The ringing:

It was a quiet but nice morning with very low wind. I got some 1K birds. While in the first rounds I thought it would be a similar slow day as the last days, but actually, the morning improoved and I cought in total 22 birds, quite some of them 1Ks. Also a nice White Wagtail couple was in the net, I will show a picture of the male.

White Wagtail male/ Hvid Vipstjert han. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Stonechat/ Sortstrubet Bynekefugl 1K. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

A quite good number of moths today, 22 different plus two caterpillars. My goal would be to reach 30 species in one of these last days of the season, let´s see if I will succeed. I will update the blog with a list of all of today´s moths tomorrow.

Hylaea fascaria "Nåleskovsmåler". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Tethea or "Bogstav-uglespinder". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

News from the station:

In the afternoon, Marits mother arrived, she will stay with us for about a week and in the evening, Lise arrived, who will be here until the 9^th of June.

 At the station: Henrik Böhmer, Lise Manstrup, Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Levi van den Os, Hanelie Sidhu, Marit Nillissen and her mom

Morning observations:

This morning was the last day of the spring migration season. We were with quite some people; Levi, Thomas, Emma, Henrik and I. We had a nice time with all of us! We even had some new species for the season, a Black scoter “amerikansk sortand” and a Leach’s storm petrel “stor stormsvale”. It was a good day to end the season with :)

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Some more birds than yesterday in the nets today. Some more 1Ks, two Tree Sparrows „Skovspurv“, one Dunnock „Jernspurv“ and one Crested Tit „Topmejse“.

Tree Sparrow "Skovspurv". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Crested Tit "Topmejse". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Eleven different moths today, Noctua pronuba „Stor smutugle“ and Phalera bucephala „Måneplet” were new for the season. These are quite common ones, but especially bucephala is really nice.

Phalera bucephala „Måneplet”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Emma Gray, Levi van den Os, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning Observations:

Marit, Levi, Henrik and I chose to do the second-to-last observation of the season at the autumn spot, as the wind direction suggested we might get something interesting coming from the south. However, migration was rather slow today, but highlights included Arctic Skua “Almindelig kjove”, Caspian Gull “Kaspisk måge”, and Pochard “Taffeland”.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Tree Sparrow "Skovspurv". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The morning was quite long today, some nets needed to stay closed due to wind and not many passerines were flying. In total just two new birds ringed today. Anders Zuschlag came to have a look at the database and take a backup.

The moths:

Only two moths today Cerura vinula "Hermelinskåbe" and Phlogophora meticulosa "Agatugle", the conditions during the night were not perfect, I hope it will be better tonight.

Cerura vinula "Hermelinskåbe". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Marit Nillissen, Henrik Bøhmer, Anders Zuschlag, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Emma, Marit, Thomas and I all went to the morning observation today. As we are coming to the end of the season, we thought it would be fun to all join.

We had an okay observation today with some more variation that usual. The numbers themselves weren’t that great, except for the scoters “Sortand” of course. We had a couple of brant geese “Knortegås” and quite a lot of barn swallows “Landsvale” again. But the highlight of the day were probably four arctic skua’s “Almindelig kjove”, one of which showed off with a very close flyby!

All in all not the best day we’ve had, but also not the worst!

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Hawfinch male/ Kernebider han. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The day started with no birds in the nets until I came to Krattet. From far I already saw a few birds all in one net and heard Great Tits “Musvit” that were flying close to the net and calling. As there were no other birds, I had some time and decided to go back to the lab for five minutes, hoping the Tits would call more in the net. When I came back I had six 1K Great Tits “Musvit” and their mother, she was already ringed, in the net. One furious Tit did not go in the net but stayed around calling while I was taking the birds out, probably the father. He did not need to wait long until I released his family all together and I hope they all found each other again.

1K Great Tit/ Musvit. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

It was still not many birds, the round with the Tits was the biggest today, but I had some more nice ones, a 1K Yellowhammer “Gulspurv”, a 1K White Wagtail “Hvid Vipstjert” and a male Hawfinch “Kernebider”.

1K Yellowhammer "Gulspurv". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The house Martins “Bysvale” are very active around the house. Amazed by the bird of yesterday, the others wished to catch more and Henrik proposed they could just try two people holing a net and moving with it. It worked quite well and we caught in total tree House Martins “Bysvale”. One of them was a recapture that was ringed last spring by Micheal.

House Martins/ Bysvale. Picture: Levi van den Os

The moths:

The moths made me a bit busy today, I had 27 different species (one of them a slash species), two of them were new for me.

A new one for me: Deilephila porcellus/ Lille vinsværmer. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Not new but quite a nice one: Korscheltellus lupilina/ Konvalrodæder. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Grey, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Today it was the three of us again at the obs, Thomas, Levi and I. Since the migration season for the spring is coming to an end, we want to be there as much as possible these days. The migration was really slow, but we did see quite some Barn swallows “landsvale” migrating and resting! Other than that, it wasn’t really different than the other days.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Again not many birds today. Two were very niche though and I could show them to the others: A female Red-backed Shrike “Rødrygget Tornskade” and a House Martin ”Bysvale”.

Red-backed Shrike female/ Rødrygget Tornskade hun. Picture: Marit Nillissen

House Martin/ Bysvale. Picture: Marit Nillissen

The moths:

I was catching only with one trap tonight as I unfortunately forgot to plug in the other one after having it inside because of yesterday´s rain. But still I had a quite good number of moths.

Furcula bifida/ Aspegaffelhale. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Around three in the morning heavy rain started and when I checked on DMI I only saw a big rainfront that would not be over soon. It took until noon that the weather improoved.

It was a very dry spring so far so I guess nature really needed it.

The bad weather meant an indoor morning for us.

After lunch, I checked some more data and went for a long walk in the bog.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary "Brunlig perlemorsommerfugl", Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Bird highlights were a Ring Ouzel „Ringdrossel“ and two Whinchats „Bynkefugl“. Mostly, I only see Stonechats „Sortstrubet Bynkefugle“ around the station or in the bog, so these two were nice. I also found some other nice animals in the bog, moths, caterpillars of moths, a frog, a lizzard, a butterfly and a grasshopper, I will show my favorites of my walk.

Wart Biter "Vortebider". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Levi´s parents and sister were visisting today and Emma backed us a cake that we will eat tomorrow. After this slow day we are looking forward to the morning in the field tomorrow.

The moths:

Ancylis unguicella, Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning Observations:

Levi and I sat ready at the observation spot a quarter of an hour earlier today – the sunrise is now just on the early side of 5 o’clock. The weather was actually okay today, though very windy, so we found cover behind a bush and were ready for 3 hours of migration counting. Again today we had many resting Scoters “Sortand”, and unfortunately, like the past many days, it became a very quiet day.

But as it always is with birds, a quiet day can end up becoming a really good day and make every second of waiting worth it. However, it didn’t happen on the observation, but in the nets. An incredibly lovely little female Red-breasted flycatcher “Lille fluesnapper” had gone into the net.

After Hanelie had shown it to us, we then returned to the observation. But nothing else really happened. So a very quiet day at the observation with not really any highlights – but then it’s good that the ringing could deliver a highlight.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

The number of birds improved a little, today I had 13 new and three recaptures. One of these thirteen made my heart beat a little faster when I saw it in the net, a very small Flycatcher looked at me. We had it written on our board for the daily tasks as a guest last week, but it did not come. For today, the Collared Flycatcher “Hvidhalsed Fluesnapper” was planned in as a guest, I would have liked to catch that one, but to be honest, our bird guest planning had never worked out for the whole season. Now I had the Red-breasted Flycatcher “Lille Fluesnapper” in my hand and that one was of course also more than welcome. As an adult female, this bird is missing an orange throat patch as in an 2k male or red throat and breast as in the 3k+ males. She is a very pretty bird though and we were all very happy about her.

Red-breasted Flycatcher "Lille Fluesnapper". Picture: Thomas Kristensen

The morning continued without any more excitement, another nice catch was a female Black Redstart “Husrødstjert”, we don´t catch these so often.

Black Redstart “Husrødstjert”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Later in the morning, a former ringer of the Bird Observatory visited with his family. We went for a round in the lighthouse garden, but unfortunately, there were no birds to show.

Not a bird but another nice catch in the lighthouse garden: A Natterjack toad "Strandtudse". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

This morning, I found only one moth in one of my traps, Acronicta tridens/ psi "Tridens/Psi-ugle". To certainly identify the species, genitalia analyses would be required. But I am fine with knowing that it is one of the two in that case, that way, the moth can stay alive.

Acronicta tridens/ psi "Tridens/Psi-ugle". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

One moth was very cooperative and just landed on my finger. It was a new one for me, Epinotia tedella “Grannålevikler”.

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Gray, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Hanelie Sidhu and our guest Kristoffer Hansen

Morning Observations:

This night very stormy, but luckily it cleared up before Thomas and I went to obs. We were hopeful it would stay dry, but after 5 minutes, it started raining really hard again so we had to go back to the station.
After half an hour, it cleared up again. Thomas and I grabbed our scopes again and went back to our spot. We didn’t have good luck because now the sea was completely covered in fog. But it was dry so we stayed a little bit and did a resting bird count. After that we headed back to the station, when it started raining again.
A morning with some bad luck. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Todays observations can be seen here.

 The ringing:

I had the nets in the station garden open for two rounds today, longer was not possible due to the rain.

Ringing totals:

Gransanger 1/0

Musvit 0/1

After the nets were closed and the weather had turned bad, I enjoyed some more sleep and some pages of my new book, then it was time for lunch and a walk in the bog and back at the beach. Highlights were a Bluethroat „Blåhals” and I was happy to see that also the 1K Stonechats ”Sortstrubet Bynkefugl” are already out of their nests. At the Little Tern ”Dværgterne” fence I saw quite a lot of Terns inside the fence, hopefully Joseph will have some interesting observations tomorrow.

In the evening it was time for some datacheck. Tomorrow the weather will be better and we are hoping for some nice birds and moths.

Today the deer was resting under one of the nets in the lighthouse garden. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: David Manstrup, Joseph Stephan, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Emma Gray, Levi van den Os and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Hopeful for another morning like yesterday, Thomas, Emma and I went to the observation spot like usual. There was quite a lot of wind this morning, so we placed ourselves a bit more secluded from the wind. The morning started off quite slow unfortunately, which didn’t give us much hope compared to the day before. We focussed however and waited for the migration to ramp up.
Over time the birds actually sort of started to show up. These were still not high numbers at all though and we didn’t get many different species. A quite nice surprise though was that the birds were flying very close to the shore. We saw multiple sandwich terns “Splitterne” and gannets “Sule” showing off their identifying features, which was quite a sight!
Another thing that was very impressive to see was the huge amount of resting scoters “Sortand” right in front of us. We counted around 3500 this time! Later during the obs David also joined us. And while he didn’t really have anything to look at in the air, he was able to search in between the common scoters for any other scoter species. He however didn’t find any.
But even though the numbers this morning weren’t great, we still had a great time talking to each other about a whole array of topics! We’ll see what tomorrow and the last week of observations will bring, but let’s save that for the next blog.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I went out later than usual when I am opening on my own because it was raining util a little after 4:00. Luckily it did not look like there would be more rain coming so I went out and hurried with opening the nets. It was still a bit windy, I could not open all and managed to have all standard nets open just five minutes after the usual opening time. Content with myself I waited for the first round. The birds were not impressed though; first round was a zero round. In the second round, I got two recaptures, one of them was yesterday´s Barred Warbler “Høgesanger”. It was very well on time, yesterday it was in the net at the same time, not the same net though but very close to where I had found it yesterday. The Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” is doing well at Blåvandshuk, it had gained one gram of weight since yesterday. The conditions last night were not perfect to move on, it was windy and rained in parts of the night, that is probably why it was still here. David, who had not seen it yesterday, could now also admire this nice bird.

I got two more 1K birds today, a Chaffinch “Bogfinke” and a Linnet “Tornirisk”.

Linnet/ Tornirisk 1K. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Other birds have still large brood patches, I assume their young are not so far yet. As for example the female Hawfinch “Kernebider”, that flew in together with her male later this morning.

Hawfinch male and female/ Kernebider han og hun. Picture: Marit Nillissen

The moths:

The unfavorable weather conditions that probably made the Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” stay here also did not make the moths fly much. I found only four in the traps today. There is a lot of rain today, so I won´t put on the light tonight.

Eupithecia nanata/ Smalvinget lyngdværgmåler, a quite pretty one of the pugs. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Marit Nillissen, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, David Manstrup and Hanelie Sidhu  

Morning observation:

Marit and I were ready at the observation spot at 5 a.m. for what could turn out to be a really good day, as it was the day after a very windy one. Around the middle of the first period, Henrik joined us. The morning started off really well with a good number of migrating birds. And among the many passing birds, there were two particularly lovely ones – a pale Arctic skua “Almindelig kjove” and a red-necked grebe “Gråstrubet lappedykker”.

The morning went from good but fairly calm to something quite different when Hanelie came up to us with a bag containing a bird. After she told us she had a barred warbler, it didn’t take long before we were all on our feet looking at the amazing bird. An absolutely beautiful, large warbler. We took lots of photos and thoroughly enjoyed the moment. Afterward, Hanelie took the bird with her again, and we returned to our observations.

With fresh energy and warmth in our bodies on this otherwise chilly morning, we were ready to continue. However, it seemed as if migration had slowed down a bit, and we started to wind down again. But the great thing about sea-watching is that anything can happen at any moment. And it did, when Henrik spotted a Fulmar “Mallemuk” over the sea – fairly close and slowly moving north. A bird I had really hoped to see this spring season. I quickly got my scope on it and enjoyed watching the stunning bird glide over the sea while Henrik described its ID features to us. It was a truly wonderful experience.

On top of that, it felt like Mother Nature had decided to reward us today, as more fantastic birds kept appearing – kittiwakes “Ride”, guillemots/razorbills “lomvie/alk”, and even a yellow wagtail “gul vipstjert”. Finally, a morning where time just flew by, and we had plenty to talk about when we returned to the station to join the others.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

When we walked the first round today, we did not find any birds in the nets. That was not very promising.

In the second round, we had three birds in the nets, one of them a recapture.  

After taking out the last bird out of the seven-meter net close to the parking in the station garden, I told Emma that we had caught a rarity. It was a Barred Warbler “Høgesanger”.

Barred Warbler “Høgesanger”. Picture: Emma Gray

There was a lot of time as we had so few birds, so we brought the birds to the observers, as the spring observation spot is very close. Henrik said the Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” is very rare in spring out here, later we looked it up and there was never caught one in spring at Blåvand in all the years, all in the autumn season.

In total, the day gave three new birds and three recaptures. I am hoping for a few more tomorrow.

The moths:

Also, not many moths this night but I also had just one light on. I found three species in the trap and caught a very small and active one on the grass, there are many of these now, but it is a bit difficult to take a picture, I have tried before, and they do not want to keep still. It was Elachrista argentella which was a new species for me.

Elachrista argentella. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, David Manstrup, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray, Marit Nillissen, Thomas Kristensen and Hanelie Sidhu