Thursday, 18 September 2014

The cold wind doth blow and we shall have snow

A bitterly cold windy day today after yesterday's sub-tropical weather.
This morning the team split with Simon and I heading off to Vardo to do another bird ringing demonstration for Vardo Primary School this time, while Andy, Cloe, Ferg and John worked the main ringing site.

It's part of the deal for all involved with the Varanger Bird Ringing Project that we work with local school children to help foster a love and understanding of nature. It's just great working with the kids as they are all so enthusiastic. Vardo is the most north-eastern town in Europe (believe it or not it's further east than Istanbul) and it certainly felt like it at 9.30 this morning with a bitterly cold wind ripping in off the fjord. You wouldn't have thought so though looking at the expressions on the children's faces - rapt and full of concentration. So if any of you children see this - thanks for being such fun and so interested and so well behaved. You were great! Here are a few pictures, hope you can spot yourself.


Great Hats







Great Kids
Back at base the rest of the team were battling the wind to try to catch birds. Only the sheltered nets could be opened and this massively reduced the catch at the main site, with the team beating a retreat at noon.  To try to boost numbers we also opened the nets back at Kate's in the afternoon.

We caught 170 birds today which was pretty good considering the weather.
163 of these were newly ringed, comprising
Common Redpoll - 78
Reed Bunting - 22
Meadow Pipit - 16
Dunnock - 9
Redwing - 9
Great Tit - 7
Willow Warbler - 6
Fieldfare - 4
Greenfinch - 4
Arctic Redpoll - 4
Bluethroat - 2
Brambling - 1
Dunlin - 1

This is a slightly truncated blog today. Tomorrow is our last full day. The good news is that the wind is due to drop, the bad news is it will be colder. Snow is on its way but will probably (we hope) arrive after we leave. We will try to post a valedictory blog tomorrow if we have time - if not check out Saturday/Sunday.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Team--well done--very varied conditions for you--but massive efforts to keep the project moving. Working with the Vardo school will do us no end of good, so a special thanks for that. fingers crosswed that your last day is bird filled and maybe has a surprise or two--you deserve it!! Col

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