A Wizard Day!

After a lie in till the alarms went at 4am, we got to the nets at 4.45am--nets open by 5.15. The weather was perfect with gentle NW wind and light cloud cover. Passerine catching got off to a slow start, but picked up with another decent pulse of Meadow Pipits resulting in 117 new birds ringed--but as in recent days as the wind dropped and cloud cover came in, the passage stopped. However, we had a good early session of wader catching as the tide came in--resulting in 1 Little Stint, 17 Dunlin and a very respectable 9 Curlew Sandpiper--quite simply gorgeous birds.
Back on land, catching stayed consistent but easy to handle with 2 star birds--a beautiful young male Merlin (hence the title), and a second for this trip- Siberian Tit. The two pics below show both of these star birds.
We also caught a Hooded Crow in one of the wader nets which gave Stu the opportunity to demonstrate his sprinting skills.....unfortunately we didn't have a ring size suitable for this bird so we had to release it unhinged--aaaargh!.
An afternoon spent as tourists heading back to our accommodation later added only a small number of birds to today's total of 291 birds.

How stunning is this young male Merlin--except if you are a Meadow Pipit or a small wader for whom this bird poses a constant threat of a rapid death.

A handsome beast--worthy of a hug.......??? Shame we didn't have any rings for it.

A lovely juvenile Siberian Tit--this is the second of our trip, and a new species for our Varanger visits--is this a Putin exile?

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