A Golden Surprise in the Nets *Spoiler Alert*

Yesterday at dinner it became very foggy at Blåvandshuk. Maybe the bog witch was brewing beer! Still, this morning it was very damp, but it didn't rain, which allowed us to open all the nets. Due to the poor visibility, we couldn't really watch the migration from the Fyrhaven today. Henrik however had not observed too big numbers, a good species of the morning was Corn Bunting (Bomlærke). Bent was at Filsø this afternoon and was able to observe a Dotterel (Pomeransfugl).
Although we were not getting huge numbers of ringed birds today either, the numbers were higher than the last two days with 26 new birds ringed and 8 controls. Checking the nets at Fyrhaven for the second time, I heard a Golden Oriole (Pirol) singing, which is a common sound of summer for me, as it accompanies me on my walks along the Isar in Freising. However, the Golden Oriole is a rare guest, especially in western Denmark, and an even rarer breeding bird.

In the third round at the station garden, we were delighted to catch a Wood Warbler (Skovsager). This beautiful bird is just on its way to its breeding habitats, which are mainly in the east of the country or further north, like Sweden and Finland. This bird was the first of the season to be caught here. Morten's comment after ringing the bird was that it must have been "the bird of the day". But he was wrong. When I was at the first net at the Fyrhaven and took out a very tangled Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), Morten went to the next net. I heard him running excitedly to the net...Because he had just seen the Oriole in the net and was able to get it in time before it had a chance to escape.

This 2k male Golden Oriole is the first that has ever been ringed at the station! Please also see Morten's Facebook post on the Blåvand Fuglestation page, for which he did some research today. There you will find some more information about the bird's abundance in Denmark.
After the excitement of the morning, the number of ringed birds decreased, but that didn't bother us, because we were incredibly happy about the Oriole. We are now looking forward to tomorrow and are curious to see what other "specialties" may surprise us in the coming days and weeks.

Today's ringing data:

Fiolk på stationen: Morten, Bent, Henrik og Amelie