Many Lapplanders in Lappland!

Another superb day with in excess of 300 new birds ringed--see Charlies blog for details.
http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk

For those not especially interested in birds quite a lot of other stuff has happened. For instance, the weather has been still but cool, the mini-bus works well, Colin H has had a decent idea, the chilli con carne and fruit crumble were very nice, and we have a contact to try and get some local fish for meals later.
But more important than these domestic details is the fact that the ringing was again superb, with a slick team to get things done. The highlights were a small but significant passage of Lapland Buntings which resulted in our best ever day total of 17 ringed. A couple of Willow Warblers were super examples of the 'acredula' subspecies--very grey and cold looking--see pic below. We also managed to ring 2 clear examples of what are currently called Arctic redpoll, plus one other which nay have had dubious parentage....with luck the data and DNA samples should clarify this. We finally managed to catch some of the waders which this year appear to be much more intelligent than previously and seem to know our twinkling strategy before we do!!
The forecast for tomorrow is again very good so we are about to hit the sack with a tingle of anticipation--saddos that we are.

One of the 17 Lapland Buntings today--pink bill and chestnut greater coverts are the giveaway

Can you identify this warbler??

Here is that same bird (on the left) with a member of the same species that we are more familiar with in England. These are both Willow Warblers, but the left hand bird is of the acredula race which breeds in northern latitudes.

Left hand bird is a Common (mealy) Redpoll--but just compare this with what most people would recognise as an Arctic Redpoll--with a tiny bill in comparison-and other plumage features. But, are they separate species--DNA sampling may help us with this question.