Lapp dancing with Ferg's bit of Ruff

The meal last night proved to be a big hit with a couple of culinary delights in the form of Varanger Burgers for Dave and John while Ferg, Col, and Anders enjoyed a delicately spiced loin of reindeer. Suitably replete we headed back for a slice of fruit cake as pud accompanied by either tea or whisky....But the evening entertainment was far from over as just as folk were hitting the hay, Col managed to convince Ferg that the Aurora Borealis was starting to appear ( not smoke from a small bonfire as John Killjoy Hodson would have us believe )-Ferg even managed to get a pic on his mobile for proof. At this point Dave and Col would like to apologise to Chris and Jan respectively. in our defence, it wasn't the most spectacular event we had ever seen- but the prediction is for a more dramatic scene on Saturday if it stays clear. The team allowed itself a massive lie in as a reward so we got up at 3.30 this morning....All nets open and soon we were ringing steadily although there was little apparent passage overhead. The wader nets were catching steadily until out of the blue a larger than normal bird lodged in the net- our first Ruff of these trips. A delightful juvenile bird was sexed as female on the very short wing length. As the morning wore on the temperature rose until it was shirtsleeves, and then the Lapland Buntings started to appear. On one round at 9am there were 10 of these beauties in one net with others elsewhere giving a smart total of 18 for the day. Anders saw a Little Bunting first thing but we didn't catch it. Eventually after a group of delightful schoolchildren had enjoyed the birds we were decidedly birdied out so returned home. As I write this Dave is washing up after we have eaten a superb (albeit unidentified ) ungulate chilli followed by a pudding closely resembling choc-cornflake cookies-but not quite the same in that the experimental approach to its manufacture went a bit wonky? Early night ready for another bash in the morning with Rustic Bunting as our target...more anon. Ruff 1, Dunlin 19, Ringed plover 1, Arctic redpoll 10, Redpoll 62, Willow warbler 22, Reed bunting 61, Meadow pipit 76, Bluethroat 6, Willow tit 1, Brambling 24, Dunnock 5, Lapland bunting 18, White wagtail 3, Great tit 2 Total 311