Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 16

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper

After a long hard day of ringing on Friday, it would have been very nice to have an early night ready for CES the next morning. That would be in a normal persons life...this is a bird-ringers life! We went back to Hammarmaden to open the 7 wader nets and set out to catch some waders. It wasn't until 01.00 when Craig went for a net round and came back with 3 waders to ring. A juvenile Snipe and my personal wader-ringing highlight which were 2 juvenile Wood Sandpipers. Fantastic birds with beautiful speckling on their mantles and a really nice tail pattern. 

Juvenile Snipe (note very fresh plumage, especially the tertials)

A very small Willow Warbler that looked very much like a Chiffchaff in the hand. Wing-formula was completely Willow however. Lots of photos and biometrics were taken of this bird though and a combination of both species' biometrics were evident. I wonder if there could be a hybrid influence?

This morning we arrived at Ässön at dawn setting 18 nets. The catch was very slow however with a south easterly breeze, which isn't very good for the island at all. The birds just don't move in this weather. As a result we only caught 34 birds (including 3 retraps).

Totals (recaps in brackets)
Swallow - 2
White Wagtail 3
Thrush Nightingale - (1)
Reed Warbler - 10 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 2 (1)
Willow Warbler - 4
Blue Tit - 2
Reed Bunting - 8

The weather today is much worse, but looks really good for bringing in waders, so if the wind drops slightly, we will probably be out tonight catching more waders. There are some summer plumage Spotted Redshanks that would make my life if they were to find the nets!