The final curtain is red one

So already we've reached the end of our trip here to Nesseby, and what a final day its ended up being.  The weather allowed us our 'usual' 3am start and other than a bit of a strong breeze, all looked good.  Sadly the birds were reluctant to get going this morning so our nets were notably quiet until the temperature rose a few more degrees.  During the first quiet few hours it was very much quality over quantity with a notable increase in the number of Reed Bunting being caught.  Another bunting species also increased, the Lapland Bunting are moving!  In all four birds were caught, more than doubling our total for the rest of the week before today.

Lapland Bunting

Along with the Lapland Bunting were two Red-throated Pipits, including one unquestionable bird with the classic field guide plumage.  One of the final birds before the nets got very busy was a stunning juvenile male Merlin.  Then began the busy period with Redpoll making up the bulk of the catch yet again with 450 new birds caught today, again with few retraps.  This now brings our trip total for Redpoll to an insane 1,744 birds.  We're in touch with the Norwegian Ringing Scheme to see if this is a record.  The scheme also has a very useful website showing the recoveries of many species ringed in Norway and found across the country and the rest of the world.  Check out the online maps here - http://must.ringmerking.no/

Red-throated Pipit

We also had more success with our homemade walk in trap during the high tide, although unfortunately the high tide wasn't as high as expected and allowed birds to filter past the trap entrance.  Despite this we still managed to add a new species for the trip, a juvenile Ringed Plover along with five Dunlin.

Ringed Plover

So our trip is now over and aside from packing at getting to the airport tomorrow morning, we have little to do but update the blogs and reflect on a great week.  The curtain has closed, and with so many Redpoll and a brilliant Red-throated Pipit, the curtain is a red one...

When we're back in the UK we'll post a final blog for our trip with a round up of all the cumulative species totals for the trip, but as a sneak preview we can reveal that we have finished the week on exactly 3,300 new birds!  But don't forget that another team will be back in Arctic Norway in September, further south at our 2015 trip location of Pasvik in the Ovre Pasvik National Park at Nyrud.  They'll be updating the blog as internet access allows, so check back later in the year to see how they're doing too.


Total (New Birds): Sunday 14th August 2016
Dunlin 5
Ringed Plover 1
Merlin 1
Fieldfare 2
Greenfinch 3
Great Tit 1
Redwing 1
Sedge Warbler 1
Garden Warbler 1
Lapland Bunting 4
Red-throated Pipit 2
Reed Bunting 20
Brambling 8
Bluethroat 20
Willow Warbler 29
Meadow Pipit 80
Redpoll 450
Total 629