A hat-trick of newbies

What a day!  By the second round we were already fast approaching 150 new birds.  As usual, willow warblers made up the bulk of the catch, but from the rest of the day one thing was clear...  the meadow pipits are on the move!  In all, 95 were caught along with a few tree pipit and a single red-throated pipit.

As the morning progressed and the afternoon begun, we'd smashed the 200 mark and were well on our way to over 300 new birds, with numbers of willow warbler and meadow pipit continuing to climb ever higher.  Some nice additions came in the form of 4 new siberian tits, 2 brambling and a little bunting and a retrapped siberian jay from earlier in the first team's trip.  Also of interest were three very different yellow wagtails, with one bird possibly being from the thundergi subspecies, see photos below.

A change in approach from mid afternoon saw the very welcome addition of not one, not two but three new species for the team's work in Norway over the last four years in the form of spotted flycatcher, lesser spotted woodpecker and siskin.  Along with a few additions from Ferg's team before they departed, we came perilously close to ringing over 400 new birds.  Once again, what a day!


18th August (393 new birds)
Willow warbler 198
Lesser spotted woodpecker 1
Dunnock 1
Meadow pipit 95
Red-throated pipit 1
Tree pipit 2
Yellow wagtail 3
Spotted flycatcher 1
Bluethroat 19
Redstart 5
Redwing 1
Great tit 18
Willow tit 3
Siberian tit 4
Common redpoll 8
Brambling 2
Siskin 1
Reed bunting 29
Little bunting 1