(„Good journey, little king!“ for everyone that does not speak fluent Finnish)

Ringmærkning: Finally! After strong winds that inhibited ringing the last few days, we could open some nets again today. The weather was still not ideal, so our hopes were not too high. In the first rounds, we caught a surprisingly high number of birds, most of them Goldcrests (Regulus regulus, „little king“). This was very nice for me as I haven’t had big numbers of Goldcrests yet. And they’re just so adorable! One of the Goldcrests even had a ring from Finland. We’re really excited to find out where exactly it came from and see migration in action.

One of the many Goldcrests today. It is crazy to think that a bird that weighs less than the tiny cup it is weighed in would fly huge distances. Still, they apparently come from far away.

Apart from these, we also caught another Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla, „mountain finch finch“) which is always nice. I also got my first ever Redpoll (Acanthis flammea, „flame-coloured redpoll“). I have been warned about the incredible cuteness of this bird but no description can you prepare for actually holding it. Be careful! A big contrast to the tiny Goldcrests were two Eurasian Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla, „black-haired woodland-sprite“) that felt extremely chunky in hand. They both weighed more than 22 g (average ~19 g), so they were definitely ready for migrating south now. Blackcaps are one of the only species I had my whole time here now, so they always have a special place in my heart.

With a bit of experience you can feel very fat birds without even looking at them. On this bird, the fat covered nearly the entire belly, so it has been eating very well. This individual was not very photogenic, so it actually seems much slimmer than it actually is.

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