After breakfast I headed out mid morning to the morane hills. The sun was shining brightly and it grows warm here in Meino real warm. I walked out from the village down to the valley, up through the valley and in to the hills. It all seems so quiet and a long memory from the days of earlier when I would walk through here with the sound of the single male spoon billed sandpiper giving bursts of display songs. As I was walking over one the ridges I could see a pair of pacific golden plovers close by and so I lay there watching them through bins and trying to get some photos but the mosquitoes were rife. Infact they were so bad I went to put on some extra repellent but as I searched through my bag I realised I left it back at base. Luckily I had my head net with me and for the first time this trip I used it and it worked well. I headed down through the hills and sat at the lower edge near the lake and had a late lunch with the warmth of the sun on my face. I just sat there watching juvenile wheatears and arctic ground squirrels closeby and I enjoyed the clear blue sky above and the warmth of the sun. I had inteneded to walk back to base via the lake edge but seeing as I had enough time to spare before dinner I decided to walk back through the morane hills returning a different route than the one I had taken earlier. As I was walking through one of the valleys I bumped in to Pavel and Igor who were trying to trap the pair of pacific golden plovers that I had seen earlier.
They managed to trap both adults and so the usual process of ringing, weighing and measuring the birds took place including that of the chicks (photo below). After this we returned back to base at near on 20:20 hrs. Tomorrow is a red knot day and so lets see what happens then.
Apologies yet again but hotmail is really playing up at the moment and I will email at the next opportunity.