Varanger Ringing: Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

We don't know how many Sami words there are for cold but if we did we would have used most of them yesterday. It was obvious straight away that the wind was bound to preclude any ringing down at our main site on the side of the fjord but we did manage a couple of hours catching Redpolls in Kate's garden.

We spent the rest of the day drifting slowly eastwards along the north shore of Varangerfjord, birding as we went. Conditions were challenging as the wind rose to Force 7, occasionally gusting 8.

Stormy Weather

Cloe, John and Tim watching Steller's Eider

Highlights of the day in no particular order were - nice views of Reindeer just west of Vardo; Pomarine Skuas at Nesseby and Bukkemoltangen and good views of at least 2 Steller's Eiders at Vadso (a new bird for most of us). Most spectacular though, was the immense flock of 5000+ Goosanders (with 100 Long-tailed Ducks for company) which filled the whole bay close inshore at Bukkemoltangen. More prosaically the Tree Sparrow in the garden was an extremely good record for the area - they have only recently arrived this far north, presumably as a result of climate change.

Mummy

Baby

The most sheltered of the bays that we found - 5000 Goosanders here!

It was a hard days birding as we sought out bays in the coast which were sheltered enough to hold birds and then had places were we could find shelter for ourselves. We managed to recharge with kaffe og kaka at Tormod's house in Vardo (thanks guys) and warmed up at dark with a pretty damn fine fisk suppe in the Vardo Hotel.