This morning was painful - it had been forecasted to rain for the past several days and we have been dreading it, but today was the day it finally came. A few of us woke up early to confirm it was actually raining, and unsurprisingly it was just as predicted. Over the next few hours we watched the weather and it continued to rain with force. Fortunately, by midday it began to clear and we opened the nets.

The nets were alright during the midday and produced a few new captures including 3 Icterine Warblers, a Linnet and a Blackcap. The nets further produced another nice bird: a Dunnock, which was ringed in Germany. We have already captured it this spring, but this time it showed a brood patch which confirmed it is nesting in the area. We totaled the day with 8 recaptures and 5 new birds.

The main highlights of the day came from those not staying at the station: Rune and Anders. In the morning hours during the rain, Rune found a singing Bluethroat around the Mosen. Later in the day, Anders got a quick look at a European Turtle-Dove behind the station which we were unfortunately unable to refind. 

Monday, 27 May at Blåvand Fuglestation started slowly. Precipitation overnight and a damp, overcast morning set the scene for a nearly fruitless session of ringing. 

Most captures were controls, though Morten did ring a family of greenfinches. 

When there isn't much ringing to be done, our attentions are drawn to other activities such as observations.

A House Sparrow near the station where Tree Sparrows reign was a nice departure from the norm. 

Some Red-throated Divers as part of the tail end of migration.

A Glaucos Gull spotted on the beach. 

The amount of birds where impressive today. not the amount that got in the nets or during observations, but the numbers that where able to avoid the nets. With 9 ringed birds and 1 control in both gardens, this wasn't the best day of the week, although, 2 mentionable birds where caught, another hawfinch and a wood pigeon.

I also wanted to mention a little flashback to yesterday evening, I tried catching a pair of red-backed shrikes again. I setup the nets and waited for a very long time. After 2,5 hours of nothing in the nets, I decided to replace one, just to see if it was a good spot to try this morning, because I'd given up my hopes for the night with 1 hour of light left. After I set it up, I walked around to see if I could find the shrikes, nowhere... But when I was standing on one of the high dunes, I suddenly saw... A bird in the net! It appeared to be 2 and it was the pair I was after, so still a little bit of luck!

It was a pretty weird day for me, because after the succes of yesterday, I was out for more. The first time in 3 weeks that I didn't participate in the ringing (wich appeared to be a good timing considering the amount of birds). Unfortunately, 3 hours of roaming around with 4 poles and some nets, a hammer and ringing equipment didn't pay off. A moment I went to the beach and counted the breeding pairs of the little terns, there are at least 21 breeding now, almost the same amount as was found last breeding season (23 pairs).

Vi kunne arbejde med alle net åbne fra 04:30 til kl 13, hvor det blev tid til siesta for os.
Der var ikke fanget en eneste fugl siden kl 10 og det trækker tænder ud, at gå rundt til tomme net hver halve time, så sofaen og sengene kaldte på os til en times eftermiddagshvil.
Totalt fik vi i standardtiden sat ring på 17 fugle og genfanget 4 af hvor egne fugle.
Diversiteten af arter var ganske god, da de 21 fugle var fordelt på 12 forskellige arter.
Solsort, Rødhals, Rødstjert, Gulbug, Gærdesanger, Tornsanger, Havesanger, Gransanger, Tornirisk, Lille Gråsisken, Bogfinke og Karmindompap.

Den sidste art blev dagens fugl, da det er den første vi har i hånden i år.

Michael forsatte med tjek af klitten og stranden efter standardtiden var gået og satte ring på et nyt kuld unger af Stor Præstekrave ved terne hegningen.
Der er altså god ynglesucces for de præstekraver, når ræve, hunde og mennesker ikke har adgang til rederne.
Michael kunne også berette om nu minimum 20 Dværgterner på rede indenfor hegningen.

Ellers var det lidt andet end fugle, der gjorde dagen ekstra god for Michael og jeg, da vi fik opstøvet nogle eksemplarer af den i Danmark sjældne guldsmed Rødåret Hedelibel.
Der var mindst 2 hunner og 6 hanner i området fra klitten ved p-pladsen og ned til den sydlige del af Mosen.
I Naturbasen og på Arter.dk er arten hidtil i år kun fundet her og på Amager Fælled, så vi føler os lidt heldige at have så mange individer omkring os.



Folk på stationen: Lucas, Mallory, Maxim, Michael og Morten

The month of May has been relatively uneventful for the most part. Because of the low numbers there are little expectations at the moment for what the day will bring. For the most part we stay positive and joke about unrealistic numbers we will catch or what rarities we might find. In the end, there are a multitude of factors that influence the outcome of things and so, we might as well take it as it comes.

The mild weather of today did not bring out the birds to the nets. In total 11 birds were caught, two of which were controls. We did however have two interesting species in the nets. First a Sisken, a bird we have not had too often in the nets this season, and just in the “neck” of time Mallory’s hope for a Wryneck was fulfilled when one ended up in the nets right before closing time.

Sisken

Wryneck

During morning observation Lucas spotted a Long-tailed duck, which was the only exiting news from the observations. Lucas received his x-ringing license and will know be able to get some experience ringing before heading to Skagen later this summer.

With Morten's return to the station is afternoon, tomorrow we will continue with the usual program where Morten will focus on sampling in the station garden and Micheal, Mallory and I will focus our attention on the lighthouse garden.

The rain that started during the night seemed to determined to keep our nets closed today. It was still going at the usual 4 a.m. wakeup time and persisted into the mid-afternoon. 

While we occupied ourselves with other work, we could hear the Bee-eaters overheard, though the overcast conditions didn't allow us to see them.

The rain finally stopped, and around 16:00 we were able to safely open the nets in the garden station and catch at least a few birds, including: Common Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Chiffchaff, Icterine Warbler, Linnet and Lesser Redpoll. 

Hopefully we'll catch the Wryneck that's been hanging around in the garden, even perching on the nesting box. 

Tomorrow's forecast seems promising for a statisfying day of ringing. 

After a very productive few days, the wave of “green species” on DofBasen finally began to slow down today.

While Morten and Henrik were both at home; Michael once again spearheaded the ringing operation with Mallory and Maxim assisting. Comparatively slow to yesterday, we caught 14 individuals (12 new birds and 2 recaptures). The major difference between yesterday and today seemed to be the weather, today the wind was once again quite strong but unfortunately a rain system seems to be making it ways to our area which forced us to close the Lighthouse Garden nets a bit early today. That said, on one of our final rounds of checking the nets in the station garden, we discovered the River Warbler (Flodsanger) in the net for its third consecutive day. Other highlights of the day include Lesser Redpoll and several Spotted Flycatchers (a continued trend from yesterday afternoon where we caught 5 Grå Fluesnapper).

Morning observations were very slow this morning and produced only a few Red-throated Divers moving north, but the most exciting bird of the morning was a very late Common Murre (Lomvie) flying north.

Last, Antonio departed today. We wish him well and safe travels.

Efter flere dage med grønne arter på Dofbasen og et forår der er kommet godt igen, havde vi selvfølgelig også forventet at få noget godt i dag. Og det lykkedes - lige præcis. 

Mens Morten er hjemme på visit, passede Michael, Maxim, Nino og Mallory haverne. Der var som sådan pænt med fugle, f.eks. flere rødstjerter end de tidligere dage. Det blev også til en rørsanger, kernebider og broget fluesnapper. En indsats for at fange nogle af de lokale bysvaler gav også pote med 3 mærkede. 

Grå fluesnapper

Trækket står fortsat ret stille, selv om der i dag var lidt mere gang i den. Lucas havde en sydtrækkende hvidbrystet præstekrave og lidt senere fandt Henrik en nordtrækkende mellemkjove - en ventet art, selv om østenvind ikke er hvad vi forbinder med den art om foråret. Det var en fed gammel fugl med køller og det hele. Der kom en del mursejlere ind fra havet og morgenobsen gav også 3 rider og en alm. kjove. 

Vandstanden er fortsat høj i mosen og hele den sydlige del står fortsat under vand. Der holder 2-3 små lappedykkere til og der er fortsat 3 viber og en rødben. Der var dog ikke nye fugle i området i dag. 

21 may will go in the history books. Not because of the migration, that was pretty slow again. And also not because of the amount we ringed, but the species we've ringed. The ringing was very slow, but around 6:30, Morten called out to come to the station haven because he had caught a great bird! We all started walking towarda the cabin at the station, and it appeared to be a river warbler!

It was for Morten also a new species to ring, so he was smiling from ear to ear, lovely to see everyone so happy with such a beautiful bird.

The rest of the day was slow again, only 2 spoonbills far away made the observations a little bit better. One of the skylarks I've ringed in the nest was unfortunately found dead this afternoon, the death cause was probably bitten by an adder, I've seen that a few times before.

I went to the beach and spotted a new family of ringed plovers, and unringed ringed plovers are not acceptable, so now there are 3 more young ringed ringed plovers;).

After ringing the plovers I saw a Kentish plover in between the sanderlings and ringed plovers, that was a nice suprise as well! A nice end of a great day!

We arrived at Blåvand Fugelstation on Saturday evening and joined the bird-ringing operation on Sunday morning. Antonino is an experienced bird-ringer, having obtained his ringing license in 2008, and is looking to broaden his scope once he retires from his post as a livestock veterinarian for the public health ministry. I, Mallory, am a new bird-ringing apprentice studying under Antonino’s supervision. 

We learned about Blåvand Fugelstation via social media and thought it would be a great experience for our goals. Indeed, on our very first morning we had the privilege of capturing a young song thrush (Turdus philomelos), which we only see during the winter in Sicily. Furthermore, it’s been interesting to observe the differences in methods and coding between Denmark and Italy. 

First calendar year song thrush captured this morning.

Around mid-morning, we set out with Henrik and Lucas on an adventure to see dotterels that have been seen in the past couple of weeks. Luck was not on our side for the dotterel sighting, but as first-time visitors to Denmark, it was a novel opportunity for us to observe the flora and fauna present, including roe deer and an enormous hare, as well as a myriad of avifauna that we don’t see often or at all in Sicily.

Other things to mention:

Common Nightingale (ringed) & Red-breasted Flycatcher (ringed)

A late Shore Lark (5th May record) & 3k+ Arctic Skua (morning observations)