Kystfugleprojektet letter for alvor!

Sunrise in the fog. Picture: Emma Gray

Morning observations:

Levi, Thomas and I went to the obs again as usual. Henrik also joined us which was nice! The weather conditions were a bit weird; the visibility was okay when we went to the obs, but after 30minutes it went really bad. We decided to stay to see if it was get any better. After 45 minutes, the visibility was getting good again so we could continue our morning observation!

The migration was really quiet, we mostly saw Common scoters “Sortand” and some Red throated divers “Rødstrubet lom”.

Todays observations can be seen here.

After the morning observations I went to join on the ringing for 1 round, because I was going to pick up my friend Julia from Esbjerg who will stay with us for 4 days!

We also said goodbye to Anne, she is going back home to Copenhagen. Hopefully we will see her again soon!

The ringing:

Lesser Whitethroat/ Gærdesanger. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen 

The morning welcomed us with fog and frost on the nets and net poles. It was quite cold and hard to believe that we´ll have May soon! The morning was rather slow but we did not have a single zero round and ended up with in total 20 new birds. The sun finally managed to break through later in the morning and when we were closing, there was no fog, blue sky and bright sun.

Redstart male/ Rødstjert han. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Anne left us after the ringing, it was very nice three weeks – hopefully another time again!

The moths:

I did not have many different moths today, some might have already flown away because I checked the traps quite late today, a long nap was the priority after ringing today. There were not any new ones today. But yesterday, I had a really nice new one that I did not put in the blog, so I would like to show it now. It is called Small Chocolate-tip in English, Chokoladeplet in danish.

Clostera pigra/ Chokoladeplet. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

"Kystfugle" Project:

Today was another very productive day for us. Levi and I painted the letters and numbers onto the poles for the coordinate system. Afterwards, I sprayed a protective coating to enhance their durability.

poles for the coordinate system; Photo: Joseph

Around 2:30 PM, Emma, Levi, Thomas, and I headed to the beach with a handcart full of 45 poles (for the coordinate system), 18 Little Tern decoys, 1.5 kg of cockles (Hjertmusling), 2 hammers, and a map outlining the master plan for the coordinate system and the optimized areas.

heading to the fence; Photo: Levi

When we arrived at the predator exclosure (fence), the Ringed Plovers and Little Terns were already waiting for us, greeting us with their graceful calls.

Emma and I began hammering in the poles for the coordinate system, while Levi and Thomas went to look for a dead seal north of the fence.

After three and a half hours of hard work, we managed to complete the task. The coordinate system was set up, and the optimized areas - consisting of the decoys, shells, man-made scrapes, and driftwood - were arranged. The only thing missing inside the optimized areas are the hideouts (concrete tubes with a 20 cm diameter, 30 cm length, and coated in sand), which are meant to provide additional shelter for the chicks and prevent them from wandering into the dunes.

setting up the coordinate system and the optimized areas, on the last photo you can see the very last pole; Photos: Levi, Emma & Joseph

The effort clearly paid off. Just ten minutes after finishing, the first two Little Terns approached the decoys and rested beside their artificial friends. It was a beautiful moment! After months of planning and preparation, I finally got to see the Little Terns up close - accepting the decoys and their new home.

the first two Little Terns (first from the left & right) resting with their artificial friends (the two middle ones); Photo: Emma

Furthermore we (Emma) found the first Ringed Plover nest with 4 eggs between the rope fence („Perimeterhegn“) and the electric fence on the western side.

Ringed Plover nest & Ringed Plover nest with discoverer; Photo: Emma & Joseph

Tomorrow, I’ll check the fence and spend some more time observing while playing some Little Tern calls via the speaker. The official start for the data collection (records of location and activity) is the 1st of May.

We can’t wait for it! :-)

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Levi van den Os, Anne Hjortlund Hansen, Henrik Bøhmer, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Julia, our guest Kristoffer Hansen