June 9th

This day I was in for a great surprise! I was ringing Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) for a project that aims to map the migration-route and winter-sites of the Svalbard-population of Purple Sandpipers, when a somewhat different bird caught my attention in one of the traps. I ran over to it and in it there was a rather angry female Red-necked Phalarope (Svømmesnipe). I put her in a bag and collected the Purples that had gone in other traps and went back up to the other guy I was ringing with. He got the honor of ringing the first ringed Red-necked Phalarope on Svalbard. And after it was ringed and we had a photo-session the bird flew away, ready to start the breeding season on Svalbard with a brand new shining metal-ring around its left leg.