No flies on us - they're all on the rocks

Last night was our coldest yet with frost by the time we went to bed. As a consequence we delayed our start time this morning and gave ourselves an extra hour in bed. We arrived on site at 0545 with frost still on the outside of our lavvu ringing base. There was virtually no wind and so predictably there was no visible migration to be seen and so we expected to catch relatively few birds. How wrong we were. The first net round soon showed that Redpolls and Reed Buntings were still moving through in big numbers. As the sun came up the temperature rose steadily so that by mid morning layers were being discarded steadily. The fjord was glass-like and from our ringing base, Nesseby church, perched on its little promontory, looked even more enchanting than ever.

    Nesseby Church

By mid morning the wind shifted to the south-east and freshened. Layers soon went back on again as air straight out of Siberia pushed the wind chill up several notches. We finished the session around 12.30 with a total of 363 birds ringed far exceeding what we were expecting but again the range of species was disappointing.

We were pleased to have a visit from Tormod Amundsen (of Biotope) and his wife and daughter Elin and Lila. It's thanks to Tormod and Biotope that this project happens - they do a fantastic job of promoting the wildlife heritage value of the area, especially with local children.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying ourselves, firstly recharging our batteries back at base (the fantastic Kate Utsi's house, who is currently away rounding up her reindeer) and then on a trip up the Tana valley on the Finnish border.

We spent a while lounging on the veranda in the sun where some of the team seemed to have trouble understanding your blogger's impeccable fashion sense - although personally I see nothing wrong with pairing black base-layers with ladies' knitted woollen hats. More "interesting" photos of other team members may well follow.



   Ninja Tim

Our jaunt up the Tana valley was notable firstly for the huge numbers of large black flies, with fetching red thighs, carpeting all the rocks on the river's edge - if anyone knows what they are then please let us know, and secondly the three Hawk Owls that we encountered along the road. Hawk Owls are an almost mystical, nomadic arctic owl, high on the list of every birders wish list. Vole numbers are particularly high here this year and so the owls are being seen regularly here at the moment.



   Strange Flies by Tana river

We finished the evening at the local cafe/restaurant in Varangarbotn where some of us ate a wonderful meal of Reindeer steak with bilberry sauce. This did our little bit to support the local Sami herders including Kate whose house we are borrowing. The Sami way of life and their culture and traditions are intimately bound up with Reindeer and eating this organic, free range, sustainably produced  meat is a tasty way of showing our support.

The forecast for tomorrow is for gales - never a good thing this far north, so there may not be much to report in the next blog.

The number of birds ringed today was 363 comprising -
Common Redpoll - 133
Reed Bunting - 102
Meadow Pipit - 97
Dunnock - 17
Willow Warbler - 5
Bluethroat - 4
Redwing - 1
Garden Warbler - 1
Brambling - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Arctic Redpoll - 1