Today we experienced something spectacular

The day started a quarter past 5 with counting. it was pretty calm not much of interest until i see a huge group of birds going really high i get the scope on them and i think golden plovers, so i try to count them althoght it is difficult as the group change alot but minimum 500 so i write that down. a bit later i see another group but this time it is so big i thought it must be geese. but no,same spiceies and the flok is enormous. i dont know how many there was so i write the minimum down at least 3500. another group comes even higher this time and it is a bit smaler than the first one but i note it as 500 also.

Bent and Svend Aage are visiting  us today and we sit outside in the sun. I then go for a walk in the area, sadly the military area is closed so i go around near the station. three wrynecks hang out behind the station.

Wryneck, Photo by Mikkel Bello

I walk to the ‘hole’ in front of the dunes south west of the parking lot where a wagtail with yellow head is flying up, it is calling a couple of times but it doesn't sound like a Citrine Wagtsil though it looks like one on my pictures, so i call it out as possible citrine.
I walked quickly back and Bent and the others agreed, it looked like a citrine.

Yellow Wagtail, Flavissima (Citrine Wagtail look alike) photo by Mikkel Bello

We walked back there and found it again this time it is flying around and is for sure not sounding right. Then it went down and now we see it clearly and the pictures I took confirmed it. A Yellow wagtail of the subspecies flavissima which is also called yellow headed yellow wagtail. It is also pretty rare and a good find!

Yellow Wagtail, Flavissima. Photo by Mikkel Bello

later bent textst me if i'm sure i saw 4500 golden plovers as it would be a new record for blåvand, the previous is 600 something, and the red knots should begin to migrate in big groups now. ok so to make it short. i start to doubt if it was really golden plovers and not red knots, and later we see a big group flying past the station so we go out to watch the migration in the evening. here we see some nice groups as well but for sure knots. so i correct myself and enjoy the nice migration. Apart from 2000 knots that evening we also saw good migration of scoters and velvet scoters. The last mentioned I was also very surprised to see in bigger numbers than 5-10 in floks! We had some groups with more than 60 and saw 392! The knots ended at 1907 plus the group we saw from the station at around 400.

Had I been more aware of this phenomena I would have spent the day out and tried to get a maximum count. Also I was a bit conservative in my counting so I believe 10k+ birds could have been seen but a total of 6815 is not bad at all! 


Dofbasen link here
People at the station: Mikkel, Agata, Menno, Maciej, Bent, Svend Aage

I was quite excited today as the forecast predicted winds from SW. 
It did start okay, with Grashopperwarbler singing at the parkinglot. I stared counting at 5:30 it was a bit quiet i thought but sometimes the birds have to wake up as well! 
I was joined by Henrik, but at the time he arrived the fog arrived too. We gave it a chance but after a bit of rain the fog increased until we couldn't tell apart beach from water if we could even see the water, so we quit. Henrik went home to pack for a trip to California and I took a day off kinda. 

The ringers was unfortunatly not as busy as we hope for though so birds today but nothing really of interest. Agata cooked a nice dinner for us and went to the Bunker Mules with Maceij after the following round of ringing.  
 


Comparison between Lesser and Common Whitethroat (Gærdesanger / Tornsanger) from yesterday – Picture by Maceij

Observations on Dofbasen


Ringing Totals   new/recaptures
Robin (7/0)

Redstart (2/0)

Blackbird (1/0)

Lesser whitethroat (4/1)

Blackcap (8/0)

Chiffchaff (9/1), one of them ssp. abenetius

Willow warbler (5/0)

Pied flycatcher (1/0)

Great tit (0/1)

Tree sparrow (1/1)

Lesser redpoll (1/0)

The day started really good with the first nightingale in Denmark this year, we all heard it sing. Besides the nightingale, the ringing only started properly after two almost empty rounds. But after those two rounds, the lesser whitethroats and the phylloscopen (Chiffchaff and Willow warbler) could be found in the nets. In one of the last rounds we found another wryneck, bringing the seasons total up to 10 which means that we reached the same amount of wrynecks during the record year. With the favorable southern winds this night and tomorrow I suspect that we can catch some more. After standardized time, we decided to use some playback to lure the nightingale into the nets. Within 20 minutes it flew into the nets.

 
Sydlig nattergal, Photo - Bello

Another highlight was the catch of the first common whitethroat. They arrived some days ago, and singing in the surroundings of the station. But up until today, they managed to keep outside of the nets.  

To end the day, we got a reply of the French Chiffchaff we controlled. It was ringed in October 2020 as a 1k, making it a 3k when we controlled it. You may wonder how many kilometers it already has travelled the last two years.

The place where the chiffchaff got its ring

Ringing list (new/recapture)

Wryneck (0/1)

Wren (1/1)

Dunnock (0/1)

Robin (3/1)

Nightingale (1/0)

Common redstart (2/0)

Blackbird (1/1)

Song thrust (1/0)

Lesser whitethroat (14/2)

Common whitethroat (1/0)

Blackcap (3/0)

Chiffchaff (7/1)

Willow warbler (8/0)

Pied flycatcher (1/0)

Great tit (0/1)

Chaffinch (0/1)

Linnet (1/0)

People at the station: Agata, Maciej, Bello and Menno

Doing the closing round at 10 p.m. sounded like a brilliant idea yesterday. However when alarm rang at 4.40 a.m. today we regretted it a bit, especially because there were no birds in nets after sunset. Getting up wasn't so difficult though, as we all are full of hope every morning that new day will finally bring us some bigger numbers of ringed birds. And even though we ringed only ... and some of the rounds were empty, we are not disappointed. For sure it is very helpful to try to take the best even from bad situation, and when we think longer about this passing day, we find more and more positive sides of it. First of all, we caught definitely more birds than yesterday, so it was already a success. Next little highlight was catching relatively many Lesser Whitethroats, so we had some more opportunities to practice ageing them. Moreover, we extracted also some Redpolls and a Chaffinch, so that are another species good for gaining experience. And what seems to be the most significant moment of the day: we caught a Barn Swallow! So now we are sure that keeping nets open until late evening is profitable, even if there will be days with empty closing rounds at 10 pm.
Besides ringing, the day passed really calmly today, so we could take a little nap during the day, I practiced some wood carving, Menno took care of his internship project, Mikkel (who had quite successful seawatch today, seeing a really nice migration of Gannets) had used time to train his martial arts, and after dinner and shopping me and Agata went on a lovely (birdwatching) walk to the dunes. Now we are quickly going to sleep, waiting what tomorrow will bring us.

 
Every species that is new for us obviously needs to be photographed. Photo: Mikkel Bello

Today's beauty - Barn Swallow. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata, Menno, Mikkel, Maciej

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed / recaptured):

Landsvale / Barn Swallow: 1/0
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 1/0
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 0/1
Rødhals / Robin: 1/1
Gærdesanger / Lesser Whitethroat: 10/1
Munk / Blackcap: 1/0
Gransanger / Chiffchaff: 3/1
Løvsanger / Willow Warbler: 3/1
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/1
Grønirisk / Greenfinch: 0/1
Tornirisk / Linnet: 1/0
Stor Gråsisken / Lesser Redpoll: 2/0

Total: 24/7

Today started for me at 4:30 with some stretching and breathwork and then off to the counting which is 5:30 now. Because of  the divers and the terns migrating at different heights I asked Menno to help me as it is difficult to cover both the sea and the sky at the same time. Agata and Maciej took care of the nets.
Despite yesterday's good diversity and numbers we had a rather slow day with just over 200 divers. The terns took the show with 700 Common(Fjord) / Arctic(Hav) Terns(Terner) and one Black Tern(Sortterne) which  isn’t common in spring.  No Skuas, and no surprises.


Little Terns. Photo by Mikkel Bello

Today was the day where we were putting up a fence for breeding little terns. So Bent, John and svend Aage came with pastry and buns before we started. We thought or i thought at least that it would take maybe a couple of hours but no it took 6 -7 hours before we were done but a good result it was. Menno was working on his internship and watching the nets as we were working.


Little Tern with green color ring. Photo by Mikkel Bello 


We located 3 Ringed Plover nests and were accompanied with 5 little terns. Around 100 sandelings and 130 Sandwich Terns were resting on the sandbanks while we were digging, measuring and whatever else was needed to prepare the fence. 

Ringed Plover(Stor Præstekrave) nesting. Photo by Mikkel Bello


Ringed Plover eggs. Photo by Mikkel Bello


Dofbasen Link, here

Ringing (new/recapture)
5/0 Robin (Rødhals)
1/0 Blackbird (Solsort)
5/0 Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger)
1/0 Blackcap (Munk)
8/2 Chiffchaff (Gransanger)
8/0 Willow Warbler (Løvsanger)
2/0 Linnet (Tornirisk)
2/0 Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken)


People at the station: Bent, John Frikke, Svend Aage, Menno Maciej, Agata, Mikkel Bello

Today was finally good! My motivation has been pretty low due to the low or non migration that has been. Yesterday was a bit better, but today was above average! With 957 divers, a Black Throated Diver(Sortlom) as well, plenty Arctic/common terns, 5 arctic skuas(Almindelig Kjove), 1 Pomarine Skua(Mellem Kjove) which is the first in dk this season. We also had a serin, and good numbers of lesser black backed gull. And a possible citrin wagtail, Henrik has to look at the recording! 2 little gulls and a fulmar(Mallemuk) is also worth mentioning. So now the motivation is very good again, hopefully may will be a lot better m than April was! 
Edit: After a bit of research the possible Citrin Wagtial (Citron Vipstjeret) is now probably a Olive Backed Pipet (Tajgapiber) which is an even better (rarer) spicies. Lets see 


Pomarine Skua (Mellemkjove) Photo by Henrik Bøhmer 

Today we also had an open ringing day. It was quite nice to see how many people showed up. The first few rounds did not have any birds, so we were a bit spooked that we could not show any birds. Luckely, when it started, we had some birds in the nets. We could show a redpoll, a few chiffchaffs and willow warblers and some blackcaps. One blackcap had fat 7 and weighted over 23 grams, a very heavy bird that already has enough fat to reach her breeding grounds.

Ringing totals (new/recaptures)

Dunnock (0/1)

Robin (1/0)

Redstart (1/0)

Blackbird (0/1)

Lesser whitethroat (2/0)

Blackcap (4/0)

Chiffchaff (9/1)

Willow warbler (5/1)

Chaffinch (1/1)

Greenfinch (0/1)

Lesser redpoll (0/1)

People at the station: Some open day visitors, Bent, John, Leona, Bello, Maciej, Agata and Menno

Dof link: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=01-05-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Today the ringing was a bit better than the days before. We captured 10 new birds and 3 recaptures. Due to a fox cub that Menno saw in the Helgolandtrap we asume that there is a whole fox family in the lighthousegarden. Because we don't want our birds in the nets to become foxfood we put up a foxtrap that we check regularly.

Bello also had a better day, with okay numbers of divers and terns, but still nothing out of the ordernary actually still a bit under standard. 

When I took out the trash in the kitchen, I gasped. I was very surprised when I found that one of the mousetraps finally worked after nearly 2 months! Sadly it wasn't a living trap. 

A bit of a retrospectif to the last month.

Ringing

In April 508 new birds have been ringed. The most numerous species have been: Chiffchaff (95) and Robin (92). The highlights for me were two collared doves, nine wrynecks (as mentioned previous, this is almost the same amount as the highest season total) and the ring ouzel. Besides that, it has been really nice to see some birds that winter in southern parts of this world. Such as willow warbler, blackcap and lesser whitethroat. Up untill now we did not caught common whitethroat, but we expect that we catch one the coming days. Besides the new birds, we also had some nice recaptures. In total we had 4 foreign controls: a belgian Linnet, a belgian Blackcap, a german Robin and a french Chiffchaff. 

Ringing data (new/recapture)

Dunnock (0/1)

Blackbird (0/1)

Chiffchaff (2/0)

Willow warbler (3/0)

Great tit (0/1)

Brambling (1/0)

Linnet (1/0)

Redpoll (3/0)