Sandwich tern [splitterne] and Chiffchaff (gransanger) migration !

A wonderful sunrise at Blåvand ! By Clara

Observation : 

This morning was Jorn’s first day of fieldwork – he’s just arrived yesterday from the Netherlands!
He’ll be staying at the station for two months to help with the little tern [dværgterne] breeding monitoring project. 

As well as discovering the most common species found here – common scoters [sortand], red-throated loons [rødstrubet Lom], and so on – he was lucky enough to see the largest migration of sandwich terns [splitterne] of the season for now. We counted 97 of them in three hours, and nine more resting on the beach. It was so cool to see so many terns, especially on Jorn’s first day!


Clara spotting some nice birds, picture by Jorn

Todays observations can be seen here. 

Ringing :

After three windy days without ringing, due to heavy wind, Rose and I could finally open the nets again today! It seems like some birds have arrived and some of the old acquaintances might have left, as we got some more new birds and less recaptures, which we appreciate very much! More than half ot the birds we ringed today were Chiffchaffs “Gransanger”, we ringed 17 today! We also got to admire a Brambling “Kvækerfinke”, it was a pretty 2K male.

Brambling, male /Kvækerfinke han. Picture by Rose

Hopefully this means, that spring has finally reached the westernmost point of Denmark and more migrants will arrive soon in our nets.

The moths:

After it was very slow with the moths so far this season, I was happy to also catch two new species for the season, the Orthosia gothica “Gotisk forårsugle” and the Cherastis rubicosa “Okkerrød Aprilugle”!

Orthosia gothica “Gotisk forårsugle”. Picture by Hanelie.

Cherastis rubicosa “Okkerrød Aprilugle”. Picture by Hanelie.

I also hope that the moths catching will pic up a bit from now on, with rising temperatures and hopefully less wind.

After a nice week with visit from home, my mother left the station today to go back to Germany.

At the station: Clara Delahaye, Rosemary Fricke, Jorn De Jong, Hanelie Sidhu and Karin