Hello everyone!
 
Today is our last evening at store færder. Already!
 
The wind was still blowing hard in the morning but we decided to give it a go and opened the only two nets that were protected enough.
There was a small activity on the island: fieldfares flying low, a bunch of redpolls, a few bullfinches around... at about 9 am, a large flock of waxwings showed up at the house.
After a couple of round,  we had the surprise to get one of these birds and our surprise went up to the next level when we discovered that it had ring and it was not one of ours!
It was indeed a waxwing with a Finnish ring! That's a great catch for our last day here!

​Total ringing for today 7: robin (rødstrupe) 1, fieldfare (gråtrost) 1, brambling (bjørkefink) 1, siskin (grønnsisik) 1, common redpoll (gråsisik)1, lesser redpoll (brunsisik) 2.
 
Tomorrow the weather seems to be particularly good,  at least the wind is supposed to stop for the whole day.  It is a shame that we have to go when the weather improves but it is also much easier to get off the island.  There is also a wind storm coming in brittany so in fact,  it will just feel like here! And also,  we are determined to be up in early morning tomorrow for the last captures for us for this autumn.
 
We are grateful for all the good moments here and the great care that Terje, Halvard, Per Espen, Jan Peter etc showed about our comfort on the island! We will definitely miss our evenings next to our firy friend, Calcifer . But again it is only goodbye!

​Marie, Mélina & Nicolas

Today, there was no point to try opening the nets.
And then this happened:

​So we had a chill day in, confronting the outside only a few times and enjoying the warmth of the fire we call Calcifer.
 
Marie, Mélina & Nicolas

Hello everyone!
Another very quiet day on Store Færder. With the wind picking up it seemed as if only the raptors felt like flying: the usual rough-legged buzzard was around, and we also got to see a peregrine falcon, and an enormous female Sparrowhawk that later came into our nets. Waxwings are back, with a flock of 35 birds among which 2 nice adult females flew down in the nets.
 
The forecast for tomorrow is rainy and windy, chances are we won’t be able to open the nets at all, but we stay hopeful... and if the weather is indeed that bad – more sleep for us!
 
Total ringed: 18 (Sparrowhawk 1, Waxwing 2, Robin 1, Fieldfare 1, Wren 1, Treecreeper 2, Common redpoll 6, Lesser redpoll 4)
Dagens ringmerking: 1 spurvehauk, 2 sidensvans, 1 rødstrupe, 1 gråtrost, 1 gjerdesmett, 2 trekryper, 6 gråsisik, 4 brunsisik.
 
Marie, Melina and Nicolas

Hello everyone!
 
Despite the good weather, the ringing today was really slow. There were very few active birds, we kept retrapping the same birds over and over again as they seemed to be the only ones flying around.
The waxwings seem to have flown away except for the last one of the flock, who was waiting for us perched on top of the net’s pole! It later flew in the net and let us see its beautiful red waxy tips.
Later, an afternoon surprise was singing an a cappella solo concert in the net: Great spotted woodpeckers are well known for being quite loud when caught.

​Tomorrow morning is supposed to be the day where everyone gets more sleep due to the switch to winter time, but we will keep on getting up before the sun to open our nets, hoping for some more Norwegian birds!
 
Total ringed: 16 (Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Waxwing 1, Robin 2, Blackbird 1, Fieldfare 3, Goldcrest 1, Treecreeper 2, Greenfinch 1, Common redpoll 2, Lesser redpoll 1, Bullfinch 1)
 
Dagens ringmerking: 1 flaggspett, 1 sidensvans, 2 rødstrupe, 1 svarttrost, 3 gråtrost, 1 fuglekonge, 2 trekryper, 1 grønnfink, 2 gråsisik, 1 brunsisik og 1 dompap. Totalen i 2023 er 5.137 og for høsten 2.607.
 
Marie, Melina and Nicolas

Hello everybody!
 
Today we could open the nets in the morning! It was a much more chilly morning, we could feel from the temperature that winter is (slowly) coming.
 
But no evil white walkers for us, hopefully! Only few little birds! 
Today's visitors were some redpolls, greenfinches, fewer bullfinches than yesterday, but also some siskins as a nice surprise ! We still improve our skills of distinguishing common from lesser redpolls and we enjoyed ageing and sexing the siskins because we have few of them in brittany. 
 
There were still a smaller flock of fieldfares, one male sparowhawk and a rough legged buzzard around the island.  
 
The tengmalm's owl try is still on for tonight!

​Ringing total of today 38: wren 3, Robin 1, fieldfare 1, goldcrest 2, greenfinches 4, siskins 6, common redpoll 9, lesser redpoll 9, bullfinches 3.
Ringmerking I dag: 3 gjerdesmett, 1 rødstrupe, 1 gråtrost, 2 fuglekonge, 4 grønnfink, 6 grønnsisik, 9 gråsisik, 9 brunsisik og 3 dompap. Totalt for 2023: 5.160 og for høsten: 2.630.
 
Marie, Melina and Nicolas

Hello everyone!
Today was not too intense but a good day on the whole, with our usual visitors these last days: redpolls and bullfinches in the nets and all around the island. The fieldfares were also still around, though in lesser quantity than the previous days.
The morning brought a nice surprise in the nets: Waxwings again! A small flock of these fascinating birds has been on the island these last days, and 4 of them came down in one of our nets today.
The rest of the day went by more quietly, a rough-legged buzzard flew by in the wind, and the activity of birds decreased as usual during the afternoon.
This evening will be dedicated to trying to catch a Tengmalm’s Owl again, fingers crossed!

​Ringing total of today: 39 (goldcrest 2, wren 3, song thrush 1, fieldfare 2, blackbird 1, blackcap 1, robin 3, greenfinch 4, brambling 1, common redpoll 5, lesser redpoll 7, bullfinch 5, waxwing 4).
 
Ringmerking I dag: 2 fuglekonge, 3 gjerdesmett, 1 måltrost, 2 gråtrost, 1 svarttrost, 1 munk, 3 rødstrupe, 4 grønnfink, 1 bjørkefink, 5 gråsisik, 7 brunsisik, 5 dompap og 4 sidensvans.
Totalt 39 fugler ringmerket. Totalen for 2023 er nå 5.121 og for høsten 2.591.
 
Marie, Melina and Nicolas

Hello everybody 
 
Today was as windy as predicted so there was no way of opening nets.
 
We chilled inside, and suddenly there was a flock of about 30 waxwings in front of the window.  As we could keep an eye on it, we decided to open just the net in the front of the house.  With the wind,  most of the birds could see it and we saw 3 birds that were pushed out even before we could run to extract them. In the end,  we got 1 new bullfinch and a couple of retraps of greenfinches.
 
But tomorrow seems to be better with even a bit of sun apparently which could also be good to gain some energy through the solar panel!
 
Marie,Melina and Nicolas. 

Hi all!
The day started with a bit of wind and rain, but it quickly changed to some good ringing conditions, at least in the inner nets as they are sheltered from the eastern side.

Today was supposed to be a crowded day with three visitors planned! Terje, Per Espen and Jan Peter were planning on bringing us some groceries and firewood, and we would have loved to welcome them for a coffee… But the wind decided elsewise, as the harbour is exposed to the East.

It turned out to be a crowded day with birds though, with our best score since we arrived (89 birds ringed!). This was mostly due to a large number of redpolls – giving us the opportunity to practice differentiating the lesser Redpoll from the common one.

​There were also lots of bullfinches around, to our great joy. And some waxwings – but no luck with them in the nets today!
Let’s see what tomorrow brings us!
Ringing total of today :89 (goldcrest 15, wren 1, redwing 3, fieldfare 3, blackcap 2, robin 5, coal tit 2, treecreeper 3, greenfinch 1, brambling 3, common redpoll 32, lesser redpoll 5, twite 1, bullfinch 13)
 
Dagens ringmerking: 15 fuglekonge, 1 gjerdesmett, 3 rødvingetrost, 3 gråtrost, 2 munk, 5 rødstrupe, 2 svartmeis, 3 trekryper, 1 grønnfink, 3 bjørkefink, 32 gråsisik, 5 brunsisik, 1 bergirisk og 13 dompap.
Da passerte vi 5.000 for året og er nå oppe i 5.081 og høsten er nå oppe i 2.551.
Først i dag passerte høsten, vårens ringmerking.
 
Marie, Melina and Nicolas

Hello everybody!
 
We were ready this morning to get some great birds! And it happened to be a "fieldfairy-tale" (because there were so many fieldfares around). There were big flocks of these trushes around the island through the whole day.  After a couple of hours, we finally got some in our nets. And what's more, there was another beauty amongst them, a bird we were hoping to ring: a waxwing!
 
We were really happy with that already. We caught a few redpolls, and we also had a group of 6 coal tits. But in the afternoon, Nicolas checked a net and suddenly screamed for help as a sparrowhawk got entangled in front of him!
 
And he called us again a moment later because other waxwings got in the net in front of the house while Melina and I were ringing in the ringing room! In the end we trapped 3 more of these incredible looking birds!

The day ended with a pair of bramblings and nets are still open in the hope for owls.
So maybe not a crazy day with numbers but definitely a great northern day for the 3 of us! Great diversity too with 17 species ringed + 2 species that have just been controlled (a black cap and a song trush)!
​
A couple of Raptors were spotted during the rounds and trips as well as several bullfinches, small flocks of redpolls, a few siskins and bramblings and at least one goldfinch.

Total ringing for today: robin 1, greenfinches 5, bramblings 2, goldcrest 2, treecreeper 1, wren 1, common redpoll 10, lesser redpoll 4, siskin 1, coal tits 6, blue tits 5, fieldfare 9, blackbirds 2, redwing 1, waxwing 4, bullfinch 3, sparrowhawk 1.
Ringmerking I dag: 1 rødstrupe, 5 grønnfink, 2 bjørkefink, 2 fuglekonge, 1 trekryper, 1 gjerdesmett, 10 gråsisik, 4 brunsisik, 1 grønnsisik, 6 svartmeis, 5 blåmeis, 9 gråtrost, 2 svarttrost, 1 rødvingetrost, 4 sidensvans, 3 dompap og 1 spurvehauk. Dagens total ble hele 58 fugler ringmerket av 17 arter.
Totalt for 2023 – 4.992 og for høsten – 2.462.
 
Marie, Melina and Nicolas

Hello everyone!
​
Finally! We could open the nets this morning. The weather wasn’t brilliant with a bit of rain, but we were eager to ring, and the wind had drop! And we were happy to have done so, because the first round gave us what I am used to call “Christmas tree bauble”. In other words, nice, colorful bullfinches males and females were waiting for us in different nets. All in all, we caught 13 of these little beauties (12 newly ringed and 1 control).
 
Except for these, ringing number was slow but with a nice diversity of 12 different species. A few red crossbills also passed over our head and a nice flock of 50 fieldfares arrived in late afternoon. We also spotted 2 rough legged buzzards. So in the end, we could say that there has been some movement even if the weather stayed grey and rainy-ish. Tomorrow, weather conditions seem very good, and we have high hopes and fingers completely crossed 

​Ringing total of today :39 (goldcrest 1, wren 2, blackbird 2, redwing 1, blackcap 1, robin 1, coal tit 1, treecreeper 1, greenfinch 14, common redpoll 2, lesser redpoll 1, bullfinch 12).
Legger til at dagens ringmerkede ble totalt 39 (fuglekonge 1, gjerdesmett 2, svarttrost 2, rødstrupe 1, rødvingtrost 1, munk 1, svartmeis 1, trekryper 1, grønnfink 14, gråsisik 2, brunsisik 1, dompap 12). Totalsum for året er 4.934 og for høsten 2.404. 

​Marie, Melina and Nicolas