Today the time changed into summertime because I was not really alert on this. I started opening the nets a 5:45, this was an hour earlier than needed. But this could be a nice change for catching a woodcock or a long-eared owl. Unfortunately, they did not enter the nets.

For the first time this season we found a bird in the Helgoland trap. The first time that we catch a bird in the Helgoland trap still must follow. The bird in matter, a dunnock, found a way out. But now we exactly know what to do if another bird turns up in the trap.

After the second round, I joined Bello for some time on the sea watch. After some time, we saw a slender looking lesser black backed gull. It also had a very dark and almost no white in the wing. These are all pointers toward a Baltic gull (ssp. fuscus), but it is hard to say because the variation in ssp. Intermedius can also show this. Only birds with rings from known colonies where ssp. fuscus breed can be safely identified. We could not find it back, so we could not check if it was ringed. The whole count resulted in around 1200 common scoters and around 350 common gulls going north.

Another first this season was a 2k female fieldfare. Fieldfares are in spring quite rare to be caught, the last time one was caught in spring was in 2016. Next to that, it was very nice to study this species in good detail. Although Bello was almost asleep, he managed to grab some nice photos of this bird.

Fieldfare – Photo by Bello

Today we got visits from Sven and Svend. Sven was here because when he left yesterday, he still got a bag of Bello in his car after they birded together yesterday. Svend brought the new gull guide and some cake, so we have some good new literature to study. And had a talk over a cup of coffee and a piece of dagmartærte, a traditional Danish cake. The book will really help find a rare gull on the beach.

Morten said that there will be a chance that the Nothern lights might be visible today, so we did a try for that. We will share the result tomorrow on the blog.

Ringing list (new/recapture):

Dunnock (2/0)

Robin (1/1)

Goldcrest (0/2)

Blackbird (4/0)

Fieldfare (1/0)

Brambling (1/0)

Chiffchaff (1/0)

Great tit (0/1)

Redpoll (1/0)

Song Thrush (0/1)

13 new birds over 11 species.

DOF link: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=27-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Bello, Morten, Sven, Svend, Bent and Menno

Det blæste en del så jeg satte mig bag militærvognen, der kom ingen fugle, Men Henrik kom. Han valgte at finde et bedre sted at sidde, og jeg fulgte lidt tid efter. 
Vi stod i læ bag en af bunkerne på stranden og lige så stille blev det mere og mere diset, med den dårligste sigt på 300m vil jeg tro. David kom også, og ud over et fint norgående stormmågetræk, så skete der ikke noget. Lige indtil Henrik finder en pisse tidlig fjordterne som tøffer afsted i modvinden indtil den til sidst sætter fart på. Det er den 4. tidligste Fjordterne i DK nogensinde! 


Fjordterne, Foto - Henrik Böhmer

Vinden hjalp heller ikke på fangsterne, så det blev til 6 nye fugle på 13 timer og kun en inden for det standardiserede tidsrum som er på 5 timer. 14 fugle i alt da 8 var genfangster.  

Jeg kørete om eftermiddagen rundt med Sven og vi fik set en masse af nærområdet, men heller ingen fugle på nær en Blå Kærhøg han. Vi fik også handlet lidt.
Imorgen stilner vinden af så der er håb i det mindste om flere fugle i nettene.

Ringmærknings liste: nye / genfanget
0/1 Solsort
1/0 Vindrossel
0/5 Fuglekonge
0/1 Sortmejse
0/1 Skovspurv
4/0 Lille Gråsisken
1/0 Gulspurv

Dagens observationer
https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=26-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato


Folk på stationen; Bello, David, Menno, Morten, Henrik, Sven

Today Morten came over to help with the ringing. It was not that busy with only 27 new birds. Morten has been here before, and clearly knows the way around the station. Although it was not that busy with birds, the weather was quite nice. But today it was not in the numbers, but in the quality of species. The first bird in the nets at the lighthouse was a short-toed treecreeper. A really nice species, and definitely one I wanted to see up close.

Short- toed treecreeper – Photo by Menno

In the next round at the lighthouse, we had a male bullfinch in the nets. Earlier this week we caught a female, but a male is just a bit more beautiful. After Bello finished the counting, he did not see anything noteworthy, we did a round with four of us (Morten, Bello, Sven and me) and we caught a female bullfinch. It was quite a good day for bullfinch, but in previous days we heard many flying around.

Male bullfinch – Photo by Menno

Sven made some recordings today to make some movies to get more people enthusiastic about the work that is done at the station. Later on, the day, he also had a meeting with Bent and John about this.

Sven making recordings of the ringing of a blackbird, with Bello on the left writing, Morten ringing in the middle and Sven filming it all on the right. – Photo by Menno

Ringing list (new/recapture):

Wren (0/1)

Dunnock (4/2)

Robin (1/1)

Blackbird (4/2)

Song thrush (1/0)

Chiffchaff (4/0)

Goldcrest (3/3)

Blue tit (0/1)

Great tit (1/0)

Short toed treecreeper (1/0)

Chaffinch (2/1)

Brambling (1/0)

Redpoll (2/3)

Bullfinch (2/0)

27 new birds over 12 species.

DOF list:

https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=25-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Bello, Bent, Sven, Morten, John and Menno

Today was a promising day after the enormous ringing day yesterday. It was quite nice, but now most of the birds were in the lighthouse garden. During the second round Bello called me that he and Henrik could have seen an Black scoter. With the high amounts of common scoters at sea around Blåvand, I suspected that this species could turn op every moment. Unfortunately, Henrik did not manage to take a picture. When he stood on the beach, with the birds in the scope the group with the Black scoter flew up. Bello saw it then again flying south and managed to relocate it. Because of the fog, the pictures are not clear, but it looks promising. Hopefully it comes around another time close by so the determination can be clinched. Bello also saw a whatear, his first of the year. In one of the last rounds, we came across a black redstart in the nets. It was not an adult male, but it nevertheless was very nice to see this species in the hand.

Black redstart – Photo by Menno

In the evening we had another try for the black scoter Bello found earlier today. We managed to see the more extensive yellow knob on the bill and we noticed that the headshape was quite different from the common scoter. For Bello this was his first found of black scoter, for me it was the second one within half a year. I saw the first dutch twitchable record back in October.

Bello looking for the black scoter - Photo by Menno

Tonight we will be joined Morten and Sven, who will help with the standardized methods.

Ringing list (new/recapture):

Dunnock (9/3)

Robin (8/0)

Black Redstart (1/0)

Blackbird (6/0)

Song thrush (1/0)

Chiffchaff (5/0)

Goldcrest (3/4)

Tree sparrow (2/0)

Chaffinch (3/1)

Brambling (2/0)

Redpoll (7/2)

47 new birds over 11 species.

DOF list:

https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=24-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Bello, Bent, Henrik, Morten, Sven and Menno

23th of March

Today the ringing started quite good, with a recapture of a chiffchaff from Norway. We are still waiting for the details, but we will post it when we get a reaction. On the next round, the nets where full of birds. To get an impression I put in a photo in of the amount of bird bags we had. The chiffchaff was not the only recovery, we also had a redpoll ringed somewhere in Denmark. With a quick reaction of the ringing central, we can show its route already. It was ringed in October 2021 in Glæde. So it probably wintered somewhere south of Blåvand, and is migrating north to its breeding place. The birds in the garden kept flying into the nets until 1, this was also the time Bent to leave so it played out perfectly today. The only downside of all those birds, is that I spend over an hour to put all the data in the database.

An impression of the amount of birds

The route of the ringed Redpoll

Not only the ringing was really successful, Bello saw two Slovenian grebes flying north, this is quite rare bird around here, especially this early in spring. Next to that, he also saw some Sandwich terns. These birds winter in Africa and are slowly returning to their colonies in Scandinavia.

Ringing list (new/recapture):

Wren (2/0)

Dunnock (23/4)

Robin (3/0)

Blackbird (1/2)

Song Thrush (4/1)

Redwing (1/1)

Chiffchaff (3/3)

Goldcrest (16/3)

Blue tit (1/0)

Great tit (1/0)

Chaffinch (3/0)

Lesser redpoll (62/1)

100 new birds over 12 species

DOF list:

https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=20-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Bello, Bent and Menno

Idag var der -1 grad til morgen da det har været klart vejr igen og næsten igen vind. Bent havde haft besøg derhjemme igår så han tog en slapper idag, derfor var nettene ikke åbne, så Menno joinede mig i klitterne.

Det var stille og roligt, dårlig sigt i begyndelsen og meget få fugle. Jeg sendte Menno afsted efter noget the vi kunne varme os på. Nogle marsvin fik vi at se og et par suler. Efter de faste 3 timers observation, som nu er fra kl 06:15, viste jeg Menno de hugorme som Bent havde fundet for nogle uger siden som er lige ved siden af vores obspost.

Hugorm, Foto - Bello 

 

Vi tog ud at handle, men vi ville have ventet på Morten, dog ringede Bent og sagde at han først kommer Torsdag i stedet.
Vi tog i Rema ved rundkørslen lidt uden for oksbøl og det var skønt med normale priser, for priserne er godt nok lidt høje i blåvand som jo er isoleret og har fokus på turister.

Senere sidder jeg så på værelset med åbent vindue ud mod haven og snakker i telefon, da jeg ser en meget farverig fuglekonge, og kikker derfor en ekstra gang, og jo mindsandten om det ikke er en fin rødtoppet som hopper rundt  lige for næsen af mig. Kameraret ligger neden under og jeg smutter (stadig igang med mit opkald) og henter menno og mit kamera og får så efter lidt tid fuglen frem ude i haven hvor jeg i min multitasken ikke får indstillet kameraret og får derfor nogle skod billeder selvom fuglen sidder frit fremme lige foran os. Nå men vi fik den at se og var glade. I morgen kommer Bent igen og åbner nettene så måske vi kan fange noget sjovt i morgen hvem ved.


Rødtoppet fuglekonge, Foto - Bello

Dagens observationer: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=22-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Folk på stationen; Mikkel Bello, Menno

Jeg startede dagen med at sove over mig. Som jeg lå der i varmen studsede jeg over at jeg var vågnet før min alarm. Min telefon var nemlig løbet tør for strøm i løbet af natten, så da det tilmed også begyndte at lysne ind ad vinduet kom der fart på! 
Et kinesisk ordsprog siger; mister man en time om morgnen jagter man den resten af dagen. Det var i hvert fald tilfældet de næste 20 minutter hvor jeg løb rundt om mig selv for at gøre mig klar.

Solopgangen fra i dag - foto af Bello

Det lykkedes mig at være ude kl 645 hvilket er en halv time forsent. Der skete ikke meget over havet, lidt sortænder og nogle rødstrubede lommer fløj i sydlig retning ellers var der ikke meget at se på. Som det de andre dage har været tilfældet, stilnede trækket af efter en times tid og det blev en langsomlig affære. Jeg fik dog besøg af Bent og Menno som heller ikke havde meget at lave ved nettene.  Dagens bedste fugl må være Strandhjejle. 

Tilbage på stationen fik jeg så lidt morgenmad og tog derefter med Ringmærkerne ud på rundte. Jeg er selv så småt ved at lære det og er begyndt at tage de nemmeste fulge ud selv. Trods en meget stille morgen indtil da, var der mange fugle i nettene, jeg havde fornøjelsen af en jernspurv og en rødhals, imens Menno blev sat på prøve med en gærdesmutte. Vi fik på denne rundte fordoblet antallet af fugle som hidtil havde været på 9 styk. Her havde vi heldet med os da vi havde fanget en Jernspurv fra Holland. 

Foto viser hvor fra den hollandske Jernspurv blev ringmærket, en tur på 375,7 km. Billedet er fra google maps.

Dagens observationer:
https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=21-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Folk på stationen; Bello, Menno, Bent

Sunday 20^th of March

Because of the good weather, it seems like that the birds are having good circumstances to migrate and have almost no need to come down here. This can also be seen in the place where we ring most of the birds. The last days, most of the ringing has taken place at the garden of the Fuglestation. Personally, I would expect that more ringing will take place at the lighthouse. In the Netherlands (where I am from) places with much light, such as lighthouses and harbors, attract a lot of birds. But here most birds are caught in the garden. I suspect these birds are coming down in night and feeding here in order to recontinue their migration. Next to that, especially on warmer and sunnier days and mainly later in the morning, the pond in the garden is a real magnet for birds in the surrounding area. The tactically placed nets close to the pond, have resulted in many birds trying to drink some water or flying up after they drank a bit of water. This is all a thought, but I would like to see how this develops over the season.

But not all birds are flying high over Blåvand, we managed to catch some birds. But with the last rounds without any birds, we decided to stop at 11 (when the standardized hours are over) and Bent was in time to see the match between Brøndby and Aalborg.  

Bello did not see that much migrating at sea, but he saw a group of four Grey Partridges. Because of the intensivation of the agriculture in Europe, this species has decreased a lot. Besides the patridges, he also saw some returning Linnets.

Grey Patridges – photo by Bello            

As promised, hereby the edited recording with two calls. Because of the big distance, I could make it better than this: https://old.observation.org/waarneming/view/235697490. Because it is not that loud, you can put headphones in order to hear it more clearly.   

Ringing list (new/recapture):

Dunnock (6/0)

Robin (1/0)

Blackbird (2/1)

Goldcrest (1/1)

Chaffinch (5/0)

Lesser redpoll (5/0)

20 new birds over 6 birds.

DOF list:

https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=20-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Bent, Bello and Menno

Today, the day started cold again. There was dew everywhere and even the nets were a bit white. Luckily, they were not frozen so they could be opened. Because of this cold, the ropes which keep the poles up were a bit slippery, and one pole fell. I could not fix it on my, so after the first round with Bent we quickly fixed it. The numbers were a bit low, but that may be because of the nice weather. The two highlight of the day consist of a second year Brambling and two immatures white tailed eagles flying low over the village of Blåvand. Since I am not that much observing at sea, I see them a lot less.
The numbers over sea were very low. But the observers (Bello was joined by Henrik and David) had two hawfinches, we would really like them into our nets. But in spring they are quite rare in the area of Blåvand.

In the evening Bello and I went out to try to see the tengmalm's owl. We have tried it once before the season started, but then we were too late on the place where it is around. Now we brought some dinner with us to make sure we were on time this time. After an hour of waiting, we heard a series of calls. Then half a hour later, we heard some more calls and we even managed to record them. I was really glad, because this was a new species for me. I will include the edited recording on the blog tomorrow. The recording has to be edited a bit, so it is nicer to listen to. To record the calls, we brought the parabola (which is intended for the nocmig) but it is also very nice to record some calls far away. Bello took a picture of me trying to record it.

Photo of me trying to get a recording of the Tengmalm's owl - Photo by Bello

Ringing list (new/recapture):
Wren (0/1)
Dunnock (4/1)
Robin (1/0)
Blackbird (3/0)
Song thrush (2/0)
Chiffchaff (1/0)
Goldcrest (1/1)
Great tit (2/0)
Chaffinch (2/0)
Brambling (1/0)
Tree sparrow (1/0)
Lesser redpoll (1/0)
19 new birds over 12 birds.

DOF list:
https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=18-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Henrik, David, Bent, Bello and Menno

Today, after two days of foggy days, the bird have been keen to migrate further north.
It has mainly been southgoing birds at sea, but seems like they are turning around now.
Normally, birds (mainly passerines) do not like to migrate in cloudy weather. The reason for this could be that birds cannot see where they can go down. So, after two days that the birds were stopped, they could finally migrate again. In the nets was a nice mix of birds, with some good numbers. It was enjoyable, although it was quite busy at some times. Most of the birds were blackbirds, not the numbers Gedser had (they had 77 on the 15^th) but still some nice numbers. It was also nice to catch a siskin again.

But the highlight of the day were the two cranes which were calling loudly. Bello even managed to take some pictures. They arrived quite low, but they got some height at the lighthouse and continued their migration to the north. They may have slept in the lagoon south of Blåvand.  

Cranes – Photo by Bello
(Bello has been using Timmys 400mm lens but since Timmy left he has been back at 135mm. So less exciting photos for now)

Wren (2/2)

Dunnock (6/0)

Robin (1/0)

Blackbird (16/0)

Song thrush (1/0)

Redwing (1/0)

Chiffchaff (1/0)

Goldcrest (3/2)

Blue tit (2/0)

Great tit (1/0)

Siskin (4/0)

Lesser Redpoll (5/0)

Chaffinch (0/1)

Total = 44 birds

DOF list:

https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=18-03-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Xenia, Bello, Bent and Menno