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