Swede like some more of that please...

So, we're finally here!  A team of five is back at Nesseby for the first time since 2014 having made the trip to ring at Pasvik further south last year.

After a long day travelling and a delayed flight, this morning began at a very leisurely 8.00am with the item on the agenda being to check the equipment which was delivered by the team at Biotope, as ever our thanks for this! Nets, poles, guys, table, chairs and the all important rings present and correct.  Once loaded into our rather snazzy VW Passat (a super posh model) we headed for the ringing site using the expert driving skills of Dr Colin.  Then came the real work, cutting the 16 new rides and then erecting the nets.  With all the work needed for setting the site up it was 11.45am before we were ready to start catching birds.

The late start would usually count against us but we still managed a respectable 206 new birds of 11 species.  A breakdown can be seen below.  Another noticeable occurrence on our arrival to the ringing site at Nesseby Nature Reserve was the large number of waders feeding along the high tide.  The several hundred birds were made up of a great mix of Dunlin, Ruff, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover all of which showed very well down to just a few feet (see the video below).

A few Whimbrel could be seen further out into the Varangerfjord and several Snipe flew between the marshy areas.  Waders certainly don't appear to be in short supply here and as our time progresses we'll test various methods to catch these fantastic birds.  If more even more enjoyment was needed on the wader-front, a small pool behind the church yielded three Red-necked Phalaropes busily feeding and showing very well.  Cracking birds that are getting ready for their migration south to the Arabian Sea or the Persian Gulf.

Despite all this wader action, star of the show was a foreign control, a stunning male Brambling from Sweden.  The bird, wearing a Stokholm Museum ring is our first ever foreign control for the project!  We've had 'our' birds turn up in France, Belgium and even Lithuania but never have we found caught a bird from another country.  We wait to hear from the ringing scheme over the border for more details of this bird.

Brambling (Swedish control

The weather forecasts seems to be a little unpredictable but currently tomorrow is looking like a wet one from 9am onwards, although with a 3am start beckoning we should still get a few hours in.

Don't forget that you can get a more indepth look at some of our daily highlights and more photographs on Charlie Sargent's bird ringing blog here - http://birdringers.blogspot.no/


Totals (New Birds): Saturday 6th August 2016
Reed Bunting 30
Bluethroat 58
Meadow Pipit 42
Willow Warbler 34
Redpoll 15
Brambling 6
Sedge Warbler 1
Fieldfare 9
Whinchat 1
Redwing 7
Greenfinch 3
Total 206