No after you Ferg

A glorious day in Finnmark today. Ice was on the windscreen as we left but it was clear and calm. As we arrived at the ringing site the rising sun, shining through a dip in the hills to the east, lit up Nesseby church on its promontory in the fjord and nothing else. It was an impressive sight and made me wonder if the church is on a former sacred site. We are virtually at the autumnal equinox when the days and nights are of equal length and we move from the long days of summer to the winter darkness. Varangerfjord has a huge concentration of ancient Sami ceremonial sites and what better place for one, than a promontory in the fjord that is lit at dawn at the autumn equinox. The rest of the day was glorious with the sun beating down (in an Arctic sort of way - we were still well layered) all day from a luminous blue sky.

Bird ringing was very much the order of the day and we caught 446 birds of which only 8 were retraps. This is a great catch by normal standards here, but after yesterday's massive catch it somehow seemed a bit disappointing - a stroll in the park with no adrenaline rush.

Nevertheless we caught some interesting birds. A Song Thrush was the first of the trip and unusual this far north. Redpoll passage was again heavy and we have started to catch birds from further afield. Today we caught 6 Arctic Redpolls and a female bird which was probably an islandica type which breeds in Iceland. This latter is by far the biggest redpoll that we have caught so far with a wing of 79 mm. Compare this bird with the photo of Arctic Redpoll in yesterday's blog to see just how different Redpolls can be.

islandica Redpoll - deep  and long beak

Heavy streaking on flanks

Heavy streaking on rump

We added two new animals to the expedition list with a lovely pod of five or so Harbour Porpoises drifting about in the glassy water of the fjord being the highlight. The second addition was a Weasel. In normal circumstances that would be fine, they are captivating little things and great to watch. Unfortunately this one had managed to catch itself in a mist net after presumably trying to take one of the birds from the net. By the time Chloe, John and Ferg found it, it was moderately disgruntled and snarly. Sadly we have no photos of the extraction process for your amusement but suffice to say that John the Wise took a back seat and allowed Ferg the Brave the honour.
         

The offending very scary animal, all of 17 cm long but weasily capable of scaring full-grown men.

We added three more species to the list of birds. Pride of place went to two pairs of Black-throated Divers whose haunting cries echoed back and forth across the water. It seems a strange time of year but they were displaying. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it! The call is so far carrying that we could even hear them from Kate's garden a kilometer away.  Listen to the call here.
The others were a  Fulmar over the fjord and a Grey Plover calling over the house after dark.

The 438 birds ringed today comprised -
Meadow Pipit - 158
Common Redpoll - 140
Reed Bunting - 77
Dunnock - 24
Great Tit - 12
Arctic Redpoll - 7
Greenfinch - 6
Redwing - 5
Bluethroat - 3
Brambling - 2
Chiffchaff - 2
Dunlin - 1
Song Thrush - 1