Best day of the season?

After two rounds with almost empty nets, Bello saw two Caspian terns flying north. This triggered Morten and me to also a seawatch in between the ringing. Morten joined Bello, and I took my seat at the ringing hut. Bello gave a great skua through which I could see very nice. Shortly after that I saw a giant diver flying far north over the windmills. The size and the very obvious neckband despite the distance I was sure this must be another yellow billed diver! Unfortunately it was flying north and missed by Bello and Morten.

When the migration was slow I joined Bello to see an exhausted kittiwake, we thought it would wash up but after the high tide I didn’t find it on the water. The next round was very nice with a house martin and a stonechat, another highlight! Then I helped Morten ring some greenfinches since there were high numbers at the station. Around the same time Svend and Bent arrived with some treats from the backery. Thanks again for that! The afternoon was quite slow so I decided to mow some grass underneath the nets. While doing that, Bello went to the bog and found a Turtle dove. It is still a lifer for me, so I went to see it. When I arrived there I saw that Morten also arrived already. After a good look and a quick check that it was really a turtle dove and not a eastern turtle dove I resumed the mowing. At six, just before dinner another highlight made its appearance, two juvenile crested tits were in the nets. A species I would really have in hand, and Bello enjoined one up close as well.

This was another good day at Blåvand!

Ringing totals:

House martin 1/0

White wagtail 1/0

 Stonechat 2/0

Blackbird 1/1

Song thrush 1/0

Icterine warbler 3/0

Lesser whitethroat 1/1

Common whitethroat 0/1

Chiffchaff 6/0

Willow  warbler 1/0

Spotted flycatcher 0/1

Crested tit 2/0

Starling 1/0

Tree sparrow 0/3

Chaffinch 5/0

Greenfinch 5/1

Linnet 6/1

Redpoll 1/0

The pictures of this wonderful day. All pictures have been taken by Bello

Caspian tern

Crested tit

Turtle dove