The Varanger ringing project is all set for another exciting year with 2 teams preparing for this year's visit. First off the blocks will be Colin's team--comprising Colin M, Charlie S, Colin H, Dave C, and Stu and Sara B.
Stu and Sara left this morning to spend a couple of days in Oslo-departing with the romantic words of ''I'll see you on Wednesday in Oslo airport''
The rest of the team fly out on Wednesday morning from Heathrow, via Oslo arriving at Kirkenes airport at 20.00. After an hour and a half drive we will arrive at Nesseby to stay at Kate's superb bungalow, which she has kindly vacated for us while she travels out onto the fells to catch and mark her family herd of Reindeer!!
We hope to get started on Thursday morning although how many birds we catch will be dependent on how much effort is needed to establish the net sites and erect our palatial new Laavu--a traditional Sami teepee, which will be our ringing base for the trip.
This year we will be focussing on waders and breeding and migrant passerines again--but with an emphasis on Redpoll/Arctic Redpoll. We hope to collect lots of data to feed into the taxonomic debate about speciation--let's hope we can add to the debate.
The second team will be led by Ferg--about which more as his team prepare to arrive on 9th September. This is unknown territory as no ringers have operated in the area at such a late date, so who knows what they will turn up--some juicy pipits, eastern warblers or perhaps a rare bunting?
Keep logging onto the site--we will do our best to provide daily updates with stories and pics of our exploits!!
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