It's a pretty rustic lifestyle up here

Ok so I know that's a pretty naff way of introducing the major highlight of the day in the form of a young female Rustic Bunting! This was a lifer for all of us and a ringing lifer for Anders, and adds yet another rare bird to the Varanger Ringing Project list. To make matters worse this bird brought up the hat-trick of top birds that Ferg has delivered, so we must all give him a heart felt well done.....?!
Seriously though it was a top bird and fortunately we have a techy expert in Tormod who has helped me get the picture for you:

The wind turned east today but seemed to reduce the amount of visible passge-but we still managed a good total as shown below. The other highlight was another Willow/Siberian tit hybrid very similar to the one we caught (but failed to properly identify) last year. Fortunately we caught a Willow tit for comparison- the hybrid is on the left. The lower picture shows the photo gallery for recording purposes.

After a few hours in the garden, the final totals (unless we catch birds roosting in the garden later) are:-
Reed bunting 78
Brambling 13
Meadow pipit 58
Redpoll 58
Arctic redpoll 5
Bluethroat 6
White wagtail 2
Great tit 2
Dunnock 12
Lapland bunting 2
Rustic bunting 1
Greenfinch 4
Dunlin 3
Ringed plover 2
Chiffchaff 1
Willow warbler 20
Willow tit 1
Willow/ Siberian hybrid 1
Total 269

For interest, here is a picture of the Nesseby Ringing site: