The beginning

1/09/17

After a late arrival at Øvre Pasvik Camping at Vaggatem, we couldn’t drag ourselves out of bed for dawn at near 4am. So with a lie in recuperation session, we headed to our usual ringing site at Nyrud for 6am. Most of the group were awake from around 4:30 though, by which time the sun was already shining and broad daylight. We awoke to lots of activity, with Bluethroats, Willow Warblers and Redpolls moving through the trees, with Meadow Pipits and Bramblings flying through.

Soon, we had caught our first birds at Nyrud, with the first Willow Tits and Warblers of the trip. The majority of our normal nets were set, however the water level of the river was again high, preventing the setting of the nets in the low willow scrub. A bit of ingenuity on the part of Ferg however, found a suitable site where we could put up a 30ft net, which proved successful, with a number of Bluethoats and Willow Warblers as a result. We look forward to seeing the results of this net with a good attempt tomorrow.

A family party of Siberian Tits were particularly enjoyed by the newbie of the group, who saw the species in the hand for the first time.

Despite a low day total, the group is heartened to see a decent number of migrants still in the area. We hope that this translates to a good variety of number of birds over the coming week.

As always during the Varanger ringing project, the group again played host to a number of local schoolchildren, who came to learn about bird ringing, its importance to understanding the birdlife of the Pasvik forest and also to provide a connection with nature. As well as providing an insight into the large numbers of birds that live within the Pasvik forest, we hope to show the importance of the site for its wealth of wildlife, and the need to protect it. As always, lots of smiling faces were on show after close up views of Bluethroat, and a variety of other species .

Species	Total
Willow Warbler	6
Siberian Tit	5
Willow Tit	2
Reed Bunting	4
Bluethroat	4
Song Thrush	1
Common Redpoll	1
White Wagtail	1
	24

Returning back to Øvre Pasvik Camping, we again opened our regular feeder net, where we managed a couple of new species for the trip. With the good numbers of finches observed within the forest and with a regular supply of food, we hope to increase the number of birds visiting the feeding stations and hopefully…. Maybe a visit from the Pine Grosbeak that has been visiting most of the summer!

Species	Totals
Greenfinch	3
Great Tit	2
Willow Tit	2
White Wagtail	1
	8