Vejr: direction - NV (314); speed - 10 m/s; cloud cover - 4/8; visibility - 18+ km; temperature - 14.9°C

Well, the weather forecast did not look too good in the morning but being the eager observers we are, Henrik K, Henrik, Jimmy, Sven and me were looking for some birds on the shore again. For many species, migration was rather quiet, but on the other hand, we had some very nice observations again. We counted over 500 Gannets hunting just outside the reef again and Common Scoters were close to the shore (unfortunately in the military area, which was inaccessible by that time). A little more "exciting", was an adult Yellow-Legged Gull, which, of course, Henrik K spotted. Gulls in general were good yesterday, I counted the highest number of Herring Gulls since I am here (1.275 which is still not much for many of you probably, but for me, it's exciting as these numbers don't show up in Austria at all). Henrik K raised the stack with a subadult Little Gull passingby outside the reef. I also found a Guillimot in the morning (my first one here) and we also saw an Osprey,but yesterday, Jimmy hit the jackpot. He found another Sabine's Gull, an immature bird too. It passed by fastly but luckily, all the people at the counting station at that time, saw it.

We didn't ring any birds yesterday, the nets stayed closed.

ps: I am really sorry for those who read the blog late in the evening and may have realised, that I just didn't write it in the evening anymore. I just couldn'tmake it yesterday, which is why I upload it this morning, sorry for the trouble.

See you soon, Christian

Vejr: direction - SV (219); speed - 3 m/s; cloud cover - 7/8; visibility - 15 km; temperature - 16.8 °C

Today, we unexpectedly had good weather for migration. The last 48 hours promised us heavy rain throughout the whole day, but luckily (maybe because we ate up so well yesterday evening), we head good weather until 11 o'clock. This meant, that Henrik K, David, Henrik, Jimmy and Sampsa from Finland checked the sea for migrating birds.Migration counts again, went down pretty slowly and the gulls were difficult to count today. A few Arctic Skuas were flying around and a Great Skua (possibly the one from the last few observations at the station) showed up after the count. 

Bent and me stayed at the station for ringing in both gardens, as usual. The first round was very silent, but at the end we managed to get 15 birds of 8 species ringed. Hoorayy! 
Ringmærkning: Wren (1), Dunnock (3), Song Thrush (1), Common Whitethroat (2), Garden Warbler (2), Blackcap (1), Chaffinch (1), Yellowhammer (4). 

At 11 o'clock, the promised bad weather appeared, which we used for some quality talks about raptor migration, the Batumi Raptor Count and population decreases in farmland birds in Europe. I personally fount these talks very interesting and love to share thoughts on complex topics like these. Jimmy, the two Henriks and me went out to the Kjelst Enge for about an hour when the weather cleared up again. The military is very active at the moment, so, although we didn't get real thunder, the military sure made it sound like there actually was thunder :).

See you tomorrow, 
Christian

Vejr: direction - SO (119); speed - 4 m/s; cloud cover - 6/8; visibility - 15 km; temperature - 13.3°C

Today, Henrik, Henrik and Jimmy went out for seabird migration while Bent and me stayed at the station and ringed birds. The "seawatch-trio" did not find any highlights, but had a nice day with a few species that have not been spotted everyday, for example two Peregrine Falcons, at least two Caspian Gulls and a Yellow Legged Gull (1cy). 

Ringing as well, may not have been a special day for most people, but I had my first juvenile Redpoll in the hand, which was a welcome surprise for me, when I took it out of the net (which is why I share a record shot of this bird with you today). We also caught a Goldcrest and a Robin, so Autumn is coming, but the most frequent species today was Garden Warbler. We had a little over 20 birds but I enjoyed ringing again very much and the species-variation was satisfying too :). 

Ringmærkning: Dunnock (3), Robin (1), Common Redstart (1), Song Thrush (2), Common Whitethroat (1), garden Warbler (6), Blackcap (1), Chiffchaff (1), Goldcrest (1), Pied Flycatcher (1), Redpoll (1), Bullfinch (2). In total: 21 birds of 12 species.

As the weather was not too good during the day, we spent most of our time inside (I started sorting my pictures, because the amount of work is getting bigger every day). In The evening, Henrik K, Jimmy and I were invited for a lovely, selfmade dinner from our new guest at the station (thx again), which gave us a nice opportunity to have a little chat about anything and everything. We hope the weather stays dry in the morning tomorrow, let's see,
Christian

Vejr: direction - 0 (74); speed - 3 m/s; cloud cover - 3/8; visibility - 18 km; temperature - 10.6°C

Jimmy and Henrik started out with counting today, but were later joined by David and me. We had a very quiet morning with the usual suspects. The military area was closed today (and, according to their schedule, will be till Friday), although most gulls still prefered the distant sandbanks. So, again, counting them was a challenge. This distance to the birds is also why I cannot offer a good picture from today, so I will save up my good ones from the previous days for the rainy days ahead of us. 
An early (timewise, not seasonwise) Merlin, some Arctic Skuas and two Ospreys (one during the count, the other a bit later) sweetened our morning, besides the great job, the (brilliant) weather did today. While one Osprey passed by rather normally, the other one was chased by an Arctic Skua which I found so impressive, that I created a silly name for today's blog entry.

The nets stayed closed for today, but we look forward to ring again :)

All the best, Christian

Vejr: direction - E; speed - 1 m/s; cloud cover - 3/8; visibility - 15 km; temperature - 10°C

Today was the first day I counted on my own (not that I have not attempted it before, but the two previous times were always ruined by a bad weather front). And I really have to say: I salute to Henrik on how easy he makes it look, I think it's rather difficult, although I enjoyed counting a lot today (it just feels different to just count with someone else or to be completely on your own and have all the responsibility). 
The weather was nice, although, due to the very low tide, sandbanks streched out very far today. When the first quarter started with rain, I expected it to be a bad day, but luckily the really bad clouds passed me and I only caught about 5 minutes of rain. However, it cleared up perfectly (even so much that the air started flickering, which made counting distant birds really hard). Waders were more frequent compared to the previous days and Oystercatchers, Sanderlings and Dunlins showed up again in small flocks. Again, Red-throated Divers passed by in a few small flocks and I really love them a little more every time I see them. Barn Swallows made it really difficult to count passerines, as they decided to hunt just above me (thus complicating my counts rather strongly). Besides, I saw the usual suspects like Dunnocks and pipits. So, nothing special at all today, maybe for the better, that would have probably made things even more difficult for me :D. As the water backed off so far, the gulls thought it would be nice to give me a hard time counting them and decided to perch on the sandbanks far away. Still, I took the challenge and managed to count them, although I did not see any scarse or rare species. 

In the evening, I visited the beach once more and took a few nice pictures, as the conditions were amazing this evening. Due to the way the gulls chalenged me today, I decided to post a picture in their honour. Thus, here is a picture of a Herring Gull, just passing by in a really nice lightsituation:

Tomorrow, Henrik, Jimmy (who is staying at the station at the moment) and Bent will be here again, so more eyes will probably see more birds tomorrow. Until then, stay tuned,
Christian

Vejr: direction - N(20); speed - 3 m/s; cloud cover - 4/8; visibility - 18+ km; temperature - 11.8°CVejr: direction - N(20); speed - 3 m/s; cloud cover - 4/8; visibility - 18+ km; temperature - 11.8°C

Today, I would like to start with a picture, sharing the weather Henrik and me had the chance to count at:


This is, what the weather was like today, we were very fortunate, the weather-gods must have stood in great sympathy with us today. Although a little cold, visibility was really nice and we could definitely see autumn coming in by the rising numbers of birds today. Common Scoters could be seen well, resting in the sea today. There were about 5.000 of them (the most I have seen so far), most of which rested south of us. As the water-levels were pretty low today, the gulls and terns were quite far away, so we didn't spend that much time on them, just enough to count them. There was very little migration of waders/shorebirds, but numbers of Red-throated Divers were higher than the previous days. Additionally, we saw the first little group of light-bellied Brent Geese for the season, really nice birds. The weather also brought some passerines and beside nice numbers of swallows we also had quite a few Tree, Meadow Pipits and Yellowhammers, but also a few Reed Buntings and a Grey Wagtail.

As Henrik and Bent cannot be here tomorrow, we will see how I keep up with the raising numbers of songbirds, le'ts see if I get totally overchallenged or if I still manage to post a nice picture tomorrow aswell. :)

Stay tuned, Christian

Vejr: direction - NV (307); speed - 5 m/s; cloud cover - 4/8; visibility - 18+ km; temperature - 14.6°C

SO, today!! Today, we have some really nice stories to tell. While Henrik went to the beach (and was later joined by David and Sven), Bent and I stayed at the station for ringing. They had a young Peregrine Falcon and three Caspian Gulls, while the rest of the migration went slow again, but today, that was okay. Today's highlight definitely was a JUVENILE SABINE'S GULL. In this case, especially from my perspective, this birds deserves capital letters, it was a lifer for me and I could even get a nice comparison shot with a young Black-headed Gull during the net-rounds. But this bird was also special to the station, as it was the first one spotted here for four years.



Ringing as well went extremely well in my opinion. my definite highlight there was the Firecrest, which is even more amazing when seen at such close range (which is why I also added a picture of this fascinating little fellow). We unfortunately missed a Female Sparrowhawk that I saw flying into the net, but unfortunately it was out faster than I was running the distance of only 3 meters between us. So, to our anger, dissapointment, the Sparrowhawk left nothing more than a football-sized hole in one of our nets. 

Ringmærkning: Dunnock (5), Robin (3), Reed Warbler (1), Lesser Whitethroat (1), Common Whitethroat (1), Garden Warbler (2), Blackcap (4), Willow Warbler (4), Firecrest (1), Spotted Flycatcher (1), Pied Flycatcher (3), Coal Tit (2), Yellowhammer (1). In total: 29 Birds of 13 species.

After the migration counts, Henrik managed to also find the first Grasshopper Warbler near the swamp for this season.
Tomorrow, we try to take up with this brilliant day today, check for yourself if we manage to do it,

Christian

Vejr: direction - N (11); speed - 6 m/s; cloud cover - 7/8; visibility - 18 km; temperature - 11.7°C

Aaarg.. today, we could not even finish the count due to the... sorry, I have to say it again... the weather! We expected a little bad weather and did not expect much from the seamigration counting, although we were interested in seeing how the north wind will influence the number of passerines. At sea, we counted for about 1.5 hours but at some point, low visibility and rain, as well as the absence of birds forced us to stop the count, no big highlights at all. A bird that definitely needs an honorable mention was a Peregrine Falcon that took a wader (looked like a Sanderling). Very exciting to see it taking of with its prey.

Unfortunately, we did not ring in the morning despite a good amount of passerines to the garden and the counting station as well as nice weather in the early morning. As Henrik and me headed back to the station (due to the rain at around 8 o'clock), we had some good talks about rare birds and their appearances at different weather conditions. This made me really eager to ring again (and the weather for the upcoming days looks promising too), which, for some reason, Jonas must have felt. He spontanteously showed up and coincidently, the weather got better that moment. He decided to open the nets for two hours. By then, quite some birds were in the garden still, but of course, as we opened up the nets, most of them had already disappeared. Summarising, weather changed very often and in the end, it was just enough to catch a hand full of birds, amongst them, a beautiful male Common Redstart. However, the big numbers of birds in the garden in the early morning was gone by then (we assumed they must have left as soon as the rain stopped again). 

Ringmærkning: Common Redstart (1), Song Thrush (1), Blackcap (1), Lesser Whitethroat (1, Ringed in 2015 by Henrik as a 2k+).



See you tomorrow, Christian

Vejr: direction - NV (311); speed - 4 m/s; cloud cover - 1/8; visibility - 15 km; temperature - 15.9°C

I am afraid, I soon will start to struggle to find a first sentence other than "Again, we had XY weather, but not many birds", but it unfortunately really is true. So luckily, this sentence just saved me from starting so similarly for the third time in a row. Wader migration seems to have come to an end, but Common Scoters and Gannets kept us busy. Unfortunately, this was not because they were incredibly numerous, but just couldn't decide whether it is best to rest, to fly south or to fly north. Gannets were a bit more frequent today (about 250 birds), but numbers of Common Scoters did not change drastically compared to the previous days. Today however brought our first Grey Wagtail of the autumn, which we could only hear, but not see due to the quick pass and our focus on a Great Skua, again flying over the beach very closely (we are fearing it might be the same bird that we spotted over the last couple of days and might be sick as the remiges seemed to be in bad condition). This skua also meant that counting gulls and tern proceeded extremely difficult today, as they avoided the beach. Well, it seemed, we were not the only ones who saw a skua at close range today, I coincidently got a nice picture from Sandra today (I will normally not post anything that is not directly related to the "fuglestation", but in this case, I thought an exception is okay :) ).

Ringing was quiet aswell, we had 6 species, summing up to 13 individuals, but no real highlights aswell, although we enjoyed talking about rarities a lot :).
Ringmærkning: Robin (1), Garden Warbler (3), Blackcap (5), Chiffchaff (2), Willow Warbler (1), Spotted Flycatcher (1). 



Let's see what tomorrow brings, Christian

Vejr: direction - S (172); speed -  5m/s; cloud cover - 6/8; visibility - 10 km; temperature - 17.4 °C

Although warm and not too windy, the first impression of only few birds did not improve over the day. Oystercatcher and wader migration was, again, extremely poor. Maybe, the majority of Oystercatchers has already passed. During the first hour, we had company of our two guests who stayed overnight, they helped us with the migration counts and in counting at the sea as well as inland. As it is Tuesday, we were later also joined by the "Tuesday-Group", aswell as by David, who had visited us quite a few timesover the last two weeks. They were not even at the counting spot for 15 minutes and Henrik K found a young Little Gull, such a nice bird (but probably the most distant one I have ever seen). A few Velvet Scoters (found by Henrik and David), the Little Gull and an Osprey (3rd for the season, found by the Tuesday-Group), were the highlights of today's count, so nothing much to see this morning. However, 21 Kestrels on migration need an honorable mention, aswell as four Caspian Gulls found at the beach during the gull counts by Henrik K. 

Ringing was carried out by Bent, but as on other ringing stations in Europe (Falsterbo in Sweden and St. Martin's therme & Lodge in Eastern Austria), numbers were pretty low today. 
Ringmærkning: Pied Flycatcher (1), Common Whitethroat (2), Blackcap (1), Dunnock (1), Bullfinch (1), Garden Warbler (1). In total: 7 individuals of 6 species.

As promised, I post (two) pictures today. Please see for yourself, that everyone, despite the low numbers of birds, is fully focused and concentrated. I really appreciate how everybody withstands the quietness of the day and even pushed harder to accomplish the count as good as possible. 

Hope to catch up with all of you tomorrow, Christian