Today we are all feeling slightly fatigued.

After two days of howling wind, today dawned flat calm (hurrah!) and by 9 am the sun came out (hurrah again!) and shone for the rest of the day. Birds had clearly been hunkered down like us for the previous two days and we expected migration to resume with a vengeance. When we got down to the main ringing site it was clear that this was exactly what was happening. What followed will remain with us for many a day as birds flew unendingly into the nets and tested our abilities to stay cool and to work under pressure to the limit. By the end of the day we had caught and processed 703 birds comprising 694 newly ringed and 7 retraps - more than has ever been achieved in a day by the project. Somehow we also made time to get a single wader net up, previously it has either been too windy or the tide has been wrong or we have been too busy. We caught four new species for the trip - Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Willow Tit and miraculously a Three-toed Woodpecker. This last is another of the taiga specialities and high on most birders' bucket list.

Three-toed Woodpecker

Quite perky!

Very spotted wings and big white fingers on the tertials

And yeah, verily it hath but three toes!

We also managed to add a few more species to the list of birds seen - an Arctic Skua out on the fjord, 11 Pochards (a scarce bird this far north we think) and a Red-throated Pipit. We rounded off the day with wonderful views of five Short-eared Owls doing a fantastic aerial dance together in a spectacular pre-roost display.

Arctic Redpoll

Dunlins - note variation in bill length and shape

And finally...........

Number of birds ringed today were - 

Meadow Pipit - 362

Reed Bunting - 144

Common Redpoll - 111

Dunnock - 21

Redwing - 18

Dunlin - 10

Greenfinch - 6

Willow Warbler - 6

Bluethroat - 4

Brambling - 3

Ringed Plover - 3

Willow Tit - 3

Three-toed Woodpecker - 1

Great Tit - 1

Arctic Redpoll - 1

and finally, finally................

The view from the decking