When in Russia...

5/09/17

For the 3^rd day in a row, the day dawned cold, but quickly warmed up as the sun rose. And as it did so, the woodlands around the Nyrud police station became alive to the sounds of calling Willow Warbler. This was represented by the large proportion of birds ringed also during the morning, with almost 2/3rds of the total being made of this total. The remaining species ringed were all in the low single figures, and following a quick pulse of activity at the start of the day, quickly tailed off.

A juvenile female Bluethroat was re-trapped from earlier in the trip, and she was found to have increased in weight by 0.4g, obviously feeding up for an imminent migration with the current settled weather conditions.

Totals from Nyrud today:

Species	Totals
Willow Warbler	24
Reed Bunting	5
Meadow Pipit	3
Willow Tit	1
Great Tit	1
Bluethroat	(1)
	34 +(1)

Today, 2 members of the group, Fergus and Espen were invited into Russia to join up with the nearby Russian ringing team. The trilateral park, covering Norway, Russia and Finland has been designed to increase co-operation between the 3 nations that the forest spans, to share skills and expertise, and also to improve knowledge of Pasvik, to involve and work with local communities to enhance conservation and understanding. As well as liaising with the Russian Pasvik ringing group, a team from Norway also conducted a waterbird survey  along a 12km stretch of the Pasvik river, to continue annual monitoring of the area.

In Russia, the team were able to communicate with local communities and express the importance of the entirety of the Pasvik forest, regardless of political borders. Covering such a huge area, significant co-operation is needed to preserve it and we are humbled to play a role in the trilateral park collaboration, helping in avian studies to understand the movements of birds within the forest, but also reaching out to local communities and involving local schools to work toward highlighting, and protecting this superb area for years to come.