Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 6

 Hammarmaden at 10.30pm

 Juvenile Common Snipe

 Yesterday Craig, Jalle, Daniel and I went onto the marsh at Hammarmarden to try and catch some waders. It was looking really good when we arrived as birds flying around the marsh included Temminck's Stint, Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Snipe, Common, Green and Wood Sandpiper.
Throughout the night we only managed to catch 1 bird, but it was a lovely fresh juvenile Common Snipe which is a bird I've wanted to see in the hand for quite some time, so was very pleased to ring it.
One very strange occurrence occurred during the night. When we had finished taking down the nets at 1.30, Craig and my binoculars were both missing from our 'base camp'. We looked everywhere but there was no sign at all. We searched every nook and cranny around the area of base camp and emptied every bag twice to make sure. Jalle went for a short wander and found Craig's binoculars 10 meters from our base camp but they were soaking and covered in mud. My binoculars were c2 meters away from these again covered in mud and soaking. Both binoculars were found in places we had never set foot in and mine has teeth marks in the strap! We can only assume that the culprit was a Fox, because there was a young animal that came withing about 15 feet of us at the start of the night........one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me!

 adult Sand Martin

 juvenile Sand Martin

2cy male Kestrel

This morning, there was a large storm brewing so we decided to give the CES a miss and get some well earned sleep. Instead, we set up 10 nets in the garden and caught a nice selection of 5 Pied Flycatcher, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Marsh Tit, Chaffinch, Robin and Blackcap.
After tea, Craig, Heather and I went to the local Sand Martin colony, where we erected 2 nets in front of the sand bank and sat back, waiting for them to go in. We caught about 25 birds in total with 2 recaptures. This is a new species for me and I was amazed at how small they were and how smart the adults were and how beautiful the pale fringing made the juveniles appear. Incredible little birds, with the smallest legs you've ever seen! I hear Swifts have even smaller legs.
We could have caught more birds, but I had to get up and leg it to the net because a 2cy male Kestrel attempted to attack the colony and got caught himself. This was a retrap, ringed in the spring by Craig, but was my first adult bird of prey I have handled. What a stunning bird!

Lapwing chick

We ended the day by nipping back to Hammarmaden and I ran and caught a juvenile Lapwing which was ringed and quickly put back. A very cute little bird.