News from the Little Tern project

The ringing:

This is not such a nice morning, I thought, when I went out opening the nets. It was a bit windier than the last days, 7 m/s, but some nets were quite exposed, and I did not open them all. When I opened it had 3,9 degrees, we had already colder mornings, but the wind made it feel a little uncomfortable outside. Apparently, the birds too thought that it was not the best morning. While I was very active walking rounds and rounds, their activity was low, just four birds in five hours made their way into the nets, two of them were recaptures.

Yellowhammer/ Gulspurv

The moths:

This morning, there was nothing in the traps, but yesterday evening, I got one moth, I have already caught it in February on our balcony in Germany, but it is a new one for Blåvand this spring: Phigalia pilosaria, in Danish Fjer-måler. It overwinters as pupa and is one of the first species in the year that hatches. Therefore, I was a bit surprised, that I did not catch it earlier at Blåvand, but now it was here. It is a male, in the macro moth you can often identify their sex by looking at their antennae, which are bigger in males. But in a few species, and Phigalia pilosaria is one of them, the females are flightless in some species without wings, in other species with very small wing bases.

Phigalia pilosaria/ Fjer-måler

Little Tern “Dværgterne” project:

During the morning, Ulf brought Frida and Joseph back to the station. They had been looking at the beach in Fanø, where the Little Tern “Dværgterne” fence will be put up and had their first meeting in person, making plans for the project. Joseph will place Tern dummies in the fenced area, to attract the terns. He brought them as raw models, made by a 3D printer back in Germany. This afternoon, Joseph sanded the pieces of the Terns and glued them together, while Frieda was already painting some Terns.

Frida and Joseph working on the Little Tern "Dværgterne" dummies.

At the station: Hanelie Sidhu, Joseph Stephan and Frida