big day tomorrow. We have full tums after a spag bol, and a couple of glasses of vino palatico. More news tomorrow, but for now here are a few pics to brighten up your day:

Is it a Lavvu or Col's personal Lavy?

Mum and Dad Red Throated Diver canoodling while baby can't bear to watch.

A young male Merlin just for Glynn.

New No Fly Zone at Heathrow!?

Title refers not to a terrorist threat but to a line of pillows maintaining Col's and Charlie's modesty in the double bed they ad to share, when Dave bagged the only single bed in the room. Journey to Kirkenes relatively uneventful, although half an hour late which meant we didm' get to Kates house until 10.30pm.

Weather awful, peeing down but forecast (fingers crossed) is better from this evening. Not all lost because time usefully spent sorting out kit and rings.

We are off to have a look at the site to see if there are any Phalaropes followed by a megashop to clear the way for what we hope will be the big start tomorrow. If we manage any ringing later on today we will try to post before bedtime.

Vehicle appears roadworthy and is comfortable.

We also have 5 star accommodation, the home of our friend Kate.

Here We Go Again!!

 The Varanger ringing project is all set for another exciting year with 2 teams preparing for this year's visit. First off the blocks will be Colin's team--comprising Colin M, Charlie S, Colin H, Dave C, and Stu and Sara B.

Stu and Sara left this morning to spend a couple of days in Oslo-departing with the romantic words of ''I'll see you on Wednesday in Oslo airport''

The rest of the team fly out on Wednesday morning from Heathrow, via Oslo arriving at Kirkenes airport at 20.00. After an hour and a half drive we will arrive at Nesseby to stay at Kate's superb bungalow, which she has kindly vacated for us while she travels out onto the fells to catch and mark her family herd of Reindeer!!

We hope to get started on Thursday morning although how many birds we catch will be dependent on how much effort is needed to establish the net sites and erect our palatial new Laavu--a traditional Sami teepee, which will be our ringing base for the trip.

This year we will be focussing on waders and breeding and migrant passerines again--but with an emphasis on Redpoll/Arctic Redpoll. We hope to collect lots of data to feed into the taxonomic debate about speciation--let's hope we can add to the debate.

The second team will be led by Ferg--about which more as his team prepare to arrive on 9th September. This is unknown territory as no ringers have operated in the area at such a late date, so who knows what they will turn up--some juicy pipits, eastern warblers or perhaps a rare bunting?

Keep logging onto the site--we will do our best to provide daily updates with stories and pics of our exploits!!