Observations:

A nice day with southwesterlies. Today I had Strummer join me from the (st)ringing team, which was a nice addition to the long mornings I've had of late. To have company today was apparently quite good, as we actually had a decent movement of waders. The highlight being good groups of Red Knots (Calidris canutus), where we had 55 individuals, and good big groups of Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) as well, with 61 individuals! Other than that, we are continuing with the streak of high numbers of Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus). These are a pain to count, as it is quite difficult to distinguish if you've already counted an individual, but we think the number 576 we got today was representative.

Todays observations:

Ringing:

Due to precipitation in the early morning, we unfortunately had to postpone any ringing until after standard would be possible to achieve. Instead I opened the nets for a short while (about 1.5 hours) at around 8 am in hopes of maybe catching some cool birds in the southern wind, but those hypothetical birds did not cooperate and I only ended up catching 1 new bird (a male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)) and two recaptures, one Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) and one Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes). 

Today's captures:

At the station: Johan, Strummer, Alba

Observations:

Ringing:

Today was a very unremarkable day for ringing, with us only just reaching ten birds caught. Of those ten birds, 8 were new birds, and 2 were recaptures, and all of the birds were young 1k birds (meaning they hatched earlier this calendar year), which is to be expected when most of the birds we get are 1k. 

As I don't have much else to write about, I will put a spotlight on one of the most frequently birds caught of the day, that is the Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus). The Redstart is one of my favourite commonly caught birds, and while the males are dazzling with their bright red/orange flanks and black throats (especially the adults), the females, I think, are just as stylish, just in a subdued, but still very elegant, way. Ageing the male Redstarts is usually extremely easy, as the young brown feathers in the wing contrast greatly with the adult-type gray ones, making it easy to spot any moult-limits. The females are a bit tougher, with the adult-type feathers mainly differing from the juvenile-type ones by their denser structure, as well as by having a very faint greyish sheen that the juveniles lack. 

Today, I got the pleasure of ringing two female Redstarts, which gave me some nice practice in ageing them. Both of them were 1k birds having completed their post-juvenile moults, and although I did not get any pictures of the birds from today, I have previously taken some pictures of similar Redstarts that showcase the moult-limit in the greater coverts that we use to age them.

 Wing of a 1k female Common Redstart. The red line points to the moult limit in the greater coverts, where the outer feathers, with brown base-colour and buffish edges, are juvenile-type, while the two inner feathers, with a more grayish base and edges, are adult-type. In an adult (2k+) bird, all of the greater coverts would be of the adult-type. Foto: Alba M. Holmberg, taken 25/8 2026.

At the station: Johan, Strummer, Alba

Ringing

After many days of intermittent non-standard ringing, today conditions finally cleared up for us.  With relatively low western winds, we were able to open all the nets and catch to our maximum potential.  Up in the lighthouse, for the first time this season I was consistently catching 6-8 birds in the early rounds.  Even better, these were clearly migrants, mostly being Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) and Blackcaps (Munk).  Eventually, I had to close because of a small shower for around thirty minutes, with the ringing slowing down considerably after I reopened nets. 

In the station, Alba was having great success (Very nice!) catching Willow Warblers and even three Chaffinch (Bogfinke)! With my two Chaffinch in the lighthouse, we certainly had our best day of the season for them.  Two nice Bullfinch (Dompap) undergoing their preformative moult were also a nice highlight, the male feathers growing in are always a fun suprise.

For me, the highlight of the day was breaking a streak that has been ongoing for almost a month now.  Ever since it has been just me and Alba ringing (so we alternate gardens every morning) I have caught fewer birds than her regardless of the wind conditions, net meters, or gardens we are operating. Even when we are operating the same nets for non-standard, there is a markedly different capture rate between the two of us. After this went on for a few weeks, we officially started calling this a curse. After weeks of pain and no birds, this streak was finally broken, with the lighthouse catching 32 to the stations 28!

For obs, Johan described it as "boring with lots of Gannets (Sule)." To pass the time, Johan had a deep conversation with one of the military members stationed by the lighthouse.  

Todays observation

At the station: Johan, Strummer, Alba

Observations:

Ringing:

Looking at the radar this morning, it was clear that we would not be able to reach standard due to a large lurking raincloud that was due to pass over us at around 9. Before that, however, it looked as if we would have a couple of hours free from rain to catch birds in, just after a small initial rain-cloud passed us over. Working from this prognosis, we set out to open nets as soon as the first rain had stopped, but just after opening, we got a first-hand demonstration of the limitations of the predictive powers of the radar; the small initial rain-cloud was growing, giving rise to additional brief but heavy showers, and we were forced to run out to close the nets almost immediately again.

Deciding not to risk the weather any more this morning, we went back inside to relax while it rained for most of the morning/midday. At around 3 in the afternoon, the weather looked to have cleared up for good for the day, and we opened up the Station garden for some afternoon/evening ringing, which Johan joined in on. Although it wasn't much, we did get some nice birds, with a total of 16 birds caught, most of whom were Eurasian Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla). 

Today's total captures:

At the station: Johan, Strummer, Alba

Observations:

Today started out like other days lately. With a shit forecast. The dutiful volunteer I am, I managed to get into obs position in spite of this. I was rewarded, not with many birds, but a surprisingly lovely day of mild temperatures, cool breezes and no rain. Birds were really just low numbers of the same waders we have been seeing of late on account of the wind being quite low, and rain showers in surrounding areas. I enjoyed the morning with all my rainclothes on the ground beside me and the serenity of a still morning on Denmarks western coast.

A Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) was found in the surrounding areas. Probably the same individual from yesterday. Sadly it didn't go in the nets so we need to wait a bit longer for that experience.

Todays observations:

Ringing:

Because of the risk of rain, there was no standard ringing today. The nets were first opened after the Wryneck was spotted, but with it not heeding our wishes and instead staying outside of the nets, we were in for a quite boring around 9 hours of ringing in the Station Garden. In spite of only catching 10 birds in total, we did get some slightly interesting species such as the fourth Spotted Flycatcher (Muscucapa striata) of the season, a very nice recapture of a Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus), as well as the second Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris) of the season, which was both a lifer and a first ringed of the species for Strummer.

Today's captures:

At the station: Johan, Strummer, Alba, Kristoffer, Maria

Observations:

Today started with another bad forecast. It was supposed to rain a litte bit from the early morning, but was only supposed to be an early shower to get the observers really woken up. We arrived at the hole (military exercise scheduled) at 06:15, and promply opened umbrellas for the initial shower. We could only really start the count fifteen minutes later. The day yielded almost none of the birds we enjoyed yesterday and the day before, but instead we got to enjoy 156 Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus)! The team in the hole fought through a few sturdy rain showers that were not on the forecast, but it was not enough to deter us from having a good day :)

Todays observations:

Ringing:

At the station: Johan, Strummer, Alba, Kristoffer, Maria

Observations: 

The days started poorly. I thought last night that the weather wouldn't allow me to complete standard, but the forecast changed. Only slightly. Which meant I had to get out in the rain. The experience was different from the normal, not cold, observations, and in the end the ball didn't even go up, so I could've been sitting warm and cozy in the bunker instead of in the hole. Standard yielded some mixed wader groups, and a lot of Green-winged Teals (Anas crecca) and Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope). Quite decent for a wet experience.

The afternoon I got some company in the Sabines, and we put in 2 decent hours. It was nice to have the volunteer team united on the beach. We had a lot more Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope) come, and as a highlight the first Brant (Branta bernicla) of the season! All in all a quite good day.

Todays observations:

Ringing:

No ringing today due to strong winds and rain.

Observations:

Today marked another hard seawatch. I am really finding out that the hardest part about observations at Blåvand is waiting for the birds. Today was eastern wind which might have been good, but migration was slow, with a lot of time between flocks of ducks. Notably we had a decent amount of Eurasian Wigeon (Mareca penelope) and a single White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) coming to look for snacks. It was a different one from yesterday as this one was a clear 1cy bird. I won't be mad if they're going to be new dailies for me. Very majestic.

Rain tomorrow looks like standard won't be able to be completed, but with rains stopping quite abruptly around 9am, we are brewing up some lethal Sabine hours tomorrow. stay tuned.

 Todays observations

Ringing:

Todays ringing was certainly slowing than the previous few days but still we had a decent movement of migrants.  By far the most numerous species were Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) with 8 birds ringed.  Besides that it was a relatively quiet day without too many highlights.  

This will likely be our last standard ringing day for the forseeable future as the next week predicts consistent showers during the morning. 

Observations:

The morning wasn't exacly crazy today. I think we are kind of in a weird middle stage where most of the waders have gone, and we're still waiting on the big duck numbers. The day did provide a decent number of Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope) in that category. The highest number was provided by Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) funnily enough. 478 passed me on the tip, and in almost one entire flock. For a common species, the looks were still quite astonishing. Additionaly we had a White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) come by, which greatly improved my mood. Always a cool bird :)

Todays observations:

Ringing:

Many years ago, the number of small birds in Denmark was much larger than it is today. Back then, certain nature spots would host extremely diverse and numerous populations of birds that could fill out a sound-spectrograph with their varying songs and drown out any background-noise with their combined volume. As time has marched on, however, the environmental impacts of humans have helped reduce those numbers greatly, so now, many of these spots can offer only a small trickle of birdsong compared to the strong stream that used to flow. And while older generations might remember the old glory days and are able to recognize the relative drought of today, newer generations lack that perspective, and when you're used to looking for drops in a desert, that trickle might be percieved as a waterfall. Thus, what used to be few suddenly has become many. 

This is an example of "shifting baseline syndrome", where the (often implicit) baseline against which something is measured slowly slides away from its previous value and toward a new one ("many" birds becomes a smaller and smaller number), sometimes so slowly that the observer(s) don't conciously notice until they check what the old baseline was many years ago. This shifting of baselines can happen through generational shifts, where the old baseline dies out with the older generation, but it can also happen on smaller timescales, where it is the fluidity of memory as well as forgetfullnes that lets the baseline slide. 

During the last week, we the ringers at Blåvand have also experienced shifting baseline syndrome, though in an opposite manner to the example above. After two consecutive days with between 40 and 50 caught birds, our baseline has been violently rocked from its previous position of anything over 20 birds being considered a fantastic day, to being that anything less than 40 feels a bit drab without any unusual species to spice things up. Despite us being maybe a bit ungrateful for an objectively not-too-terrible day, we did enjoy being able to spend a bit more time with each bird again today, and the recapture of a Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and the ringing of a new Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), both of which being species we have only had a few of so far this season, did add a bit of flavour. 

One of my personal highlights of today was actually in the form of a Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin). With the exception of maybe a few birds, all of the Garden Warblers we have caught so far this season have been young birds hatched this year (1k), which we have been able to tell by their very fresh tail- and wing-feathers. However, one of my Garden Warblers from today had tertial, primary and greater covert feathers that were quite worn, indicating that it was an adult (2k+) bird! 

Young (1k) Garden Warbler. Notice the very fresh and un-worn feathers of wing, especially the tertials, primaries and greater coverts. Foto: Strummer Edwards.

Old (2k+) Garden Warbler. Notice the very worn tips of the tertials, primaries and greater coverts. Foto: Alba M. Holmberg.

Today's captures:

At the station: Strummer, Alba, Johan

Ringing

For the second day in a row, we processed around 50 birds here at Blåvand!!! Today was not only filled with lots of migrants but also quite a few nice species we have not been catching in our nets lately.  The day featured a consistent flow of birds between the two gardens, with our bulk species being Blackcap (8 birds, Munk), European Pied Flycatcher (6 birds, Broget Fluesnapper), and Redstart (6 birds, Rødstjert).  Among the Redstarts we caught, there was also a beautiful DCB male which is always wonderful to get in the hand.

For me, by far the most exciting bird of the day was a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flægspatte) which I caught in the krat.  Despite being very tangled, this was a rather well behaved individual which kept the pecking and screaming to a minimum while I extracted it.  Once we got it to the station, it began behaving far more like a standard Spotted Woodpecker, pecking and screaming during the entire ringing process.  

This individual was experiencing its FPF so we were able to see the transition from the juvenile crown feathers to the deeper red of the formative adult like feathers behind the crown.  

Besides the woodpecker we had many other wonderful captures including our first Blue Tits (Blåmejse) of the season and three Chaffinch (Bogfinke) in the Fyrhaven.  

Obs

While observations were conducted by the wonderful talented Johan today, the standard period was so abyssmal he was far too distraught to write the blog post himself so I am relaying that there were no highlights and he hopes for better days soon.