Morning observations:

Thomas and I were hopeful for some good migrating birds, but it was just the usual species. Even though it was slow, we still had a highlight of the day! We saw two Arctic skua’s “Almindelig Kjove” light morph flying by! We also had quite some Oystercatchers “Strandskade”.

Today’s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I had the nets open for 8 ½ hours today. Including recaptures I caught 2,7 birds per hour. That is not so much, but the birds were well distributed over time, I had few zero rounds. A new Collared Dove “Tyrkerdue” was a bit exciting, before this spring, I had not caught these in Denmark.Some Linnets “Tornirisk” were in the nets, always a nice bird in hand.

Linnet female/ Tornirisk hun. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Tornirisk male/ Tornirisk Han, picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Quite some birds had brood patches, I especially noticed it in the Linnets “Tornirisk” and Lesser Whitethroats “Gærdesanger”.

The moths:

In the time between the rounds, I was not bored as I had many moths in the traps today. The others were especially amazed by Smerinthus ocellata “Afterpåfugløje”. It is a nice, big and quite common one that is starting to fly around that time in the year.

Smerinthus ocellata “Afterpåfugløje”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Phibalapteryx virgata “Snerremåler” is not so common and quite pretty, so decided to show that one as well.

Phibalapteryx virgata “Snerremåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

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

Morning observations:

Levi and I once again took our place at the observation spot today, ready for three hours of migration counting. But there wasn’t much migration to count, as almost all the birds chose to rest today. Even the scoters “Sortand” weren’t moving much. Fortunately, a couple of large flocks—around 550 individuals in total—chose to rest right in front of us, so we spent the morning scanning through them.

The morning actually started off well, with a good number of terns arriving in lovely flocks of around 40 birds, and a couple of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” also passed by early on. So we had some hope it would continue like that, but the numbers quickly dropped off, as mentioned.

The few gannets “Sule” that were around this morning also didn’t feel like heading north today and chose instead to rest and perform their delightful head-dives to catch something to eat—hopefully before heading north tomorrow.

Todays observations can be seen here.

I found another flower starting to bloom in the garden: Liljekonval "Convallaria majalis". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The ringing:

Although the nets were open before the standart opening time, I did not find any birds in the first round. Second round brought a Willow Warbler „Løvsanger”, several yero round were following until a round with four Lesser Redpolls ”Lille Gråsisken” saved the day a bit. Before closing, I got one new Lesser Whitethroat ”Gærdesanger” and two Blackbirds ”Solsort” more.

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Luckily, I had company by some moths, that needed to be identified and I also caught two dayflying ones, that I caught with a glas. Else, it would have been a very slow morning. I had thirteen different species, one needed to remain a slash species. There were tree new for me and several new for the season. Sideridis turbida ”Prikliniet strandugle” is not so common.

Sideridis turbida ”Prikliniet strandugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

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

When I came back to Blåvand some days ago, I was surpised and amazed, how green it is now in Blåvand. The Scotch broom "Cytisus scoparius" is flowering yellow. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Henrik joined me for the observation today, however the migration was very slow. We had a very low amount of scoters "Sortand" with not much variation. We did see an arctic skua "Almindelig kjove" flying past though, which was probably the highlight of the morning.

Today's observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a slow morning today, just five new birds were ringed, the number of recaptures was higher, eight. My highlight was to ring a new Robin “Rødhals”, it is a while ago, that I had one in hand.

Robin “Rødhals”, Picture: Marit Nillissen.

After closing, I saw two mating Sand Lizards “Markfirben” in the lighthouse garden.

Mating Sand Lizards/ Markfirben. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

I only had three different moths species in the traps today. Actiontia polydon “Lilla perikonugle” was a new species for me.

Actiontia polydon “Lilla perikonugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

In the afternoon, I went to the bog and found a caterpillar of Malacosoma castrensis “Redespinder”.

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

Morning observations:

This morning was again really slow. We started off with quite some migrating Common terns “Fjordterne”, but as time went on, migration decreased. In the last time interval, we got 120 Common scoters “Sortand”, which is very low. The migration season is coming to an end. Thomas and I did have a good chat, so despite the slow migration, it was a nice morning.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a slow morning with more walking than work at the nets or in the lab. But there was also a surprise in the net, we caught a Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal”.

Nattergal "Thrush Nightingale"

At nine a german family came to the station who wished to see the ringing. They were lucky, I had some birds and could show them a Wren “Gærdesmutte”, two Chaffinches “Bogfinke” a Chiffchaff “Gransanger” and explained about ringing and the activities of the station.

The moths:

Not many moths today but I had one new for the season, Spilosoma lubricipeda “Almindelig tigerspinder”.

Spilosoma lubricipeda “Almindelig tigerspinder”.

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

Morning Observations:

Levi and I went up to the observation spot without any expectations of a fantastic migration day, but we did hope it would be better than the last two days, which had been really slow. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case today either. The migration of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” was okay today, and they came quite close, so we got a really good look at them. But that was probably the only highlight of the day. With only four different species over a period of time, you can’t exactly say that much else was happening. But we had a good time, and after about half an hour, David came up and joined us for a chat. So, a nice morning—even without birds.

Today's observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Not all nets could be opened due to the wind this morning. First round just gave one bird, I saw it flying in and ran after it, it was an adult male Sparrowhawk “Spurvehøg”. Most of the team came to see the small, charming Hawk.

Sparrowhawk ad. male/ Spurvehøg ad. han. Pictures: Emma Gray

As in most raptor species of Accipitriformes, Falconiformes and Strigiformes, there is a reversed sexual size dimorphism (RSD) in Sparrowhawks which means, that the male is smaller than the female. The size of the female is a factor for a successful recruitment into the breeding population: Larger females are favored while the body size of the male does not seem to have a significant impact. There are many hypotheses for the reasons of RSD in raptors (MacDonald et al. 2004, Schoenjahn et al. 2020).

The day did not bring many more birds, in the last hour, the wind dropped, and the closing round was the round with most birds.

The moths:

As the morning was a bit windy and I had already heard the wind when I woke up one time in the night, I was not expecting many moths. I had seven different species plus one slash-species Hada plebeja “Kurvbomst-ugle” was new for the season and also Notodonta ziczac “Zigzagspinder” was new for this spring at BLF. I found Chloroclyster siterata later on the wall, this one as well is new for this year, last autumn I had it already here.

Hada plebeja “Kurvbomst-ugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Notodonta ziczac “Zigzagspinder”

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

Morning observations:

Today Thomas and I went on the morning observations while Marit went ringing. Unfortunately this was probably the worst morning observation we've had this season, with extremely low variety and only the scoters "Sortand" in high numbers. It was very nice weather however and the sun was actually so warm I could take off my coat.

Today's observations can be seen here.

In the afternoon Emma, Marit and I went on a little adventure to the beach to collect some bags of shells for Joseph's little tern project. With high efficiency and a bunch of sand sifting, we managed to fill the bags in only an hour! Pulling the cart back to the station was quite the workout though. Below some pictures of the whole thing.

Little Tern Team getting ready to collect some shells. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Emma and Levi working hard. Picture: Marit Nillissen

The struggle and joy of collecting shells. Picture: Emma Gray

The ringing:

After coming back yesterday evening I was welcomed by quite a good number of birds in the morning, we had 48 new plus seven recaps.

The first Icterine Warblers “Gulbug” at BLF arrived today, four of them, both in the station as well as in the lighthouse garden.

Icterine Warblers/ Gulbug. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

We also had a Starling "Stær" couple, male and female in the net, it looked like the female had some eggs in its belly.

Female and male Starling/ Hun og han stær. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

A Sonechat "Sortstrubet Bynkefugl" in the net was another nice surprise, we often see them in the bog but rarely catch them.

Stonechat/ Sortstrubet Bynkefugl. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Kystfugle Project

Today was the first truly exciting day for our ROLA (Records of Location and Activity) here in Blåvand!

We observed 12 Little Terns (a.k.a. "dwarfs") and 3 pairs of Ringed Plovers mingling and preparing to nest within the fenced area. Even more promising: we may have our first Little Tern eggs inside the electric fence! One individual remained on its scrape for 2 hours and 30 minutes while being fed by its partner - a strong indicator that incubation may have begun.

We also managed to read two new colour rings on the Little Terns.

To celebrate Thomas and I hissed the Nationalpark Vadehavet flag!

the station at the moment; Photo: Joseph

In the afternoon, I headed to Rømø with Kim F. to check the fencing, create anti crow spikes, artificial nests, and set up trail cameras. Just like in Blåvand, we placed the nests along three gradients - from bare sand to dense vegetation - each located at least 350 meters outside the perimeter fence.

artificial nest with trail cam in the background; Photo; Joseph

Now we wait and see what predators show up...

Tomorrow, we tackle the sand drift - my worst enemy at the moment!

Stay tuned for more updates from the field!

The moths:

Although a little tired after the journey, I was setting up the moths traps again yesterday evening and was a bit excited if I would get many new ones now, that I was a while away. There were not so many in the morning, eight different species, plus one that needed to remain a slash species. I will show Clostera curlula “Lille Maneplet”, it is new for Blåvand this spring as well as Eupithecia nanata “Smalvinget lyngdværgmåler”, which is new for the place and new for me.

Clostera curlula “Lille Måneplet”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Eupithecia nanata “Smalvinget lyngdværgmåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

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

Morning observation

This morning, it was just Thomas and I as Levi wished to sleep in. We started the morning good with some nice species migrating, such as the Razorbill “Alk”, Common eider “Ederfugl” and Velvet scoters “Fløjlsand”. The other time intervals were okay, but it slowed down as the time continued. The weather was nice and sunny, but a bit windy. We were hoping that the wind would push the migration a bit more, so we could get higher number. But that didn’t happen.

After the obs, I joined the ringing to help Morten out.

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing

Today was the last day Morten took over the ringing, as he is headed back home again. Hanelie (or as Joseph likes to call her: "The G.O.A.T") will take over the ringing again as she is back from Gedser! It was a good day for the ringing with many Willow warblers “”Løvsanger”. Morten even got enough birds to take many bloodsamples; he got around 100 samples throughout the week! After standard time, the nets were open for one more hour, were we caught a female Black Redstart “Husrødstjert”.

Black Redstart. Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

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

Morning Observation
Finally, a change from the usual northwesterly winds — this morning brought wind from the southeast instead. This gave Levi, Marit, and me high hopes for today’s observation session. During the morning, both David and Bent also joined us at the observation spot, so we weren’t the only ones expecting a great day.

From early on and throughout the session, the scoters “Sortand” were active, but aside from them, there wasn't a significant migration today. The only other species we saw in decent numbers were terns. However, what we lacked in numbers, we made up for in diversity. A good variety of species passed by us today — including tufted ducks “Troldand”, common eiders “Ederfugl”, greylag geese “Grågås”, and brent geese “Knortegås”. And of course, the absolute highlight of the day: an Egyptian Goose and around 100 Red Knots migrating past us. It was wonderful to see the large flock of knots slowly making their way north.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Blue sky over the observation spot. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Ringing
Morten and Emma ran the ringing today, and just like us at the observation post, they were also ready for a day with many birds in the nets. After a somewhat slow start to the morning – perhaps due to the slight fog hanging low over the ground – the birds also really started moving. After the observation, I joined the ringing and went along for the last two rounds of the standard time. After that, we closed Fyrhaven and Krathaven, and then Morten and, on several rounds also I, continued rounds in Stationshaven, where there were still birds.

When Morten closed the last net around 19:00, we had reached a total of 41 ringed birds and 5 recaptures. So that must be said to be a good day’s result. The vast majority of the birds today were long-distance migrants like willow warblers and redstarts, and this meant that Morten could take a lot of blood samples from these birds.

The highlight of the day came well after the standard rounds, when Morten and I did a quiet round with only two birds in the net – but one of them made Morten very happy. Morten quickly took it out of the net and everyone at the station was called into the lab, where Morten showed us the first wood warbler in our nets this year.

In addition to this highlight, we also had a willow warbler with a Swedish ring, which is always great – it’s exciting to see birds with rings from other stations.

Everyone is eagerly waiting to see what Morten has in the bag. Picture: Levi van den Os

Wood Warbler "Skovsanger". Picture: Thomas Kristensen

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Frida Soeltoft, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, David Manstrup  

Morning observation

Today Thomas nor Marit were able to join me for the morning observation, which meant counting a lot of birds I'm normally not that familiar with. Emma however, came to the rescue, helping me with the counting this morning! This was just her second time joining the obs, but she picked the counting up very fast. While she was responsible for the divers "Rødstrubet lom", I did the other common migrators. Later however, we basically switched which species we were counting as Emma was having a blast counting the common scoters "Sortand". During the obs Emma noticed a black, tern like bird fly across her scope view. This was none other than a black tern "Sortterne"! Overall we had a good morning observation with a large amount of scoters.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Ringing

The ringing was in comparison quite slow. There were in total 18 birds ringed and 4 recaptures. Marit and Kyle checked the lighthouse garden, while Morten looked after the station garden. After the standard time the lighthouse garden was closed. But with the nets in the station garden still open, Morten caught the first spotted flycatcher "Grå fluesnapper" of the season!

Spotted flycatcher "Grå fluesnapper". Picture: David Manstrup

Blackbird "Solsort". Picture: Kyle Tittse

“Kystfugle” Project:

After some hard days of work, it’s finally time to celebrate!

We’ve made great progress with the fences in Blåvand and Rømø.

Even though the Little Terns seem to be arriving a bit late this season, we’re still hopeful that their numbers will increase in the coming days.

Over the last few days, the first Dwarfs (Little Terns) and Peckers (Ringed Plovers) have been pairing up on the beach - which means we can expect the first eggs within the next seven days!

Yesterday, Kim F. and Ulf B. visited the station to install the last missing pieces for the fence in Blåvand. 

The electricity is now running through the wires, the decoys are being offered fish, and the fence is ready to be elevated in case of a king tide.

Electric Energy System - Kim and Fritz; Photo: Joseph

The second fence along the first line of dunes is up, the poles are equipped with spikes to prevent perch hunting, the first sand drift measurement has been completed, and daily records of location and activity are ongoing.

Anti perch hunting spikes; Photo: Joseph

Sand Drift Measurement; Photo: Joseph

We’re also counting dogs - both on and off leashes. Fifteen artificial nests (made up of 30 quail and 15 wax eggs) were placed along a gradient from bare sand to dense vegetation, accompanied by three trail cameras to estimate predator density, identify which species are involved, and understand the environmental factors affecting predation rates.

Artificial Nests; Photo: Joseph

And last but not least: the concrete tubes are patiently waiting to be cut and decorated with sand.

Our bones and muscles are extremely sore - but our souls are soothed. We’re looking forward to tomorrow, hoping to see more Little Terns mingling inside the fence.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this project happen!

Special thanks to John F., Kim F., Ulf B., Thomas B., Christoph M., and Henrik B. for supervising with precision and patience.

We’re off to a great start, and I’m excited to keep you updated in the next blog posts and share the first maps and results!

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Frida Soeltoft, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, David Manstrup

Morning observation

As usual Thomas, Levi and I went to the morning observation. Henrik also joined today. The migration was alright. It was better then the other days we had. We had a decent amount of Red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom”. Our highlight of today was a Black tern “Sortterne”, which was migrating to the north. It was a nice morning!

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing

Emma helped Morten out today with the ringing. It was a quite slow day with only 19 birds in the nets. But we did catch two Wood pigeons “Ringdue”! Emma was really happy with the pigeon and took a selfie with one of them. She also got some company from a Moor frog in the Lighthouse garden. We caught some long distance migrating birds such as the Willow warbler “Løvsanger” as well, so Morten could take some bloodsamples again.

Emma with a pigeon. Picture: Emma Gray

Wood pigeon. Picture: Emma Gray

Moor frog at the Lighthouse garden. Picture: Emma Gray

News from the station

This evening, Henrik spoiled us with some delicious dinner. He made us loaded fries with some Danish toppings, such as sausage, bacon, curry sauce and homemade cheddar sauce. It was really tasty! Later this day, Frida arrived, she will stay at the station a couple of days.

At the station:  Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Frida, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen and Kyle Tittse